Oak Grove Coburn High School - Oak Leaves Yearbook (Vassalboro, ME)

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OAK LEAVES 1949 They were impressed by the number of noted schools such as Andover, Exeter, Groton, Deerfield, Abbot and Emma Willard that had been ex- clusively for girls or for boys since their foundation or had become so in recent years. There was no boarding school for girls in Maine and no Quaker boarding school exclusively for girls in the United States. Oak Grove became a school entirely for girls in 1925 and has grown steadily in prestige and equipment. It draws its students not only from the length and breadth of this country but also from many other countries and today over ten percent of its students come from outside the United States. Among the most generous donors of Oak Grove was Joseph E. Briggs who gave freely during his lifetime and made Oak Grove his residuary legatee. Sturdy and beautiful Briggs Hall which was one of the first school buildings in our country of completely fireproof construction was completed in 1929. In spite of the Depression, an adjoining classroom unit was completed in 1939. The Administration Building was occupied in 1941 and Senior House, which turned the second corner of the Quadrangle, was occupied in 1942. The energy of Oak Grove has not been lavished entirely on buildings and its recent graduates have entered more than fifty of the leading colleges and universities in our country including all of the major colleges for wo- men. The single achievement that probably means most to Principal and Mrs. Owen was the recognition of Oak Grove by the national honor society, Cum Laude, which established a Chapter at Oak Grove in June 1948. The requirements are exacting including the physical equipment of a school, the qualifications of its faculty, and the record of its graduates in college. The proudest and oldest schools for boys in the United States had long had Chapters but only two schools for girls in New England had been recognized for Cum Laude CAbbot and Dana Halll until Oak Grove became the third last year. Among other events of '47-'48 were the awarding of honorary degrees to Mrs. Owen by both Colby College and the University of Maine. Oak Grove will observe its Centennial Commencement on June 11th in the serenity and beauty of the enlarged and redecorated Quaker Meeting House that was built in 1784, and Oak Grove will begin its second century next September. OUR LETTER ROOM The Susan Nichols Pulsifer Letter Room always invites us to browse in the growing library of famous letters or to do our own creative writing, but the room glows when Mrs. Pulsifer herself is here for her course in Letter Writing. We all look forward eagerly to those coveted conferences with her in the Susan Nichols Pulsifer Letter Room, as we talk about our themes and feel the inspiration of her personality. When Mrs. Pulsifer inaugurated the course in Letter Writing at Oak Grove two years ago, our letters illustrated the different types of prose composition. Last year we wrote imaginative letters from any period and between any persons. This year we had an 5

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THEIR SIMPLE COMMENCEMENT GOXVNS CENTENNIAL POOL MIRRORS THE SENIORS IN

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