Frederick S. Allis, Jr.
Youth from Every Quarter

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

GROWTH OF THE PLANT

THERE IS a story---probably apocryphal---of an alumnus who returned to visit Andover in the early 1930's. He had not been back to his old school since his graduation in 1916, and as luck would have it, he arrived on the Hill after dark. Wishing, first of all, to pay his respects to his old Headmaster, Al Stearns, he went around to his house only to find himself confronted by a huge new Chapel. Still eager to see Al, he walked over to the Inn, where he thought he could get directions. But as he approached the Inn, he saw that the old stone building with the wooden annex was no longer there; in its place was an imposing new structure made of brick. Not sure that this new building was an Inn, he finally decided that the best thing to do was to call on his old English teacher, Jack Fuess, and see if he could straighten things out. Alas, when he arrived at the spot where jack Fuess's house had stood, there was now simply open space, and as he looked up and down, he could see that a long vista extended from a large pillared building well down Phillips Street. According to the story, that did it; despairing of finding anything familiar in its accustomed place, he went back to the railroad station and took the next train back to Boston.

Apocryphal or not, the story illustrates the tremendous physical changes in the Phillips Academy plant that took place during the Stearns era. When Al Stearns took over as Principal in 1903, the physical facilities of the School were still woefully inadequate. Well over half the boys, for example, still lived in boarding houses. By the time Al left in 1933, every boarding student lived in a school dormitory and a host of new buildings had been constructed, with the result that the campus of Phillips Academy had acquired a breath-taking beauty. To be sure, important additions to the plant have been made since Al Stearns's time, but the basic plan of the school as it is today was determined during this period.

The head of an institution naturally receives credit for accomplishments achieved during his term of office, and Al Stearns deserves a full measure of applause for his part in developing the physical plant of Phillips Academy. Yet an equal share of the credit must go to the Treasurer, James Cowan Sawyer, who was Al's alter ego in this work.(1) Together they worked as an extraordinarily efficient team to build the beautiful Andover that we know today. James Sawyer was born on 30 March 1872 in Dover, New Hampshire, the son of a former governor of the state. In 1886 he entered Phillips Academy, where he roomed for four years with Al Stearns in Abbot House, now called the Double-Brick and then the home of Principal Cecil Bancroft. Unlike Al, Jimmy Sawyer was no athlete, but he was active in other areas: manager of the football team, a member of the Phillipian board, and a leader in the K.O.A. Society, perhaps the strongest of the fraternities. From Andover he went to Yale, where he was equally active, serving as manager of several undergraduate organizations and joining Psi Upsilon and Scroll and Key. At Yale he made many important friendships, which were to be important for Andover in the future---with such men as Thomas Cochran, Judge Elias B. Bishop, George B. Case, and Fred T. Murphy, all of whom later became Trustees of Phillips Academy. After graduation from Yale he married Mary Frost of Durham, New Hampshire, and decided to try his hand at running a travel business. Apparently this venture proved not to his liking, for he soon gave it up and moved to Andover. The presumption is strong that Cecil Bancroft and Al Stearns were important influences in his decision to move. In any event they had plans for him: early in 1901 he was elected a Trustee of Phillips Academy and a few months later was made Treasurer. By the time he retired in 1939, he had held the office longer than anyone in the Academy's history. The Trustees Records in the years immediately following Sawyer's assumption of the position as Treasurer show what a live wire he was. He announced that he was going to hire expert accountants to deal with the School's finances and to replace the rather slipshod procedures that had existed up to that time.(2) In June 1902 he presented a five-point program for Trustee consideration: rent Bartlet Hall from the Theological Seminary as a dormitory for Phillips boys; put steam heat in Phillips---now Foxcroft---Hall; construct a heating plant for the entire School; make Bulfinch Hall into a dining hall and demolish the Latin Commons.(3) When it is remembered how little attention was paid the School by the Trustees in the previous decade, James Sawyer's incisiveness was like a breath of fresh air. From the very start he and Al Stearns worked closely together. They were often on the same Trustee Committees, they took a trip to Washington together on behalf of the Academy,(4) and they generally complemented each other in working for the School. It was not long before they could report real progress in the development of the Phillips Academy plant.

James Cowan Sawyer of the Class of 1890,
Treasurer of Phillips Academy from 1901 to 1939.

Before any new construction could be attempted, however, the existing buildings had to be put in good repair. For years there had been rumors that the Academy Building (the main classroom building) was unsafe. To investigate it, Guy Lowell, the School's architect, sent an engineer named John Buttimer, later to be the Academy's Superintendent of Buildings and Grounds. What he discovered horrified everyone. He ripped up the flooring in the third floor, which served as an assembly hall, and found that the smaller beams running from the sides of the building to a huge beam in the center had all pulled loose. They were supposed to overlap the center beam by five inches, but were doing so by no more than one inch, and in some cases even less. Buttimer remarked on the good luck that only quiet religious services were held in the room; any jarring would have loosened the side beams and the whole building would have collapsed. Al Stearns, turning pale, explained to Buttimer that they had just had a rally with lots of shouting and stamping. "Good God," Buttimer replied, "you can only thank Divine Providence that you escaped a terrible tragedy." The building was immediately vacated, chapel was held in the Theological Seminary Chapel and classes in faculty homes, the whole third floor of the Academy Building was removed, and by the opening of School the following fall, the building was usable again. Al Stearns had nightmares about this episode for the rest of his life. "Suppose those displaced beams had given way when the entire student body and faculty were assembled in that big hall carrying them all to the basement with the roof on top of them?" he wrote. "Could the school ever have recovered from the blow?"(5)

When Al Stearns became Principal, he inherited a project that had been started under his predecessor, Dr. Bancroft---namely, the establishment of a Department of Archaeology. The donor, Robert Singleton Peabody, had, according to generally accepted reports, originally planned to give his money to the Peabody Museum at Harvard, named after his Uncle George Peabody, the noted philanthropist. Unfortunately for Harvard, the Director of the Museum insulted Robert Peabody in some way, which led him to call in his lawyer and make Phillips Academy, of which he was a graduate, his beneficiary.(6) In a long letter addressed to the Trustees and dated 6 March 1901, Mr. Peabody spelled out the terms of his gift.(7) He had, he wrote, amassed over the years a collection of some 40,000 archaeological specimens and wished to establish a museum in which to house them. He also wished to establish a separate Department of Archaeology at Phillips Academy, with a curator for the museum and such other staff as might seem appropriate. He wanted the new department and the funds to support it, which he proposed to give, to be entirely separate from the rest of the Academy but to be under the control of the Trustees. If at some later time it seemed advisable, branches in Ethnology and Paleontology could be set up. Mr. Peabody hoped that the Phillips undergraduates might, as a result of his gift, come into contact with the science of Archaeology and be broadened thereby, but he had no desire to force a compulsory course in the science on the already heavily burdened boys. He hoped that the building to be erected could be particularly attractive, so that it might serve as a kind of social center for the undergraduates, thus filling a great need of the Academy. Finally, though he had no wish to dictate to the Trustees, he hoped that his friend Warren K. Moorehead might be named Curator. Professor Moorehead had helped to organize his large collection of specimens, was intimately familiar with it, and could display it effectively. He also hoped that his son, Charles Peabody of Cambridge, Massachusetts, could be given some part to play in the enterprise. Two days later Mr. Peabody wrote the Trustees that for a starter he would pay over to them the sum of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, one hundred thousand for the foundation itself and fifty thousand for the building. It was no surprise when, at their meeting of 21 March 1901, the Trustees voted to accept the "munificent gift" of Mr. Peabody. They then proceeded to follow his suggestions as to personnel and named Warren K. Moorehead Curator and Charles Peabody as Honorary Director.(8)

Cecil Bancroft was ambivalent about the new acquisition. He was delighted, of course, at this handsome addition to the Academy plant; yet when he considered the other needs of the Academy---particularly new dormitories---he must have wished that the money could have been diverted to other purposes. He did convince Mr. Peabody, however, that the museum building should have facilities for a social center for the undergraduates, which he hoped, would broaden its appeal to the undergraduates and make possible a more enjoyable social life for them. In actual practice it was soon found that the space allotted in the museum for a social center was needed by the department, and as a result, a few years later, funds of the Peabody Foundation were used to construct a building named Peabody House, next door to the museum on Phillips Street. A grille was established in the basement of Peabody House and for many years served as an undergraduate hangout---the boys could smoke there---while the upper floors of the building provided rooms for meetings, debates, small lectures, and the like.

