Lawrenceville School - Olla Podrida Yearbook (Lawrenceville, NJ)

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,LL I3 DDIDA at forms, and an able and permanent faculty engaged. Until this period, teaching had not been a profession and few of the faculty had stayed more than a few years. The School grew amazingly. l MATHER A. Amsorr, LITT.D.-HEAD MASTR IQIQ-I934 Fourteen

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r LLA .PCDDIDA Hamill that the School not only carried on, but grew. Two literary societies were formed in the '5o's which lasted seventy years but there were very few other extra-curricular activities. Dr. Hamill's idea of athletics was a long walk or run through the country, and it was only in the latter part of his administration that football and baseball began to be played. In I875 Iohn C. Green died and left a large estate, made in the china trade, to his wife and friends to devote to such uses as they thought he would approve. As the need of good preparatory schools for Princeton was very great and there were few preparatory schools outside of New England, they bought the School from Dr. Hamill and established the Iohn C. Green Foundation. The School was incorporated and a Board of Trustees elected. In 1883 Dr. Iames C. Mackenzie was made head master and entirely reorganized the School. Over a million dollars was spent on the buildings, the five Circle Houses, Memorial Hall, the Chapel and Upper, which form the Circle. The curriculum was modernized, the classes divided into A FOOTBALL TEAM OF THE N1NETiEs Thzatcen ir .8

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. .LL P DDID Organized athletics were made part of the School life and the teams turned out were outstanding. The Princeton teams were largely recruited from the School and Yale and other colleges had a fair quota of its great athletes. Most of the School publications, the musical clubs, the drama and the proms had their beginnings in this period. There were over 300 boys in the School and twenty-two masters. In 1899 Dr. Mackenzie resigned and the Trustees elected as his successor the Rev. Dr. Simon Iohn McPherson, who carried on the School for twenty years. The gymnasium was built in 1902. Another form was added to the four that had under Dr. Mackenzie made up the School. The tooth Anni- versary was the occasion of a large gathering of alumni who were warmly welcomed under Dr. McPherson. The School Council was established, the curriculum was modernized to meet the increased college requirements. The affection of the boys for Dr. McPherson is shown by the title of the King that they gave him. He carried the School successfully through the Great War, but so overtaxed his strength by his care of the boys during the influenza epidemic in 1918 that he died at the beginning of the next year. The School now numbered over 400 and the faculty thirty-nine. The Alumni offered their assistance in the election of Dr. McPhers0n's successor and it was largely through their efforts that Dr. Mather A. Abbott was chosen. He came to the School in the fall of 1919 and the efforts of his vigorous personality and strenuous energy were soon appar- ent. Provision was made for Alumni Trustees and the Board became entirely composed of such members. A survey of the School by the Harvard department of education was made and its recommendations were adopted. The head master was given power commensurate with his responsibility. The curriculum was again modernized and new departments of study were added. The School had outgrown its equipment and new buildings were a necessity, indeed the plant was almost doubled by the erection of the War Memorial Building for the Lower School, a new recitation build- ing, two new dormitories, a perfectly equipped Infirmary, and a Library. A modern medical department, a new preceptorial system, and the Law- renceville Fathers' Association, to keep the parents in touch with their sons, were among the measures introduced or adopted by Dr. Abbott. There were during his administration twelve masters who had served the School twenty-five years or more and a pension system was established for the masters who became emeriti at the age of sixty-five. The School had fifty- six masters, and boys numbered well over 500. The scholarship of the Fifteen 4