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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OAK LEAVES 1949 entirely new project with a series of letters which told a story and which, perhaps, we liked best of all. Now we are wondering what new project Mrs. Pulsifer will have for the course next fall after she returns from her long summer re-visiting Europe and we are looking forward eagerly to our next course in Letter Writing when we welcome her back to Oak Grove. NEW CHAPEL The Centennial Commencement will be held in our Chapel which was built in Massachusetts sixteen years before Maine became an independent state and four years before the Constitution of this country was ratified. The main structure, which is now one hundred and sixty-five years old and has the mammoth original hand hewn timbers, was built on the simple lines of Quaker Meeting Houses of that day. A steeple, stained glass win- dows, and a golden oak wainscoting were embellishments added in the Nineties. With the necessity for more seating capacity, it has been given the appearance of much more length by recessing the complete pulpit into what had previously been a storeroom at the west end. There were certain constructional problems such as the support of the roof at that end, but these problems have been solved so unobtrusively and artistically that one is not only unaware of the problem, but one immediately feels an added length, serenity and beauty. With the skillful use of smaller arches in the distance and through low, wide steps on which the graduates will ascend to the seats at the right, the Colonial atmosphere of the early Meeting House has been recaptured, with complete lack of ornament except for the pillars. While the new design is chastely simple and unadorned, yet in a subtle way one immediately feels the atmosphere of an old cathedral. It has been done over with conservative simplicity but with the daring of youth and in a color scheme as new as tomorrow. Instead of a carpet with the traditional red or cathedral green and instead of the cream walls one invariably finds, the woodwork is in Colonial white and the walls in Oak Grove blue, which is the azure of the zenith on the sunny days that smile over this little School. The broadloom carpet is also in Oak Grove blue except in a far deeper shade and only these two colors are found except in the timbered ceiling with the mellow brown of age and a few soft tones in the stained glass windows. Under the devteod leadership of Mr. Hampson and Mr. Brandt, the parents organized a committee to cooperate with the Seniors in making a special Class Gift for the Centennial. We shall always remember their visits and the thrilling evening program to celebrate the progress of the Organ Fund. The gift is a fine Wurlitzer Organ that is already installed and will always remind us of the Centennial Class and the parents and friends who united with them in this beautiful gift. 7