The Trustees decided that the proper site for the museum was the northern corner of Phillips and Main streets. This spot had had a long history. The first schoolhouse was located there when Phillips Academy had been established in 1778. In 1812 Squire Samuel Farrar had built a house there and taken care of Madame Phoebe Phillips in her last months. In 1881 the Farrar House was moved down Phillips Street to its present location, while a new edifice, Churchill House, was erected on the same site. Now it became necessary to move Churchill House to its present location opposite the juncture of Main and Salem streets. With the site clear, construction of the museum proceeded rapidly. Guy Lowell of Boston was chosen architect for the enterprise, and on 28 Mach 1903 the building was formally dedicated. Charles Peabody, the son of the donor, spoke at these exercises, as did Robert R. Bishop for the Trustees, Alfred E. Stearns for the Faculty, and Charles O. Day for the Theological Seminary. Professor Frederick Ward Putnam of the Harvard Department of Ethnology and Archaeology gave the main address of the day.(9)

Despite attempts to make the Archaeology Department and its museum attractive to the undergraduates, the institution has always been something of an anomaly. From the first it was clear that Dr. Moorehead and his staff would devote most of their time to archaeological research, and this they did with distinction. The difficulty was that most of their sites were far from Andover. In the first twenty-five years of the Department's existence important archaeological finds were made in the Ozarks, in the Red Paint People country in Maine and other parts of New England, at the Etowah Mounds in Georgia, and finally, under the direction of Alfred V. Kidder, at the Pueblo of Pecos in New Mexico. In addition, Dr. Moorehead was frequently absent, working for the United States Board of Indian Commissioners and helping to recover for the Indians hundreds of thousands of acres of land and millions of dollars that had been wrongfully taken from them. As a result of this professional activity, there was little time left for the undergraduates of Phillips Academy. Elective courses in archaeology were offered from the start till 1917, but the number of boys actively engaged in the subject remained small. Some four or five each year usually became vitally interested and often accompanied the staff on summer expeditions. To broaden the appeal, Dr. Moorehead tried to popularize archaeology with lectures on "The Story of Tecumseh," "Buffalo Days on the Plains," "The Custer Fight," "Exploring the Desert," "Prominent Indian Chiefs," and "The Lewis and Clark Expedition." Most of these lectures were historical rather than archaeological, of course, but they were usually well attended; Dr. Moorehead stated that attendance ranged from eight to one hundred and twenty. The problem of reconciling programs for the undergraduates and scholarly study on the part of the staff remains to this day. Probably in deference of Robert Singleton Peabody's original wishes, the Trustees have preferred to engage highly trained professionals and encourage them to proceed with their research rather than people whose main interest would have been in teaching archaeology.(10)

In the early years of the twentieth century occurred one of the most significant events in the history of Phillips Academy---the decision of the Andover Theological Seminary to move to Cambridge and the resultant acquisition of the Seminary property by the School. At one stroke the Academy was transformed from a second-class appendage of the Seminary into the dominant institution on Andover Hill. At the same time, the School acquired a Board of Trustees wholly devoted to its interests---something that had not obtained for one hundred years. In the 1890's and early 1900's the Seminary had begun to falter. Attendance had fallen off until by 1902 there were only three in the graduating class, and there were never more than four during the remainder of the Seminary's stay in Andover.(11)

Various reasons were given for the decline; certainly, the so-called "heresy trials" in the 1880's had given the Seminary a bad name. When relatively liberal theologians could be hauled into court on some picayune matter of doctrine, prospective theological students could not help being put off. There was, in addition, a general falling off among candidates for the ministry, as many devout young men preferred social work of one kind or another. Andover's isolation, once considered an ideal setting for theological study, now seemed at variance with growing interest in the "social gospel," which involved work with the poor and unfortunate in the cities.(12) Whatever the main reason, it was becoming clear that if the Seminary did not correct the situation, it would die of inanition. What could one say of an institution where there were more professors than graduates? The Trustees of the Academy, who were also Trustees of the Seminary, realized that something drastic had to be done if the Seminary was to be saved. Early in 1902 they appointed a Committee to consider the removal of the Seminary to some other more appropriate place, and a month later the Committee recommended such removal. So far so good, but a few months later the Committee reported that it was unable to devise a way to remove the institution.(13) There the matter rested until 1906. In the meantime, the alumni of the Seminary made it clear that they wanted no part of a removal. They pledged to support the institution, raise money for it, and generally try to restore it to the position it had previously held.(14) Despite this opposition the Trustees kept at the problem, and by 1906 they were able to report progress.

The Gordian knot was finally cut by an agreement with President Eliot and various officers of the Harvard Divinity School that would provide for a merger of the two institutions.(15) The Divinity School, like Andover, had only a small number of students, and it was hoped that by joining forces, each institution might be strengthened. When the Trustees acceded to this arrangement, they undertook to provide positions for the Andover Theological Seminary faculty and to construct an Andover building in Cambridge near the Divinity School.(16) At the start, two plans were proposed---one that would effect a close union between the two institutions and another that would provide for a loose union. After proper deliberation the first plan was selected.(17) It should be pointed out that the Trustees were hampered in their decision to move; the original Constitution of Phillips Academy (which was to apply later to the Seminary) stated that the institution about to be founded should never be moved out of the South Parish of the Town of Andover "unless the good of mankind shall manifestly require it." Apparently the Trustees thought it did.(18)

Under the terms of the agreement with Harvard, Andover Theological Seminary was to have equal status with the Cambridge Divinity School. The curricula of the two schools were to be interchangeable, while the Andover professors, though bearing a slightly different title from their Harvard confrères, were to have fully equal status. In due course a handsome stone building called Andover Hall was constructed in Cambridge, and the physical translation of the Seminary was complete. The alumni of the Seminary were by no means happy. A majority voted to oppose the measure when it was still under consideration. One wrote, "An empty seminary is as well off at Andover as at Cambridge." But the Trustees pushed ahead with their plan, and eventually it was successfully achieved.(19)

It remained to work out the legal and financial aspects of the separation, both of which proved to be extremely complicated. It was clear that the Trustees of Phillips Academy could not, by their own act, divest themselves of the Theological Seminary. Both Harvard and Dartmouth had attempted similar moves in the past, and in both cases, after long lawsuits the courts had decided against them. The solution that was finally worked out was the work of a newly appointed Trustee, Henry L. Stimson, and Professor John Chipman Gray, of the Harvard Law School, who became counsel for the School in this matter. The plan that these two legal experts proposed involved petitioning the Massachusetts legislature to create a new and distinct Board of Trustees for the Andover Theological Seminary. At the start this Board and the Trustees of Phillips Academy would be identical and would wear two hats, so to speak. In one capacity they would meet as the Seminary Board, in another as the Academy Board. The Trustees of Phillips Academy were to make over to the Trustees of the Seminary all the property belonging to that institution as soon as possible.(20) The Massachusetts legislature dutifully passed an act to legalize the new arrangement and the separation of the two institutions was achieved.(21) Shortly afterward the Trustees began to choose which of the two boards they wished to serve on. Those with loyalties to the Seminary resigned from the Academy Board and served only on the other, while those whose primary interest was in Phillips Academy resigned from the Seminary Board to devote all their time and energy to the School. As Al Stearns put it:

It would be difficult to overemphasize the benefits the school derived from this radical change in its governing body. For decades the Seminary had been the chief concern of the trustees, a goodly number of whom were retired ministers. During the hectic period of the heresy trials, involving seminary professors, from 1886 and for several years thereafter, academy affairs were given scant if any attention, and at many of the trustee meetings no academy business was included on their agenda... The creation of the new and separate board of trustees completely changed the picture and the Academy board set to work promptly to repair the damage. An Executive Committee which met monthly handled all the minor problems while the larger ones were settled at the quarterly meetings of the full board.(22)

Finally, there remained the difficult problem of determining what property on Andover Hill belonged to the Theological Seminary and what to Phillips. Some items were clear enough, but since others had been used jointly by both institutions, ownership could not be easily determined. To deal with this problem, the Massachusetts legislature, in the same act that established the two separate Boards of Trustees, authorized the appointment of three arbitrators, to be approved by both the Seminary Board and the Phillips Academy Board. After a certain amount of thrashing about, three gentlemen---Daniel Merriman, D.D., of Boston; Joseph A. Stuart of Andover; and Jeremiah Smith, Jr., of Boston---were selected.(23) The arbitrators went to work with a will and soon produced a report. The Trustees of Phillips Academy believed, however, that the report contained several important errors. They urged the arbitrators to review their work and also planned an appeal to the courts if the first report was insisted on. Fortunately, the arbitrators did some more homework and came up with a revised report that was completely satisfactory to the Trustees.(24) Since the Theological Seminary was moving to Cambridge, the purpose of this division of property was to determine exactly what Phillips Academy would have to purchase if it were to acquire the Seminary property on Andover Hill. It was clear from the start that the Trustees were determined to acquire that property. Even before the arbitrators were appointed, a draft of a purchase agreement was considered by the Board, and once the arbitrators' report had been filed and accepted, the Trustees moved rapidly. A special committee on the purchase was appointed to deal with the Seminary Board, which started out by offering $170,000 for all the Seminary's property in Andover. Apparently the Seminary people thought this offer too low; in any event, further negotiations followed and in May 1908 a final agreement was reached whereby Phillips Academy would purchase all the Seminary property on the Hill for $200,000---$50,000 to be paid when the agreement was formally signed, and the balance over a ten-year period. The long document spelled out the property to be acquired and dealt with such matters as interest on outstanding notes, mortgage arrangements, insurance, and the like. Once this agreement was formalized, Phillips Academy would become the educational institution on Andover Hill, with a plant that any college could be proud of.(25)

With the legal difficulties in connection with the Seminary's move to Cambridge successfully overcome, and with an agreement for the purchase of the Seminary property signed, sealed, and delivered, the last remaining problem was how to pay for it all. Since the Trustees had no money for this purpose, they obtained it by a fund drive, and in the fall of 1908 the "Seminary Purchase Fund" was established. In addition to the purchase price of $200,000, another $50,000 was added for the remodeling of Seminary buildings; Bartlett Chapel, now Pearson Hall, for example, needed to be converted into a recitation building.(26) In April 1909 it was reported that $96,000 had already been pledged; in addition Andrew Carnegie had promised to contribute the last $25,000 to the fund---after the Trustees had already raised $225,000.(27) The following September the figure of $125,000 had been reached,(28) but from then on, the campaign lagged. Despite heroic efforts on the part of Al Stearns and Jimmy Sawyer, who toured the country tirelessly visiting Andover alumni, it was not until 1916 that the goal was finally reached and Carnegie made the final contribution. Al Stearns told an amusing story of one attempt to raise money in this drive. He and Henry Stimson decided to take a shot at Michael Piel, the brewer who had made a fortune with Piel's beer and who had had two sons at Andover. They decided that evening dress would help create the proper impression and thus arrived at the Piel mansion in tuxedoes. Mrs. Piel, described as "an unpretentious but very motherly woman" met them in the reception room, listened to their story, and then said, "Mr. Piel must hear this; I'll call him." The two solicitors could hear sounds of revelry from the next room---clinking of glasses, bursts of laughter, the like---and they were apprehensive about disturbing Mr. Piel at this time. Finally Mrs. Piel appeared with a reluctant, if not surly, husband in tow. He plumped himself onto a spindle-legged chair that threatened to collapse under him and prepared to listen. It had been agreed that Henry Stimson would present the case; as federal District Attorney in New York City he would, it was thought, command respect. When he began talking about the need for endowment, Piel broke in, in his gutteral accent, "Vat is dis endowment? Is dat anudder dormitory?" Stimson went on to elaborate on the desperate need of the School for funds, but before he could finish, Piel burst out with, "Change de Management! Change de Management!" And that ended the interview.(29) Despite setbacks like this and many other discouragements, the Trustees and Administration of the School kept plugging at the fund drive until Phillips Academy owned the entire property of the Seminary free and clear.

