Sunset Hill High School - Sundial Yearbook (Kansas City, MO)

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ln 1919, the rapid expansion of the institution necessitated another move to our present location at Fifty-First and Wornall Road. At this time the Sunset Hill School Association was organized as a non-profit corporation with a Board of Trustees to take over the business management of the school. The present main building and primary school building comprised the original facilities. The next year the dining room building was constructed to be used also as our auditorium. Through the years, Sunset Hill has been very fortunate in having many generous gifts bestowed upon it. The year 1926 brought two wonderful additions to the campus: the gymnasium, a memor- ial to Alfred Tyler Hemingway, given by Mrs. Hemingway fnow Mrs. Clarence Shepardl and her daughter .lane fnow Mrs. George L. Gordonlz and the Mary Gary hockey field given by Mrs. Edward Harrison fformerly Mary Garyl. Another thoughtful gift, Marianne Terrace, the paved playground for the nursery school, was made in 1928 by Marianne Platt Quarles. ln 1931, Miss Ericson was succeeded as head mistress by Mary Chorn Hazard who had been a member of the faculty for eight years. During her administration the middle school building was added in 1936 as a result of an initial gift by Mr. and Mrs. ,lay V. Holmes, which inspired further voluntary contributions from school patrons. The library in the middle school is a fitting memorial to Julia Wood. The present headmistress of the school, Mrs. Orville C. Green, Jr., came to us in 1939 from the North Shore Country Day School in Winnetka, Illinois, where she was Dean of Girls and teacher of Latin and History. Under her leadership Sunset Hill has grown to its present high enrollment with an outstanding reputation as a college preparatory school. Mrs. Green has been active in the national organizations of Independent Schools. v l L 4 A Lower School I 9

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School .History Main Building The year 1913 saw the founding of a new school, a venture .in progressnte -education. Through the untiring efforts of Mrs. Hugh Ward fnow Mrs. A. Ross Hlllj, Mrs. William F. Patton, Mrs. ,lustin D. Bowersock, and a few of their friends, the dream of a school designed to keep pace with rising trends of education became a reality. They had visited some of the experimental schools in Chicago and New York and patterned their school on the same general principles. The name Sunset Hill was given the school b-y Mrs. Hill, who named it in memory of a love-ly portion of the campus of Vassar College -still called Sunset Hill. For the first few years, classes were held in Mrs. Hill's home on Fifty-Second Street with Julia Wood as principal. It is hard for us to- day to realize the great amount of responsibility which rested on the founders in those early years. It was under their competent guidance that the school became firmly established. The next building to accomodate the grow- ing school was a house on Fifty-Seventh Street, formerly occupied by the boys' Country Day School. It was to this location that Helen Eric- son came as principal. Through her familiarity withi' the new philosophy and techniques of education, as a result of her association with Col. Francis Parker, she inspired the school to greater heights and originated many of the spe- cial observances which have become well-loved traditions. Among these are Vespers, Revels, and May Day. -g.. Dining Room at a scl Tl UP ial da Ed plz me ad vo. to Nc of Wli Hal

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M1 f 2'7yi, ff? Lf 4 IQM'f2,.ftI '. 1' , 23',iyzgcivf': ffifi.s-fL'77:f-vf- 1zf'::r'cf,,if.M'f.i-.M if .Q,-m-4s,..,f.,,--.iw-f1 wrw- - H ' - ' l I Mary Conover Mellon Building Two of our present faculty who have given many years of devoted service to the school are Eleanor Halley, who joined the lower school staff in 1916, and Mary Young, who came to head the Mathematics Department in 1921. The Mellon Building is the latest addition to the campus. A start had been made on a fund for a science building, when Paul Mellon offer- , ' 1 ed to erect such a building in memory of his wife, Mary Conover Mellon, a graduate of the class of 1921. This building houses ultra-mod- ern equipment to provide for the expansion in teaching science, home economics and music, and in visual education. Many less pretentious gifts such as the flagpole, fine trees, stage cur- tains, drinking fountains, movie projector, im- proved lighting, class bells and a public address system are being used and appreciated today. Thus from modest beginnings, Sunset Hill has developed into a thriving school which con- tinues to live up to the standards of its fore- sighted founders. ' Alfred Tyler Hemingway Gymnasium ,.10,.-