Asheville School - Blue and White Yearbook (Asheville, NC)

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ASHEVILLE SCHOOL HISTORICAL SKETCH A SHEVILLE SCHOOL was founded in 1900 by Newton y Mitchell Anderson and Charles Andrews Mitchell, who had been co-principals of the University School of Cleveland, Ohio. Their aim was to establish, in the most favorable location they could find, a school that should combine the vigorous educational standards of the North with the mountain climate and social atmosphere of the South. The building formerly known as “The House” (now Anderson Hall) was the first to be erected. It was followed in 1903 by “The School” (now Mitchell Hall), and in 1907 by the Senior House (Percy Lawrence Hall). The School prospered from the first, and soon reached the enrollment which has since been resolutely adhered to as a maximum, one hundred and fifty boys. Upon the death of Mr. Mitchell, in 1921, the sole owner- ship was acquired by Mr. Anderson. In 1924 he assumed the title of Director, and turned over the active management to George Jackson, B.S., as Headmaster. Mr. Jackson had been with the School from the first, and was, by both tempera- ment and training, fitted for his task. In 1926 the burden of the management of the School was felt by Mr. Anderson to be too great. He therefore sold the School, with five hundred adjoining acres, to Walter P. Fraser, of Pittsburgh, Pa., who was seeking a promising real estate investment. Later contacts with the School and with Mr. Jackson almost at once prompted Mr. Fraser to a course which, for large-hearted generosity, is almost without parallel in modern secondary school endowment. He detached the

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MASTERS, Continued Walter Livingston Hinman, A.B....................................... Science (Williams College) Malcolm Strachan, A.B................................................English (Rutgers College) Robert Graeme Crocker, A.B............................................French (Yale University; Universite de Grenoble) Edward Barry Greene, A.M...............................................Music (Harvard University) Aurance Fostin Shank, A.B........................................... Spanish (Dickinson College) Mark Edwin Balis, A.B................................................English (Yale University) Malcolm Eugene Agnew, A.B............................................. Latin (Williams College) George E. Belk, M.A., B.D.................................Physical Training (University of South Carolina; Columbia Theological Seminary) Paul Wright, A.B.................................................Mathematics (Williams College) Thomas Whitney Surette..........................Adviser in Music Education (Lecturer Graduate School of Education, Harvard University) Jesse J. Hance...................................................Manual Arts (D.p. Rochester Mechanics Institute) OTHER school officers Arthur Chase Ambler, M.D............................Physician Mrs. George Jackson..............................House Mother Miss Macie Margaret Stanford, R.N. . Resident Nurse Elmer R. Dill............................ Business Manager Miss Inafred Hoecker................................Secretary Mrs. Faye Poole ......................... Assistant Secretary John Wesley Milam..................................Postmaster Mrs. I. C. Hanna, R.N............................ Housekeeper

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8 ASHEVILLE SCHOOL school buildings and campus, one hundred twenty acres in all, from his recently purchased holdings, and turned this property over to a Board of Trustees, the foundation to be self-perpetuating, and to be administered not for profit. In addition, Mr. Fraser provided liberally for endowment, thus putting under obligation all loyal alumni of the School and the interests of college preparatory education in general. Mr. Jackson was named Headmaster and was given a free hand in administration. Mr. Jackson’s death, a few months later, brought to a sudden halt the immediate hopes of the Trustees. The Reverend W. H. Jones, the School Chaplain, was named Acting Headmaster, and search was begun for a man who should undertake the administration of Asheville School in consonance with the hopes of its Founders, Trustees, and Alumni. In February, 1927, Howard Bement, A.M., was elected Headmaster. Mr. Bement, who has been for twenty- two years a member of the English Department of The Hill School, and for fifteen years its Head, will actively assume his duties September 1, 1927. The new administration purposes carrying on without a break the best traditions of the old Asheville, and incorporat- ing therewith the best that modern progressive education has to offer.