And what a magnificent addition to the Academy plant this property was! In the first place, some of the Seminary buildings went far toward realizing Dr. Bancroft's dream of having all the boys housed in Academy houses. Bartlet and Phillips (now Foxcroft) halls were important additions in this respect, but the row of houses along Main Street that had been occupied by the Seminary professors were useful also. Many were remodeled so that eight or ten boys could be housed in each. Previously the School had taken over Farrar House on Phillips Street, the so-called "Brick House" (the relic of Warren Draper's printing establishment), Marland House, (now Clement House), and others in order to expand housing facilities. As the number of available housing units expanded, it finally became possible to get rid of the Latin and English Commons, so dear to the hearts of so many Andover alumni. Some of these structures were simply razed; two were moved downtown to an area behind Punchard High School, only to be razed shortly thereafter; and one exists to this day on Highland Road, though so completely remodeled as to bear little resemblance to its original form. As the last of the Commons houses were being moved, the undergraduates celebrated their departure by painting slogans on the sides and hanging placards from the windows. These were changed each night, so that each new day saw a fresh collection, much to the amusement of the townspeople.(30)

The Seminary property provided more than student housing. The stone Chapel not only served as a spacious church for the school's religious services but was used also for lectures, entertainments, and meetings, thus making it possible for the top story of the Academy Building, hitherto an assembly room, to be remodeled into additional recitation rooms. More recitation rooms resulted from the remodeling of what is now Pearson Hall. Brechin Hall, the Seminary library, located west of the present Oliver Wendell Holmes Library, was a welcome addition. After its ground floor had been remodeled to provide adequate space for the School's administration, Al Stearns and Jimmy Sawyer no longer had to fall over each other in the tiny administration building near Graves Hall. That building was for a time a center for the Music Department, later a faculty club, and currently is the Office of the Physical Plant; Brechin Hall also made possible, for the first time in Academy history, a well-equipped library under the direction of a professional librarian, and the old student subscription libraries became things of the past. Finally, the Stowe House, which, with an addition, could serve as an inn, came under Trustee control. In short, the acquisition of the Seminary property transformed the School almost overnight; that property and the departure of the Seminary were absolutely essential to the development of the modern Andover.

Magnificent though the Seminary purchase was, it by no means solved the problem of housing all the undergraduates in Phillips Academy dormitories. Until more buildings could be constructed, the unsatisfactory system of boarding houses would have to be continued for roughly one third of the students. No sooner had the Seminary negotiations been completed than the Trustees began plans for a new dormitory to the south of Bartlett Hall. They planned to finance the new building, the cost of which was estimated at $50,000, through notes bearing interest at 4-1/2 percent and sold to alumni and friends of the School. A good start had been made when Melville C. Day, one of the School's most generous benefactors, announced that he would foot the bill.(31) Mr. Day had already given what are now Draper, Eaton, and Pemberton cottages and Bancroft Hall; in the next few years his generosity was to be even greater. The new dormitory south of Bartlett was named Day Hall in his honor and was completed in 1911. Since the Trustees had already raised a large part of the money for a new dormitory through the sale of notes, they determined on a second one, which became the present Bishop Hall. Characteristically, Mr. Day made up the balance when the sale of notes did not quite reach $50,000.(32) Mr. Day must have developed a real passion for providing the Phillips Academy undergraduates with proper housing, for in 1912 he gave money for the construction of the present Adams Hall and the following year for Taylor Hall, named after his old friend John Phelps Taylor and not, as some think, for Uncle Sam.(33) Up until the construction of Adams Hall, all the dormitories had provided quarters for bachelor faculty members. The realization on the part of the Trustees that at least some of the faculty might get married prompted them to provide two suites for families in both Adams and Taylor halls. Finally, in 1910, the Trustees were able to acquire, at such a ridiculously low price that it amounted to a gift, property that became Williams Hall on Phillips Street. Professor Edward H. Williams, Jr., of the Class of 1868, made this acquisition possible, and it was decided to make it a dormitory for the youngest boys. A separate dining hall was soon established, and the master in charge was given a light teaching schedule so that he could devote most of his time to the needs of the juniors.(34) Though some of the alumni complained that the School was becoming a kindergarten(35) many families who had hesitated to throw young boys into the rough and tumble of Andover life now felt reassured, and the junior class grew in size as a result. Furthermore, as the number of boys who attended Andover for four years increased, there was a corresponding improvement in the stability of the undergraduate body and in School spirit in general. In 1922 a wing was added to Williams Hall, providing room for eighteen more boys, and in 1936 what is today Junior House was remodeled to accommodate eleven additional students.(36) The Seminary acquisition, the four new Day dormitories, and Williams Hall came close to making it possible for all Phillips Academy students to be housed by the School, but since the Academy increased in size in the next twenty years, this goal could not be reached until the early 1930's.

Improvements in the athletic plant were also made during this period. Mention has already been made of the construction in 1902 of Borden Gymnasium, named after the principal donor, Matthew C. D. Borden. The drive for this building began after the present Bulfinch Hall, the old gymnasium, was gutted by fire in 1896. At about the same time George Brown Knapp provided funds for the purchase of land south of the Borden Gymnasium for additional playing fields. Though the School was eventually obliged to spend some $30,000 in addition to the original gift to drain and grade the land and to build grandstands, the resulting Brothers Field, dedicated in 1903, has been the focal point for Andover athletic contests ever since. During this same period the School adopted a policy of athletics for all, which created favorable comment all over the country. In the past School teams had been made up to a large extent of postgraduate students who stopped off at Andover on the way to college. The rest of the students either watched the games or involved themselves in other activities, not all of which were particularly savory. Al Stearns was sure that if all boys were involved in athletics, they could let off steam in wholesome contests. He remembered Dr. Bancroft's statement that a good gymnasium would cut discipline cases in half. The plan finally adopted was for the most part the brainchild of W. Huston Lillard, Instructor in English and later the first housemaster of Williams Hall. Lillard was a Dartmouth graduate, where he had been an All-American football player, and had spent the school year 1908-09 at Oxford, where he had become tremendously impressed with the system of intramural athletics. The original program envisaged a series of class teams that would compete with one another, but it soon became clear that the two lower classes were at such a disadvantage under this system that the contests would become noncompetitive. Accordingly, it was decided to divide the School arbitrarily into four "clubs"----Romans, Saxons, Greeks, and Gauls. Each student upon matriculation would be arbitrarily assigned to one of these four and would remain a member of that club during his entire career at Andover. First, second, and sometimes even third teams could therefore be organized in each sport from the membership of each club, and a large number of contests could be held. The great virtue of this system was that each team would be competing against another team roughly its equal in ability and strength. At the start it was thought that the varsity teams should be selected from among the best club players, but this proved impracticable, and the varsity teams continued to be recruited from among the whole student body. Though the club players were not as proficient as those of the varsity, many observers thought the club contests fully as hard fought as the ones at varsity level.(37)

The last change in the athletic program during this period came with the construction of a swimming pool, just before the war. The impetus was from the boys themselves, who set out to raise the necessary $25,000 through personal solicitation. Committees were formed that competed with one another for the largest amount raised, and Dr. Peirson Page, the Physical Director, lent a hand. It proved slow going. After almost a year only $3,300 had been raised, and it was clear that renewed efforts were necessary. A second drive added $8,200 and eventually about $15,000 was realized. At this point the Trustees agreed to loan the swimmers the remaining $10,000, to be repaid from fees charged for using the pool. As a result, on Memorial Day 1911, to the accompaniment of band music and speeches, ground was broken and about eighteen months later the first Andover undergraduates were able to dive in. The popularity of the pool is attested by the fact that it was open not only weekdays but Saturday evenings and Sunday afternoons as well.(38) Thus by the time that World War I broke out, Phillips Academy had a fine gym with a pool, handsome athletic fields, and a program of athletics for all---to the admiration of educators throughout the United States.

