North Shore Country Day School - Mirror Yearbook (Winnetka, IL)

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i - i u aim nm a n n nn : 31 THE PARENTS THIS CHANGING WORLD In the ten years since the founding of the North Shore Country Day School the physical aspect has been constantly changing. By this is meant — not the Athletic Equipment only, nor the increasing physical prowess of our athletic teams (both girls and boys) — but the Buildings and Grounds where the work and play of the school take place. This development has followed a preconceived plan which was carefully thought out early in the history of the school. In 1919 a group of parents secured the services of Mr. Perry Dunlap Smith as Headmaster and leased the Girton School property from Mr. Cooke, the former Headmaster, for a period of five years with option to purchase the property during the term of the lease. The school buildings at that time consisted of Knollslea Hall, the Girls ' Gymnasium, Eliot Hall, West Hall, and Leicester Hall, which had been used as the dormitory for the boarding pupils at the Girton School. Knollslea Hall Gymnasium Eliot Hall We Hall The photograph herewith shows the buildings taken from the porch of Leicester Hall which was then used as the Teachers ' Dormitory. At that time Diller Street (which is the east entrance to the school grounds), extended through as a public highway from Center Street to Forrest Avenue. Leicester Hall then stood on the north side of Diller Street and the grounds back of Leicester were occupied by a thrifty peach orchard and grape vines. The open space west of Leicester was levelled for an additional play ground and the fruit trees and vines were removed. The Athletic Field for the upper school boys was located between Church Road and the Chicago Northwestern Railroad tracks; the girls and younger boys used the field in front of West and the Gymnasium. In those days Knollslea was the boys ' building and the lunch room. What is now the General Office was then the kitchen; the present offices of Mr. Smith and Mrs. Greeley and the present east kindergarten room were the lunch rooms. The sixth grade was in the second kindergarten room. The upper school boys were on the second floor in the two Art rooms. The girls ' gymnasium was then used by both girls and boys, after extensive alterations in the basement and provision for lockers and showers. Eliot Hall was the lower school building; West Hall was the Girls ' Building with two of the practice rooms as class rooms and the third small practice room as Mr. Smith ' s office. The Study Hall for the High School was in the present Music Studio on the second floor of West.

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l iife i ' mimffS Jai FRUSTRATION I would not turn backward old Time in his flight To make me a child again, no, not for one night. But could I this moment my lost youth re-win With the new education I ' d gladly begin. There ' d be no petty crime to indulge in I ' d daren ' t Since every wrong urge is the fault of the parent. Nor should I now fear the results of confession Since none would dare to inculcate repression . When I failed in my studies there ' d be no to-do For what can one expect from a minus I. Q. ? And if I indulged in revolt and sedition Not a word would be said lest it cause ' ' inhibition . And although my young ego staid codes like a bomb wrecked I would not, at least, be inferiority complexed. But alas! child psychology was all of it wrong In that lamentable era to which I belong. And so I can only look on and admire While my pupils demonstrate my suppressed desire. THE FRENCH PROVINCE Where should one look to discover the secret of the French Province? Not indeed in any of our big cities which naturally keep pace with Paris, neither in the country proper which has its special aspect in the domain of peasant life; but it may be found in any little town of France of twenty to fifty thousand inhabitants with its old aristrocracy, its newly acquired society, its types, its activities and its life. Once we have sighted from our train such a little town well nestled on the slope of a hill with its towers and its steeples, its dividing silvery river, its thick forest in contrast with its red tile roofs — let us stop and visit it. Our first impression on entering the city will be one of quietness and isolation in a country which is neither too picturesque or too dull, too mountainous or too flat. As usual the town is divided in two parts — the vieille Vi lie with little streets of quaint old names, and the modern town towards the station with its cafes and its stores. Here and there stand a few old historical residences with their hand wrought portals surmounted with an ancient coat of arms. And in the very heart of the city, the cathe- dral, jewel of many of our provincial towns lends a certain grace and majestic grandeur to this silent corner of the Province. It is around this spot, along the old streets, in the shadow of old historical mansions and under the dusty plain trees that the life of the city follows its course — to be or not to be of La societe in one of these towns depends on a series of infinite details, while in its midst live certain types indis- able to its life: the grand bourgeois noveeau riche , the contemptuous families of the old race, the local banker, the university professor, the fashionable lady, the old faithful servant with a ribbonned bonnet going to the market carrying a basket on each arm, the people behind the curtains living inert and shut-off lives and so many other quaint and curious characters are found in a provincial citv. In the factory the work is done carefully day by day and in the family amid the narrowness of every day life you will recognize the seriousness of purpose. At the surface — simply city and tranquility, but with every hour flowing into each day, these towns represent a safe, deep, robust and vigorous life — La Province! It is France indeed, it is its very blood! 13