If one were to ask what the policy was for boys who got sick, the answer---at least for the first century of the institution's existence---would have been "None," or "Student, heal thyself." The remarkable thing is that the School was able to survive for its first century without a serious epidemic or even disasters to individuals. To be sure, boys living in Faculty houses or in boarding houses run by solicitous landladies must have received some nursing care on occasions. Though the Samaritan House was originally established to take care of sick theologues, it is possible that some Academy boys were cared for there. But the standard procedure, particularly for students in the Latin and English Commons, was to have the sick boy remain in his room until he got well; if he got sick enough, a physician from the town would be called in.(39) Cecil Bancroft was disturbed at this state of affairs and wished to improve the situation, but he was unable to accomplish anything during his term as Principal. It was not until Al Stearns took over that progress in the area began to be made. The first step was to find out who was sick and what was wrong with him. To accomplish this, Al turned to Dr. Peirson S. Page, the Physical Director. Though Page had an M.D. from the International Y.M.C.A. College, his main concern was the program in physical education; he could usually diagnose an illness, but he left the treatment to the physicians in town. Each morning Dr. Page would ascertain what boys were absent from chapel; he would then go to their rooms to find out what was wrong, and report to Al Stearns. Usually his report was of colds and stomach aches, but on occasion it could be chilling. One morning he reported cases of scarlet fever. Nurses for the sick boys had to be found. The Chandler sisters on Main Street were often willing to help out. If there were a large number of cases, the procedure was to put them all in the same dorm and move out those still well. But that was a makeshift policy at best. When a Boston physician, who had been called in to advise on the scarlet fever cases, visited one of these quarantined houses, he remarked that considering the outrageous condition of the rooms in the house, it was a miracle that Phillips Academy had not been visited by the Black Plague. In this particular scarlet fever epidemic it was discovered that the children of the cook at the Commons all had the disease. Since the cook was a Christian Scientist, he had refused to have his offspring examined by a doctor. When the cause, together with the cook and his family, had been removed, the outbreak was brought under control; but the need for an adequate infirmary remained. In 1907 the Trustees voted that the old track house, located near what is now Adams Hall, might be used for an infirmary. Though it was a flimsy wooden structure, it at least had showers and toilets, and for three years it served to house students with contagious diseases. In 1910, with the acquisition of the Williams Hall property, it was found that the building where the coachman and his family had lived would make an adequate infirmary. Though the facilities were excellent, the quarters were much too small to meet the needs of the School. Thus in 1911 Al Stearns must have sighed with relief when he learned that Miss Flora Isham had decided to give the school $30,000 for a new infirmary in honor of her three nephews, all graduates of the School. Dr. William Graves of Boston, son of the old head of the Scientific Department, and Dr. Fred Murphy, later to become a Trustee, were called upon to draw up plans. Their original proposal would have cost $40,000, but Miss Isham said that $30,000 was her limit. There followed frantic pruning of the original plans to meet the financial requirement, and the new facility was opened in the fall of 1912. None too soon: a few years later the School had a polio epidemic, and seven boys were stricken. The new infirmary enabled the cases to be isolated, and with the help of the Harvard Paralysis Commission, all seven eventually came through unscathed. Perhaps more remarkable, as the result of a reassuring letter sent to all the parents by Al Stearns, only one boy was withdrawn because of the polio scare.(40) There was still plenty of room for improvement in Isham Infirmary, however; in 1935 a large wing was added, and today the institution has been designated a hospital, complete with all the latest medical equipment. The care that undergraduates get today in Isham Hospital is indeed a far cry from the "Student, Heal Thyself" program of the nineteenth century.

 

During the period of World War I almost nothing was done to improve the plant. Not that everything had been done. The old Academy Building was again considered unsafe and eventually would have to be torn down, and there was a continuing demand for more dormitories. The Peabody House, called at first the Phillips Union, was started in 1915; and Doc Page continued to raise money to pay off the debt on the swimming pool and construct a new track,(41) but for the most part it was not until 1919 that the pace quickened again. In the spring of that year the Trustees appointed a committee to make plans for the construction of a new main building. They were impelled to this action by the formation of an Alumni Fund Committee that promised to raise enough money to take care of the building and also substantially increase teachers' salaries, which were disastrously inadequate as a result of wartime and postwar inflation. Calling their venture the "Building Endowment Fund" drive, the alumni group, centered mainly in New York, planned a whirlwind campaign for the fall.(42) George B. Case was one of the most active workers, along with Thomas Cochran and Frederick C. Walcott. Claude M. Fuess of the Academy English Department was named Executive Secretary, and Al Stearns and Jimmy Sawyer were pressed into service to speak to alumni groups all over the country. The campaign got off to a flying start when gifts of $250,000 were announced at the first formal meeting of the Committee. After that it was a matter of sustained solicitation. Dr. Fuess tells the story of a luncheon given by Thomas Cochran for a wealthy alumnus. Fuess and Al Stearns were the only two people there who were not millionaires. The guest of honor finally got the message and said to George Case, "How much is this going to cost me?" The reply was $20,000, which the guest pledged before the luncheon broke up.

The drive's biggest asset was Al Stearns, then at the height of his popularity and power. Jack Fuess was assigned to watch out for Al's welfare as the two of them traveled over the country visiting alumni groups. In his plea for improved teacher salaries, Al was, in a sense, speaking for all independent schools, and his message came through. The pair first took a trip to Buffalo, Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago, Minneapolis, Milwaukee, and then back to New York. Later they went all the way to the West Coast, visiting Denver, San Francisco, Portland, and Seattle. It was hoped that the entire sum to be raised---one and one half million---could be realized by late November, but it soon became clear that more time was needed. By early January over a million was in hand, and by the time of the victory dinner on January 28, 1920, the drive had gone over the top. The final success was made possible by some last-minute increases in pledges on the part of leading alumni. The magnitude of the venture and the organization that led to its success were unique in the history of independent schools up to this time, and in a very real sense Andover's success gave a tremendous boost to private schools everywhere.(43)

The purpose of the drive was to provide endowment for the improvement of teachers' salaries and to construct a new main building. The first of these aims was realized immediately---indeed before the drive had been completed. In January 1920 the Trustees voted an across-the-board increase of 10 percent in the salaries of teachers and other employees of the school, and they added a second 10 percent increase in April.(44) The question of where the new main building should be proved more controversial. Ever since the acquisition of the Seminary property, the location of the center of the school had been debated by the Trustees. Up until that time the only Academy buildings on the east side of the campus had been Bulfinch Hall and the Borden Gymnasium. The old Main Building and all the dormitories were on the west side, and it was naturally assumed that the School would grow around the already existing buildings to the west of Main Street. Indeed, in the April 1919 Bulletin, published just as the drive was getting started, there appeared an elaborate plan for the development of what is presently the West Quad, prepared by the school's architect, Guy Lowell of Boston. It provided for a Memorial Building located between the present Johnson and Rockwell dormitories but set back further west, as well as sites for new dormitories to be built sometime in the future. According to Al Stearns, the issue was far from decided, as the Trustees divided into East Siders and West Siders. The West Siders pointed out that the east side of Main Street was a poor place to expand because the Seminary buildings already dominated the area and because there was a large granite ledge behind them that precluded expansion further eastward. The issue was finally resolved by George B. Case, recently elected Trustee. He had been wandering around the campus early one morning and had conceived the idea of locating the new main building at the site of the ledge behind the Seminary buildings. The ledge could be removed, he insisted. Then to open up a vista from the new main building to Main Street, he proposed moving Pearson Hall from its position between Bartlet and Foxcroft halls and placing it at a right angle to those two buildings so as to provide another side of a large quadrangle. The School's new architect and landscape designer, Charles Platt, of New York, was enthusiastic about the scheme and insisted that it could be done easily. The West Siders were converted by Case's eloquent arguments, and his plan was followed. The first step was to move Pearson Hall to its present location and to remove the ugly clock tower that had been added long after the building was built. Then came the removal of the large ledge of solid rock located where the new main building was to be built. As bulldozers, giant cranes, and other modern machinery went about this task, the School community gathered to watch---perhaps to the detriment of School work but certainly to the enjoyment of all concerned.(45) Samuel Phillips Hall began to take shape. The plans were the work of Guy Lowell; the basic decisions had been made by the Trustees and the Alumni Building Committee; the inspiration for its location was the work of George Case. When completed, it was indeed a "main" building, consisting of twenty-six recitation rooms, two large examination rooms, a room for faculty meetings, and numerous small rooms for offices. It was certainly an imposing structure, with two long wings in brick and a central portico with pillars. For the first time it was possible for each instructor at Phillips Academy to have his own classroom---and a handsome one at that. Nor did the location of the new building on the east side of Main Street mean the abandonment of the west side. As the School grew during the 1920's it soon became clear that all available space would be needed, and while the central part of the School moved to the east side, the dormitories and other buildings on the west side continued to be used to the full. In effect Phillips Academy had developed two campuses---one on the west side of Main Street, one on the east.

When plans for a new main building were first discussed, the structure was thought of as a memorial to the Andover men who had died in the first World War. The reason this proposal was never carried out was that Samuel Lester Fuller, had offered to give the School a bell tower in memory of the ninety Andover men who had been killed during the war.(46) "Something absolutely useless" was Fuller's characterization of his gift, but it proved far from that. Sited on high ground on what was known originally as the Training Field, across Main Street from Adams and Bishop Halls, this delicate brick "campanile" with a white cupola on top soon came to symbolize Phillips Academy for alumni and friends of the School. A motorist driving to Andover from Boston along Route 28 sees the tower framed by elm trees long before he reaches the School. Ground was broken for this beautiful structure in 1922, and it was finished the following year. The indefatigable Jack Fuess, walking by the tower the day before it was to be dedicated, was horrified to discover that the word 'descendant" in part of the inscription had been spelled 'descendent." He immediately called the architect, who called the stone cutter, who worked all night so the error could be corrected by the time of the dedication the following day.(47) Mr. Fuller had been stationed in Fiesole outside Florence during the war and had been greatly impressed by the beauty of the bells of Florence as they sounded across the Arno valley. He wanted to install a set of bells in his tower to provide a similar beauty for the Academy. This proved to be easier said than done, for no sooner had the word spread that Phillips was in the market for bells than the School was deluged with promotional material from all over the world. Dr. Carl Friedrich Pfatteicher, head of the Music Department, was asked to investigate and spent a summer listening to bells in the United States and Canada. He was doubtless not impressed with one bidder who managed to spell his name wrong in every communication sent. One of Dr. Pfatteicher's responsibilities was to determine whether the Fuller tower should have a carillon, consisting of at least twenty-three bells, or a chime, consisting of a smaller number. The final choice was made easier by the fact that the Church of Our Lady of Good Voyage in Gloucester, Massachusetts, had recently purchased a complete carillon from the Taylor Company in Loughborough, England. Dr. Pfatteicher, Al Stearns, Jim Sawyer, Samuel Fuller, and other concerned Andover individuals went over to hear the Gloucester bells, and all returned convinced that this was what Phillips Academy should have. The Gloucester people had managed to work out a deal with the United States government whereby they were exempt from the 40 percent duty on imported bells, but Phillips Academy had no such luck. Apparently because of a new tariff law, there was no way to win exemption, and thus the cost of the carillon was substantially higher than planned. The Taylor Company moved so slowly on the Andover order that the carillon was not installed when the tower was dedicated. There were further complications when the bells did arrive, for the machinery to be used came into conflict with that of a clock with Westminster chimes already installed in the tower. Eventually all these obstacles were overcome, and the Phillips Academy community was treated to regular carillon concerts.(48) The Memorial Tower with its handsome set of bells was a welcome addition to the plant. As the Bulletin editorialized, Memorial Tower had become "the soul of the school."(49)

The Memorial Tower, given by Samuel Lester Fuller of the Class of 1894
in memory of the ninety Andover men who died in the First World War.

Other important additions to the plant were made during the early 1920's. At their meeting in January 1922 the Trustees voted to construct a new dormitory, similar to Adams and Taylor halls. This decision had nothing to do with the Building Endowment Fund and was not designed to provide for an expansion of the School. The Trustees had learned that four boarding houses that had regularly served Phillips Academy undergraduates would be obliged to close, and some provision would have to be made to house the students served by these houses. Since there were no funds available for the construction of a new building, the Trustees planned to amortize the cost over a period of twenty years from the room rents that the dormitory would bring in. Like Adams and Taylor halls, the new facility would provide quarters for two faculty families and forty boys. The building was finally located on the West Quadrangle, at a right angle to Taylor Hall, and was named for Osgood Johnson, Principal of the School in the 1830's.(50)

Shortly after the Trustee decision to build Johnson Hall, Mr. and Mrs. George B. Case announced their intention to give a baseball cage in memory of their son, George B. Case, Jr., who had died the year before. The location of this building presented a difficult problem. At first it was thought that the cage should be attached to the Borden Gymnasium, but the architects pointed out that such a solution would be unattractive from an esthetic point of view and difficult because of grading problems. After prolonged discussion it was determined to place the cage across Highland Road from the Borden Gymnasium, even though this would mean encroaching on Brothers' Field and relocating the football field. The decision proved to be a wise one, and the opportunities that the cage afforded for athletic activities during the winter added a whole new dimension to the school's sports program.(51) In part as a result of the construction of the Case Memorial Building, the Trustees determined to improve the adjoining playing fields. The present football field, with stands capable of seating about 10,000 spectators, was developed in 1924. Great care was taken with grading and drainage so that the field could be used in any kind of weather. An extra dividend was the 20,000 cubic yards of earth produced during the excavation of the field and used as fill around the new main building and Johnson Hall.(52) The School had recently purchased Pearson Farm, including extensive acreage to the south of the new football field. Here was enough space for many new fields for club sports that could be developed at a later date. The recent increased interest in tennis led to plans for tennis courts to the north of the new football field, and some dreamers even began talking of a covered hockey rink. Certainly the cage and the accompanying development of new playing fields revolutionized the Andover athletic program.

Thomas Cochran of the Class of 1890, Trustee of Phillips Academy from 1923 to 1936.
Andover's most generous benefactor.

At this point the physical expansion of Phillips Academy becomes the work of one man---Thomas Cochran. To be sure there were others who aided and abetted him in his many projects, but the dramatic transformation of the Academy that occurred during 1925-33 would have been impossible without his generosity and drive. He hoped that what he did for Andover would serve as an example for other schools, and he would thereby help all independent secondary education. He was one of the great philanthropists of his generation. Although the precise amount of his total contributions to Phillips Academy varies slightly in different accounts, the figure was at least ten million dollars. When he was through, he had fashioned a plant that was breathtakingly beautiful, had established a number of foundations for the faculty, and had given many other useful things to the school he loved so much. Thomas Cochran was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, on 20 March 1871.(53) After attending public schools there, he came to Andover in 1888 as a member of the Class of 1890, which had among its members Al Stearns, Jim Sawyer, and George Case, all of whom would be working closely with Cochran on Phillips Academy projects in the years ahead. Cochran, Sawyer, and Case went down to New Haven together, with Cochran and Sawyer being college roommates, and graduated in 1894. Eighteen ninety-three was a year of panic, and Thomas Cochran's father apparently suffered severely from it. There was even some question whether the son could finish Yale. Tom was also concerned about whether his younger, brother could come to Andover, as the family had planned, and wrote Dr. Bancroft to arrange for his admission.(54) The family managed to weather the financial troubles of the time, however, and after graduation from Yale and a year of teaching, Thomas Cochran entered business. He was successively a commission merchant, a railroad official, a corporation treasurer, and finally a banker. Until 1900 he worked in St. Paul; at that point he came to New York, where he was to be located for the rest of his life. In 1907 he became Vice President of the Astor Trust Company, which later merged with the Bankers Trust Company. In 1914 he became President of the Liberty National Bank. Finally, in 1917, he was invited to become a partner of J. P. Morgan and Company, a position he was to hold for the remainder of his life. As a Morgan partner his drive and his skill in financial matters enabled him to amass a large fortune. But like many business men of his day, he was interested not in money per se but in accomplishing good works with it.

Cochran's interest in the Academy was long standing. Indeed, it is doubtful if there was ever a time in his life when he was not concerned about Andover. In 1916 he wrote Al Stearns:

I wish the time would come soon when I could do something more substantial for Phillips Academy. It is much in my heart and mind, and I dream about it. You and Jim are doing such fine work, that if some of us fellows could get rich, we ought to be able to give you a lift. You may rest assured that if I ever arrive, I will remember what I owe the old school.(55)

Again that same week Cochran wrote Al about organ repairs that the School needed:

when I do something for Phillips Academy I want to do more than that, and I don't want to curtail the possibility of giving more by giving a driblet .... I think of Andover a great deal, and I hope the time will come when I can think of it substantially and not take it out in hot air.(56)

Thomas Cochran had contributed one thousand dollars to the Seminary Purchase Fund that year, and it would not be long before he would be giving a lot more than a driblet. When the Building and Endowment Fund was launched in the fall of 1919, Cochran worked indefatigably for its success. And he must have arrived financially, for he contributed $100,000 to the drive over a three-year period.(57) The real start of the Cochran philanthropies to Phillips Academy dates, however, from his election to the Board of Trustees in April 1923. By that time his dreams for Andover had begun to crystallize, his financial position was growing steadily stronger, his wife had died in 1914, their one daughter had died, and the needs of his old school could fill a void in his life.

Various influences worked on Thomas Cochran in the development of a program to put his dreams into practice. First of all, he became excited about the traditions of the School. As Claude Fuess tells the story:

During our Building and Endowment campaign of 1919-1920 [Cochran] one day picked up my book, An Old New England School and seemed to be turning its pages rather lazily. A week later he drew me aside and said in his forceful way, 'Jack, why haven't we capitalized on our history? I never knew that George Washington and those old fellows like Paul Revere and Oliver Wendell Holmes had anything to do with this place. A school with a background like ours should tell the world about it.' An idea had germinated which was to fructify the remainder of his life. With the elation of an explorer he discovered that Andover had unique traditions ... and he resolved that he would tell others what he had learned.(58)

This enthusiasm explains why so many of the Academy's buildings are named for distinguished Americans connected with the School in its early years.(59) The second all-important influence in shaping the Cochran program was that of the New York architect Charles Platt. He had been recommended to Cochran by Miss Grace Clemons, Al Stearns's hostess, and from the very beginning the two hit it off famously. Platt was not only an architect but a landscape gardener, who approached his work from the point of view of an artist, and his visions for Phillips Academy caught Cochran's fancy. As Platt put it:

Why not surround the boys with the very best in architecture and nature and the arts? Why not a bird sanctuary, a really fine library, a topnotch art gallery, a good Colonial church with an organ? Why not a few broad vistas, some lawns and terraces, even some notable lectures and concerts---all the instruments of culture? I'd just like to try my hand at it.(60)

Cochran decided to let Platt try his hand at it, and before they were through all the items that had been suggested had been realized. Fortunately for the success of the program, neither Platt nor Cochran cared what it cost.

In everything he did, Thomas Cochran was a man of mercurial temperament, impatient of delay, subject to fits of temper. His favorite verb when aroused was "bastardize." When he got in a rage at someone for a sin of omission or commission---which he did fairly often---he would burst out with "I'll bastardize the son of a bitch." Yet these fits of temper passed quickly, and he would move forward to meet the problem.(61) For all his enthusiasm for Platt, Cochran used to get enraged at him because of delays in the construction of buildings. Like many architects, Platt's main interest was in the creative work of drawing the plans, and he sometimes dragged his feet when it came to working drawings and the like. In 1927 one of the project engineers, Robert McCord, wrote to James Sawyer:

Perfectly frankly we are having a hell of a time with Platt's office and if it were not for our relations with T.C. we would tell them to hire their own engineers and make their own design, which, of course, is their obligation .... The thing that hurts most and makes me so damn mad is fact that T.C. blames their delay on you and me and sets the real culprit up as a little tin god.(62)

When Sawyer relayed this to Cochran, together with a letter he had written to Platt, the latter exploded in a way that made it clear that he was not thinking of Platt as a little tin god:

I think you should press Mr. Platt hard, hard, hard, hard! I don't like his dilatory method in handling Andover affairs, and if he should continue this way we will have to get another architect in his place. It is not efficient and it is not fair . . . . We might as well begin pounding him on the Oliver Wendell Holmes Library now, or plans won't be done until 1930.

And at the bottom of the letter in manuscript, Cochran added the succinct "Kill him."(63) Yet all these problems were eventually resolved, and one after another, handsome buildings arose to increase the beauty of Andover Hill. When Henry Hopper, the Academy Comptroller, wrote in 1930 that the Library and Paul Revere Hall would have a cost overrun of about $50,000, Cochran pretended to blow another gasket:

I accept, without quibble, this new evidence of the gross incompetency with which these affairs have been handled at Andover. There is nothing to do about it except to be a philosopher and I will prepare for this extra $50,000 . . . . I would be insincere if I did not say to you that I think it is outrageous and you could not respect me if I thought otherwise. You fellows are gradually killing the goose that lays the golden egg and as soon as this party is over, I will be wise enough never to embark upon another of consequence.(64)

Yet Cochran and Hopper remained good friends, and later, Cochran invited the latter to take a trip to Europe with him.