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w At the end of the first year it was necessary to increase the classroom space to accommodate about forty additional pupils. By payment of additional rent to Mr. Cooke, his consent was secured to the use of the first floor of Leicester Hall as class rooms for the kindergarten and for the seventh and eighth grades. At the end of the third year the parents decided to exercise the option for purchase of the school grounds, and the construction period commenced. In 1922-23 Dunlap Hall was built for the upper school and the boiler house was constructed at the south end of the girls ' gymnasium. During that year Knollslea Hall was closed and barricaded with the intention of tearing it down, but after considerable remodeling, including the removal of the old tower, it was re-opened for the offices of the school and for the kindergarten. In 1924 the Boys ' Gymnasium was built with the Lunch Room and Kitchen underneath. In 1925-26 the Auditorium was built in front of the Girls ' Gymnasium by the liberal donations of friends and parents of the school. The remainder of the Cooke property along Willow Road was purchased in 1927, giving the school the owner- ship of the entire two blocks north and south of Diller Street. After considerable negotiations with the Village of Winnetka, Diller Street was closed as a thorough- fare and the paving was removed on the west half of the block to make a continuous athletic field from the Auditorium to Willow Road. In exchange for the vacating of Diller Street, the school gave to the Village of Winnetka a strip along Center Street for the widening of that thoroughfare. The continuation of Center Street along the west side of the Chicago North- western right-of-way cut off the east side of the lower Athletic Field so that it was too narrow for Athletic Grounds. This property was therefore sold to a builder who has constructed a group of houses thereon. The football field was moved up to the north of Leicester Hall and the field west and south of Leicester was planned for two hockey fields for girls. In 1927-28 the former residence of Mr. Cooke was remodeled for the Head- master ' s house and leased to Mr. Smith for a term of years. Leicester Hall was moved down Diller Street and south along the school property to the southeast corner where a new foundation had been prepared for it. A new dining room and kitchen were build under the new east porch which was so located on a side hill, as to make an English basement with plenty of light and air. This gives the teachers attractive living quarters with a home dining room, instead of their being obliged to go out to the school dining room for their breakfasts and dinners. Meanwhile, work was progressing on the filling in of the Cooke property and the slopes east of the old location of Leicester Hall in order to provide larger athletic fields on level ground. More than 10,000 cubic yards of dirt were required for this filling. The broken concrete and stone, secured from the old basement walls of Leicester and from the old stables and poultry buildings on the Cooke property, were used to build the retaining wall along Center Street, to keep the fill from sliding on to the sidewalk from the high level. This gives sufficient space for two fields for girls ' hockey and two football fields. In the spring while the track athletics are in progress, there is space for two baseball diamonds. During the summer of 1928 also, a new concrete driveway was laid from Diller Street to Knollslea Hall and a heavy wire fence was erected around the entire school grounds. A cinder running track 30 feet wide and 120 yards long was laid along the east side of the new athletic field and a pole vault pit and jumping pits for broad and high jump for both girls and boys were installed at the former site of Leicester Hall. In the fall of 1928, the Grounds Committee in charge of shrubbery and plant- ing arranged picnics for large groups of parents, teachers and students, to woods along the Desplaines River owned by some of the parents in the School. Per- mission was given to dig wild shrubbery for the school from a section of the woods where a highway was to be cut through from Highland Park across the Desplaines River. Hundreds of large and beautiful wild shrubs of many varieties were secured in that way and planted around the new fence.