The Cochran correspondence is full of sharp, salty passages. In 1929 he wrote his friend Jim Sawyer:

Just now I am on my way uptown to look at a new Winslow Homer that has come on the market, which they say is a pippin and costs $75,000. I am taking three or four extra pulls on my belt and am going to look for a drink of good Scotch whiskey, before I go into the art gallery, to see if I can get up my nerve to purchase it. . . .

I don't see how you are going to amount to much as the Treasurer of Phillips Academy any longer. You have got on your shoulders buildings, landscaping, pictures, books, ship models and silver, and God knows what else is coming. Why don't you commit suicide and end it all? I will go with you, hand in hand, and, perhaps, we can advertise Andover in a lasting and romantic way by both of us jump-off the Brooklyn Bridge together on the occasion of the '51st anniversary of the Academy.(65)

Cochran never wanted his generosity to Phillips Academy publicized. He tried to keep his gifts anonymous, and he refused to have any of the buildings he paid for named after him. His feelings on this general subject can be seen in his violent reaction when he learned that someone had sent the School a bust of him, done by Paul Manship. He wrote his friend Sawyer:

I am writing to tell you now that under no circumstances must this box be unpacked. If you can store it in your attic or in your cellar that is all right, but if that bust is unpacked and shown to anybody while I am alive it means that I will never set foot in Andover again. You yourself can determine which alternative is preferable to you, but it is final as far as I am concerned.(66)

This did not mean that Cochran was a modest man; he was not. It meant that he wanted to run the show his way, and he wanted to see his program for the School realized without reference to his part in it.

Thomas Cochran had very positive ideas about the financial policy of Phillips Academy. When he discovered that the school had paid for a special cab to take him from Andover to Groton and then to Boston, he wrote his friend Jim Sawyer, "Don't ever try to put anything like this on me, old fellow. As much as I love you and the Academy I can never allow my expenses to be paid by the Academy."(67) When the School ran a small deficit for the 1927-28 fiscal year, he threatened to cut off all connections with the Academy:

I am so shocked that it is hard for me to say anything, but I have written a letter to Mr. Hopper ... in which I tried to express my disappointment and at the same time present the problem that comes up with me as to what I can conscientiously do to maintain my connection with Academy under the circumstances. From my point of view it is very very serious.(68)

On the other hand, when Sawyer wrote to say that he thought some planting, originally budgeted for $21,000 could be done for $15,000, Cochran fired back, "I want the whole thing done, and I do not wish any curtailments."(69) Earlier he had said that he wanted Andover to have "the most lovely school buildings in America surrounded by the most lovely grounds."(70) At times his behavior could be quixotic, as when he charged the School brokerage fees and commissions for some stock turned over to him by Oliver G. Jennings, a generous benefactor of the School.(71) The presumption is that he did it out of pique; he did not wish to share with anyone the responsibility of providing for the School's financial needs. When he was starting to build the collection that would eventually be housed in the Addison Gallery of American Art, he wrote Henry Hopper: "I wish you to keep an account of all expenses involved with respect to these pictures, such as insurance, handling and any other items .... I desire to bear this expense.(72) In 1927 he wrote his friend Jim Sawyer:

We have a big plan ahead of us and it is going to take five years to complete our ideal of Phillips Academy. You must do lots of it. As a matter of fact you are one of my great inspirations and I feel handicapped when I have a sub-conscious feeling that you are not always free on account of the petty duties of your office.(73)

Having got this off his chest, he wrote Sawyer four days later that he was taking a dose of his own medicine and resigning from "about 15 Boards of Directors. I can't advise you not to clutter yourself up and then not take the same advice and I have done so."(74) In addition to making many large gifts himself, Cochran prevailed on his friends to contribute also. In those days there was a tacit understanding among philanthropists that each would contribute to the projects of other members of the group. As a result, the Louis J. Horowitz Foundation, whose founder was a close friend of Cochran's, contributed $200,000; Dwight Morrow, another Morgan partner, contributed $15,000; Frank Stearns, the mentor of Calvin Coolidge, gave $50,000 for the Inn; and Alfred I. DuPont contributed $125,000 for Morse Hall .(75) The total was small when compared with what Cochran himself was doing, but they all helped. These vignettes reveal Cochran in action as a man often governed by his emotions and whims, but who never allowed fleeting fits of temper to deflect him from the great purpose he envisioned.

The first building to bear the Cochran hallmark was George Washington Hall, still in use as the main administration building. In 1925 Thomas Cochran announced that he would give $500,000 for this building, but before he was through it was over $600,000.(76) This was also the first building to be designed by Charles Platt. Cochran himself named the new structure in accordance with his deeply felt interest in the past history of the School. To give further emphasis to the name he purchased a Gilbert Stuart portrait of Washington, which hangs, with an appropriate inscription, in the main lobby. The building included a handsome auditorium, marred by the fact that the rows of seats are so close together that it is difficult to find leg room. Cochran also purchased the Martha Cochran Organ for the auditorium at a cost of $50,000.(77) The first two floors of the building housed various administrative offices, and the third floor contained at one end a gracious room for faculty meetings, and at the other, a magnificent trustee room. The completion of this last room was delayed, in part because Charles Platt was slow with the furniture, much to Cochran's rage ;(78) but in the fall of 1927 the first trustee meeting was held in these beautiful new quarters.(79) A new science building, named, according to the Cochran formula, Samuel F. B. Morse Hall, was undertaken by the Trustees, who sought to raise $250,000 by themselves to pay for it.(80) Before it was completed, however, Cochran had contributed substantially and had purchased a chair belonging to Morse to ornament the new structure. Morse Hall was designed by Guy Lowell, who had until that time been the official School architect, but although Cochran had not liked some of his past work, he was reassured about this building when Charles Platt gave the plans his approval. The Trustees considered the original exterior of Morse Hall too ornate and asked Lowell to redraw them,(81) but aside from that all went smoothly. Taken together, George Washington Hall and Morse Hall fulfilled part of Cochran's dream, for they completed the so-called "Great Quadrangle," consisting also of Samuel Phillips Hall on the east, Bartlet and Foxcroft dormitories on the west, and Pearson Hall on the south. This cluster of buildings could serve as a focal point, to which structures yet to come could be related.(82)

Before he proceeded further, Thomas Cochran, wanting to plan his program as a whole, had a scale model of the School constructed, with every tree and building in place. With that as a guide, he felt more confident about proceeding.(83) In 1927 he took the next step when, in the names of his brothers, Williams Cochran and Moncrieff Cochran, and his sister, Louise Cochran Savage, he offered $500,000 for a new library. To be sure the School had a library in Brechin Hall, but the building was ancient and Gothic, and furthermore its location in the co-called "Great Lawn" would destroy the balance that Cochran was trying to establish with his new buildings. The library gift had a condition to it; the money would be turned over when ten teaching foundations of $160,000 each had been presented to the School. To start the ball rolling, Cochran himself gave the first foundation, which he named after the President of the Board of Trustees, Alfred Ripley. This condition of the library gift was never completely met. Cochran himself gave another foundation the following year, but the total never reached more than seven.(84) Nevertheless, construction of the library proceeded apace, and the building was opened in 1929 after the books and archival materials from Brechin Hall had been moved over to it.(85) The final step was the razing of Brechin Hall, part of which was accomplished by the undergraduates with block and tackle .(86) The new library was a handsome structure with a large reference room on the left, a reading and "browsing" room on the right, later named for Archibald Freeman, the distinguished instructor in American history. The stacks were open to the undergraduates, and soon a splendid collection of books (now over the hundred-thousand mark) was installed. If the library is the heart of an educational institution, Phillips Academy was well provided for.

Bancroft Hall in the process of being moved,
as part of Thomas Cochran's plan to develop a "Vista" from Samuel Phillips Hall to the westward.

One of Thomas Cochran's major aims was to create a "vista" that would go from Samuel Phillips Hall west to the distant hills. According to the story, he and Charles Platt were standing on the steps of Samuel Phillips one morning, looking westward. They were both distressed by the way Tucker House---described as "New Jersey Renaissance"---blocked the view. "That monstrosity is in the way," said Platt, whereupon Cochran said that he would move it, and in a few weeks it was put on rollers and moved to a site behind Taylor Hall.(87) The only problem now was that Bancroft Hall was blocking the view. It was one thing to move Tucker House, another to move a large dormitory and, furthermore, turn it around. Nonetheless this, too, was accomplished. People who remember this move tell of a large number of Italian workmen, each with a jack. When the foreman blew his whistle, each jack was given a quarter of a turn. Eventually Bancroft Hall was settled in its present site on the north side of the West Quadrangle. Yet that was not all. Pemberton Cottage was now in the way, so it, too, was picked up and deposited on its present site next to the infirmary. Lastly, some unsightly chicken coops were revealed, marring the view, and these were removed. When all of this had been completed, someone standing on the steps of Samuel Phillips Hall could enjoy a magnificent view across lowlands all the way to Mt. Wachusett and other hills. Once he had learned the effectiveness of moving buildings, Cochran did not stop there. The best location for the new chapel was at the site of the Principal's house, which would enable it to balance the Memorial Tower to the south. Over Al Stearns's strenuous objections, Samaritan House was picked up and relocated on School Street. When it was decided to build a new inn on the location of Stowe House, it, too, was moved, to a new site on Bartlet Street. With all this relocation it was not surprising that older alumni, visiting the school, found it difficult to get their bearings.

When Charles Platt first talked with Thomas Cochran about making Andover a beautiful place, he had spoken of the need for "a top-notch art gallery" as an important item in his program. Apparently Cochran was greatly taken with this suggestion, and long before the construction of the gallery itself he appointed a committee to collect paintings and other works of art for the School. Early in 1930, with a major part of his program completed, he was in a position to house that collection, and on 10 January of that year he wrote a letter to the Trustees offering the sum of over $1,480,000 to build a gallery, endow it, and provide a fund for the purchase of works of art. His purpose was stated in the first paragraph of the letter:

Bent on a desire to enrich permanently the lives of the students of Phillips Academy, by helping to cultivate and foster in them a love for the beautiful, I should be glad to establish at the Academy an endowed Gallery of American Art.

That this project was especially dear to him is evidenced by the fact that, unlike many of his earlier projects, the gift was accompanied by many conditions. The building was to be called the Addison Gallery of American Art, in memory of Cochran's dear friend Keturah Addison Cobb; the location was to be east of the Elm Arch and south of Chapel Avenue so as to balance the new library. The main collection was to be limited to works of art by American artists, though temporary exhibits of the works of foreigners could be shown. No work of art could be added to the permanent collection of the gallery unless approved by an Addison Gallery Committee, to consist of Cochran himself, Charles Platt, Miss Lily Bliss, Mrs. Cornelius Bliss, and Mr. Robert McIntyre, all of New York. Cochran admitted that in certain areas the Trustees must have power, but he hoped that the Addison Gallery Committee could become a permanent part of the governance of the institution. Should the Trustees, at some later date, believe it necessary to modify any of the conditions stated in the letter of gift, they could do so by first passing such modification by a three-fourths vote and then getting the approval of the Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court and of the presidents of Harvard and Yale. Finally, Cochran reserved the right, during his lifetime, to amend the terms of the letter of gift if experience should show that such changes were advisable. Four hundred thousand dollars of his gift was for the construction of the building itself, according to plans already drawn up by Charles Platt Six hundred and fifty thousand was to be used for an Addison Gallery Endowment Fund to bear all the expenses of the Gallery in the future. Fifty thousand was to establish a Purchase Fund, the income from which could be used to add to the permanent collection. Finally, over $380,000 of the gift represented works of art that Cochran had already purchased to form the basis of the original collection. These items,---there are thirty-one listed in the letter of gift---included the works of such distinguished American artists as Gilbert Stuart, Rembrandt Peale, Winslow Homer, Abbott H. Thayer, Thomas Eakins, Paul Manship, Arthur B. Davies, and Mary Cassatt. It was a splendid start toward the establishment of a distinguished collection.(88)

Most of the Cochran buildings at Andover were planned and constructed with a minimum amount of difference of opinion among the Trustees. To be sure, there had been some arguments about the exterior of Morse Hall and disagreement about a proposal to build an el-shaped edifice. But these differences were resolved with relatively little difficulty. A sharper disagreement arose over the Addison Gallery. Platt and Cochran wanted it to be a "jewel of American art."(89) They realized the necessity of making provision for the teaching of art at the School, but they did not believe that such a program could be combined with the gallery. Trustee James Hardy Ropes thought differently. He believed that the teaching of art was a vital part of any overall program and was convinced that unless provision were made in the new building for studios where the boys could work at painting, drawing, sculpture, and the like, the usefulness of the building would be greatly reduced. For Ropes the art program should involve the boys in active participation as creators rather than as mere passive observers. To get support for his position, Ropes enlisted the advice of Professor Paul Sachs of the Harvard Art Department. Sachs agreed with Ropes that studios should be provided in the new building.(90) All of this was frustrating to Cochran, who, characteristically, was in a tearing hurry to get the building started. He sent a memorandum to Jim Sawyer pointing out that if an addition to the proposed building were included, the site would have to be changed, the expense would be substantially increased, and the beauty of the Gallery would be fatally compromised. As far as studios were concerned, Cochran quoted Platt as saying than an artist needed a workroom where "he can sing and talk, throw his overalls around the floor, and so forth."(91) Such a work area was a far cry from the dignity and beauty of the Gallery. Eventually, as might have been expected, Cochran won. In part this may have been because of a hint he let drop that if the building were delayed, his promised contribution might not be realized. As a sop to Ropes, he promised to build a work area for artists at some later date.(92) As finally completed, the building was indeed what Cochran called "the real jewel of our crown." As one entered the foyer, it was to see Paul Manship's beautiful fountain entitled "Venus Anadyomene." In a room to the right were exhibited some handsome examples of early American silver. In a gallery at the back of the building was a striking exhibition of ship models, all built to the same scale. The advice of Professor Samuel Eliot Morison of Harvard had been obtained in selecting the models, and the collection was the particular concern of Treasurer Sawyer.(93) Upstairs was housed the permanent collection of paintings, and there was ample room in the building for the mounting of loan exhibitions. All in all it was a triumph---perhaps Cochran's greatest on Andover Hill.

When Thomas Cochran and Charles Platt were talking about their plans for Phillips Academy, the latter had also mentioned a bird sanctuary as one of his dreams. Other projects had priority, but by the end of the decade Cochran was ready to go ahead with the sanctuary. Originally it was to be limited to the Rabbit Pond area. According to the story, Cochran and a group of friends, including John Stewart, the witty manager of the Andover Inn, were sitting outside the Inn one evening when the subject of a bird sanctuary came up. Acting with his usual impetuosity, Cochran told Stewart to construct whatever was necessary to create a sanctuary at Rabbit Pond. Stewart got in touch with Dick Hoyer, a man of great ingenuity and a thorough knowledge of birds, and before long plans were ready for a duck house on the pond. Stewart then took off for Connecticut, where he purchased a large number of ducks and geese at Cochran's expense. The high point of this trip came when, on the way back, some of the cages broke and Stewart's car, by the time he arrived in Andover, was thoroughly covered with bird droppings. All those concerned with the project were delighted at this turn of events.(94) Dick Hoyer, who took over the management of the sanctuary, tells of building a fence all around Rabbit Pond and of constructing two islands in the middle, from rubble made available when Bancroft Hall was moved. These islands were put in so that the birds could nest. The original duck house was enlarged to take care of the birds in the winter, and steady additions were made to the supply of ducks, geese, and quail that were to inhabit the sanctuary.

One might think that this would have satisfied Cochran's interest in the subject, but that was by no means the case. He came to the conclusion that the Rabbit Pond sanctuary was too circumscribed for his purposes and determined to develop a much larger area that would provide space for the birds and also a wild woodland tract where the undergraduates could enjoy the beauties of natural surroundings. He proceeded, therefore, to purchase over one hundred and fifty acres of wild land to the east of Samuel Phillips Hall. When news got around that Cochran was buying, the prices of the various pieces of land went up sharply, but he went ahead and eventually acquired all that was needed. Running through the center of the tract was a brook that was dammed up to provide two artificial ponds where the birds from Rabbit Pond could be settled. In order to protect the birds from animal marauders a seven-foot-high fence was constructed around the whole property---over eleven thousand feet in all. To make the sanctuary doubly secure, the fence went into the ground for a foot and then horizontally underground for a foot, thus stymieing any animals that might try to dig under it. Finally, the lower part of the fence was sheathed in metal flashing. The fence cost $39,000 and accomplished its purpose so successfully that no animal has ever been able to circumvent it. The tract was well wooded from the start with oak, pine, larch, hemlock, birch, cedar, ash, and maple trees. To enhance the beauty of the natural surroundings, laurel, azalea, and blueberry shrubs were added, as well as large clumps of rhododendrons. Three miles of gravel road were constructed for walks in the sanctuary, but no automobiles were allowed.(95) To provide a center for the undergraduates, particularly on weekends, a log cabin was built on high ground in one part of the area, the rough-hewn logs being brought from Nashua, New Hampshire. This simple building consisted of one large room with a fireplace and facilities for serving simple meals. At the start a caterer was in attendance on weekends to serve the boys sandwiches, hamburgers, soft drinks, and the like. Outside the log cabin were two handsomely kept putting greens, where would-be golfers could practice. The development was of breath-taking beauty and added a new dimension to the School.

There was a problem at first as to what to call the property. One Trustee insisted that "preserve" was the proper term, but Cochran liked "sanctuary" and "sanctuary" it became, being named for his brother Moncrieff. As manager of the Sanctuary, Cochran chose his friend Augustus P. Thompson, a resident of Andover and a graduate of the Academy in the Class of 1892. Dick Hoyer became Superintendent. Hoyer remembers that for the first two years the main concern of the staff was stocking the Sanctuary with birds. Quail pens were built, a large number of beautiful pheasants were acquired, fifteen hundred duck eggs were purchased in the Midwest, and a lot of time was spent arranging for the breeding of the birds. In 1929 Edwin A. Potter, Jr., sent one hundred and two more pheasants,(96) and before long anyone strolling through the Sanctuary was sure to see one or more bright-plumed birds in the underbrush. Cochran's interest in this project remained strong. Hoyer remembers Tom paying early morning visits to talk with him while he smoked large numbers of Camel cigarettes. Cochran was a democratic man and insisted that Hoyer call him "Tom." Despite all the effort and money expended on the Sanctuary, it never completely fulfilled Cochran's dreams for it. As time went on, it was found that only a few boys came out to the Log Cabin, and it became necessary to discontinue serving food there. After that the Cabin was used on special occasions for Faculty parties, student meetings, and the like. After Cochran's death it was decided that the care of the birds was too expensive, and at the end of 1937 most of this part of the program was abandoned, some of the birds being turned loose, others sold.(97) The emphasis shifted to shrubs and trees, and the Sanctuary became an arboretum rather than a bird refuge. Later Wardens have concerned themselves with planting, pruning of trees, clearing out underbrush, and the like. The present Sanctuary is a joy to nature-lovers. Thanks to Cochran's vision, this beautiful addition to the Phillips Academy plant is unique among schools.

With the coming of the automobile and the truck, the Trustees of Phillips Academy were faced with an increasingly difficult problem of what to do about the traffic on Main Street. The problem was increased when the decision was made to locate a lot of important School buildings on the east side of the Campus while a substantial number of dormitories remained on the west side. This meant that a large number of undergraduates had to cross Main Street several times a day. Amazingly, there had been no serious accident, but the apprehension remained. In addition the automobile traffic was noisy and dirty and destroyed the serenity of the Hill. As with everything else he did, Thomas Cochran believed in action, and he determined on a bold scheme to try to ameliorate this situation. Working with Comptroller Henry S. Hopper, he hired engineers to make a survey of a possible route that would by-pass the School to the east and join Route 114 east of the town. State approval would be necessary, and for this purpose the help of Trustee Philip L. Reed, a friend of Governor Frank G. Allen, was enlisted. On a cold January day in 1930 the Governor, the State Commissioner of Public Works, and various Phillips Academy representatives had lunch together in Boston and then drove out to Andover to inspect the proposed route. After extensive negotiations, it was finally agreed that the State would build the road if the Andover Trustees would purchase land and convey a hundred-foot right of way, approximately five miles in length, and pay the cost of construction of one mile of the road. The chances are that the State got the best of the bargain. Certainly, the project proved expensive. But Cochran never flinched. He ordered Henry Hopper to acquire the necessary land, which eventually meant fifty-six separate deeds and over four hundred acres, and the deal was on. But not without opposition. Farmers along the old route who had roadside stands protested vigorously that an important means of livelihood would be destroyed. Some merchants in the Town of Andover felt similarly. But the project went ahead nonetheless, and by the late fall of 1930 it was finished. Just how successful the "By-Pass" or "Cut-Off" has been is difficult to say. A study made shortly after the new road had been completed indicated that 45 percent of the traffic was being diverted to the new road. In recent times, with the tremendous increase in automotive traffic, Main Street is a busy highway. But one can take comfort from the fact that the existing situation would be infinitely worse had not Thomas Cochran built his By-Pass (98)

All these projects were only a part of Thomas Cochran's program for Phillips Academy. In 1929 a handsome new dormitory, Paul Revere Hall, was completed, providing rooms for fifty-two boys and two bachelor masters. At the start Cochran conceived a novel plan for this building. He wished the income from the room rents to be used for another teaching foundation. Thus he could have both his building and his foundation from the same gift.(99) But various considerations convinced him later that the scheme was not feasible, and it was dropped. Paul Revere Hall was the final realization of Cecil Bancroft's dream of housing all the boys in School dormitories. Until its construction there had still been a few living in boarding houses. To complete what was at first called the "Little Quadrangle" and later Flagstaff Court, a splendid new dining hall was built on the south side and opened in 1930. Cochran estimated the cost of construction at $600,000 and offered to contribute $300,000 if the Trustees would raise another $300,000.(100) When completed, the building consisted of four large dining rooms, one for each class, handsomely paneled in wood, together with a faculty dining room and some smaller ones for group meals. At the time that the new dining hall, called The Commons, was opened, the School was still following the policy of having scholarship boys wait on table in return for their board, and the building was constructed with this procedure in mind. During World War II, when it was necessary to adopt a cafeteria program, lack of space in the serving areas presented problems, but recent remodeling has alleviated the difficulties to a large degree. The old Phillips Inn with its annex did not fit into the new scheme of things. Accordingly, it was moved to Bartlet Street and rechristened Stowe House, while the annex was torn down. In their place was constructed a gracious brick inn with a lovely garden behind it. To help pay for the Inn, Cochran induced some of his wealthy friends to contribute---a number of whom had no connection with Phillips Academy.

Like all small hotels, the Inn has had its financial problems, but it has survived to provide bed and board for Andover visitors and to serve as an additional ornament to the School.

Thomas Cochran's largesse to the Academy included other mundane things. When it became clear that the School needed a new heating plant, he provided the funds, using some of the income from the room rents in Paul Revere Hall that he had originally planned to devote to a teaching foundation. When Charles Platt told him that Bartlet and Foxcroft halls would fit better into the overall scheme of the Great Quadrangle if they were three stories rather than four, he again stepped forward and made possible the proposed change.(101) Having spent a sizable amount of money having the grounds landscaped and planted with shrubs and trees, he was concerned that their beauty be maintained; accordingly he gave one million dollars to establish the Emily Cochran Fund, the income from which had to be used on the care of the grounds.(102) Nor was his interest limited to building and grounds. Mention has already been made of his substantial contributions to the teaching foundations. He also contributed $10,000 to establish an annual concert named for his friend Jim Sawyer, in spite of the fact that Jim did not like music! When someone suggested that Al Stearns ought to have a similar honor, he gave another $10,000 to establish the Stearns Lecture---because, as he said, "Al doesn't like lectures."(103) Whimsical actions were characteristic of the man who at times had little patience with conventional modes of procedure. In 1928 he presented to the School an extraordinarily beautiful armillary sphere created by Paul Manship. Originally sited in front of Samuel Phillips Hall between Bartlet and Foxcroft Halls, it was later moved to a position in front of the Oliver Wendell Holmes Library.(104) Not everyone approved of the Armillary Sphere. One day a member of the Faculty noticed a workman polishing the Sphere, and asked him, "What are you doing? Taking some of the curse off the damn thing?" The workman, it turned out, was none other than Paul Manship himself.

Projects on the campus of Phillips Academy constructed in whole or in part from funds contributed by Thomas Cochran.

A The Cochran Chapel
B The Andover Inn
C The Moncrieff Cochran Bird Sanctuary
D George Washington Hall
E Samuel Phillips Hall
F Morse Hall
G Paul Revere Hall
H The Commons
I The Oliver Wendell Holmes Library j
J The Addison Gallery of American Art

His final gift---and a magnificent one---was the Cochran Chapel.(105) Given in the fall of 1930 and completed the following year, it was the only building in Andover to bear his name, and it completed his overall plan for the east campus. With its lofty spire it balanced the Memorial Tower to the south. Together with the Oliver Wendell Holmes Library and the Addison Gallery of American Art, the area west of the Great Quadrangle now presented a perfectly proportioned series of buildings. Al Stearns was not happy about the new chapel at first. Samaritan House, where he had lived for many years, had to be moved across the street, and to Al that was a kind of sacrilege. Furthermore, he had a sentimental fondness for the old stone chapel that dated from Seminary days. Yet he was finally won over. As he wrote Cochran:

After viewing for myself the model of the Chapel in Mr. Platt's office ... I have more and more lost those qualms and natural, though somewhat nebulous, feelings of regret at the thought of losing the old building with which all my undergraduate days at Andover and all the years of my later work in the school have been so closely and deeply associated. The new Chapel will soon fill its dignified and influential place in our life and . . . I shall welcome it with real gratitude.(106)

When the Chapel was dedicated in the spring of 1932, Stearns, who had been on leave of absence because of a serious illness, was able to return to take part in the ceremony. At about the time of the dedication, someone suggested that it would be appropriate to have memorial stained-glass windows in the new edifice, to replace some of the clear glass windows that Platt had installed. News of this suggestion sent both Cochran and Platt into a rage, and the former wrote the Trustees a sharp letter, enclosing one from Platt as well, insisting that such desecration must never be allowed.(107) The Martha Cochran Organ, previously in George Washington Hall, was moved to the new building, and Cochran's program for Andover was complete.

Not a moment too soon. Had the program been started two years later, it might never have been completed, for Thomas Cochran, like most Americans, was hard hit by the Depression. In 1932 he wrote the Trustees requesting them to modify the terms of his gift of $650,000 to the Addison Gallery Endowment Fund. Were he obliged to raise the sum at that time, he wrote, it would entail a very heavy sacrifice, and he asked that he be allowed to spread the payments over a term of years. If the sum had not been paid by the time of his death, he pledged one fifth of his estate for that purpose. Naturally the Trustees were more than willing to grant the request.(108) This was the last important piece of business that Cochran did with the Trustees. After the dedication of the Cochran Chapel, he never returned to Andover again. Throughout his life he had been subject to fits of depression, and in 1932 he suffered a severe breakdown which resulted in his becoming an invalid for the rest of his life, isolated from all his former associates. It is sad to record that in 1936, just before he died, he sent a check for five dollars to the Phillips Academy Alumni Fund, explaining wistfully that it was all he could afford. His estate, however, proved to be over three million dollars, a substantial fraction of which went, according to his promise, to the Addison Gallery Endowment Fund.(109)

Expansion of the Phillips Academy plant under Al Stearns was an extraordinary achievement. A good start had been made before the Cochran era, with the acquisition of the Seminary property and the construction of the new dormitories and of Samuel Phillips Hall. Yet it was the vision of Thomas Cochran and Charles Platt that transformed the Andover campus into one of the most beautiful educational areas in the United States. Cochran never stated his broad aims better than in a letter to Nathaniel Stevens, a generous benefactor of the School, written in December 1927:

We are all trying to do a real job on Andover Hill and one that will affect the whole question of secondary education in America. It always has seemed a strange thing to me that the rich men of our country have lavished literally hundreds of millions of dollars upon the universities of the land and have almost entirely neglected the preparatory schools such as Phillips Academy. It has seemed particularly strange because every thoughtful man admits that character transcends intellect in importance, and between the ages of twelve and eighteen, when a boy is at preparatory school, his character is in a more formative state than when he takes up his university life later on. 'As the twig is bent so grows the tree,' and thus I believe that our rich men should pay more attention to the schools of the land than to the universities where the development of the intellect is the principal function. This is the great reason why I am interested in Phillips Academy. I believe if we can equip the Academy with adequate buildings and with a well paid contented inspiring faculty that we will place a beacon on Andover Hill, the gleams from which will spread to every state in the Union and will affect secondary education tremendously. At least this is our ambition and this is what we are working for.(110)

People may differ as to how much influence Thomas Cochran's beacon had on American secondary education generally, but there can be no question of that beacon's effect on Phillips Academy. As James Sawyer wrote him:

I am sure that you are building much greater than you have any idea of. It is the result of a great vision and a generous heart, and it should be a great source of satisfaction and happiness to you as the years go on to feel that you have afforded so much inspiration and joy to these boys and their successors.(111)


Chapter Fourteen

Table of Contents