A Newsletter from the Abbot@Andover Committee
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"...celebrating and facilitating interaction among alumnae and perpetuating Abbot's spirit within the Andover Community"
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A Note from the Co-Chair: Lee Sullivan '68
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The Pan Center was dedicated on November 11, 2022 with great fanfare. Students are already flocking in to enjoy and marvel at the meticulously planned athletic facilities.
A beautiful program was produced by Andover Communications in honor of the grand opening.
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A Fitting Abbot Legacy at the Pan Center
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Cristina Rubio ’81 (Senora Rubio’s daughter) and
her two daughters, Sofia Suarez ’12 and Natalia
Suarez ’17
(Photos by Kristie Gillooly Dean, Chris Conti, and Neil Evans)
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| A hallmark of the Abbot Academy experience remains beautifully vibrant at Andover, as dance takes center stage in the Pan Athletic Center thanks to a generous grant from the Abbot Academy Fund.
The gift for the facility’s dance suite is the largest ever given by the fund, which sponsors projects consistent with Abbot principles and the current interests of Phillips Academy students and faculty.
To read more please click here to see an excerpt from the Andover Communications dedication program.
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Treasures From the Abbot Archives: The First Abbot Bazaar
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| The completion of Smith Hall in 1854 made it possible for Abbot to offer on-campus boarding facilities for the first time. Smith Hall was basically a large wooden box divided into about thirty small rooms, a dining room, kitchen, and a music room.
Unfortunately, there was no money left to decorate and furnish the interior of Smith Hall as the full budget had been used in its construction.
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Caroline True Jackson and Harriet Beecher Stowe stepped in to help. Mrs. Stowe knew how to raise money for the furnishings: "We must have a festival," she reportedly told Mrs. Jackson.
About 35 ladies, including representatives from each of Andover's Protestant churches and other key townswomen, met in Academy Hall to hear Mrs. Stowe’s speech to sell her idea of a festival to raise money for Smith Hall’s furnishings. The vote was 34 to 1 in favor of Abbot's first Bazaar.
On the evening of September 29, 1854, throngs of the curious, the generous, and the eager-to-be-seen paid fifty cents admission to the first bazaar.
Academy Hall was transformed by flowers indoors and Japanese lanterns outside, the latter were hung by Phillips Academy boys. Richly appointed tea and coffee tables offered free drinks; Mrs. Stowe poured beverages (wearing a gold bracelet in the form of a slave's shackle). Oysters, ice cream, and endless baked goods were presented for sale.
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| Two thousand dollars was raised in all, enough to buy furniture for every room and equipment for the kitchen and dining room, everything "plain and cheap." Local merchants sold these goods to Abbot at generous discounts, along with materials for curtains and slipcovers, which the ladies sewed themselves in the weeks following the festival.
Who would have dreamed that Harriet Beecher Stowe was the “mother” of the Abbot Bazaar?
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Lessons and Carols: A@A Committee Sponsored Reception
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Lessons and Carols is an annual candlelit service of music, scripture, and poetry in the season of Advent anticipating Christmas held in Andover’s Cochran Chapel. This year the event was held on December 11th and the Abbot@Andover Committee was pleased to sponsor a pre-concert reception for alumnae in Graham House which was set up for us by the Office of Alumni Engagement.
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The Abbot Academy Telescope, Part One
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Prior to 1875, Abbot Academy had classes on Astronomy but no observatory or telescope to actually learn the science beyond text books. Mary Belcher, Abbot’s Latin and Astronomy teacher, asked her students if they would be interested in fundraising so that pupils coming after them might have these practical advantages. They agreed and so began the fundraising effort for a telescope which eventually involved many people in addition to students.
Philena McKeen (principal, 1859-1892) and Miss Belcher did their homework on what telescope to buy. They received advice from knowledgeable experts including the eminent astronomer, Maria Mitchell. Mitchell discovered a telescopic comet in 1847 and became America’s first professional female astronomer.
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McKeen was encouraged to purchase the telescope from the highly respected firm of Alvan Clark & Sons located in Cambridgeport, MA. The telescope that was finally chosen was a 5" refractor which cost $1,200 (a significant sum at the time).
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The telescope was a twin to the original eight "USNO, Transit of Venus telescopes" made by Clark. The eight telescopes were made for the United States Transit of Venus Commission, in preparation for the 1874 Transit of Venus astronomical event. It is theorized that Abbot’s telescope was made as a backup in case something went wrong; nothing did and the telescope became available for purchase. Unlike the eight expedition telescopes, the Abbot instrument did not have a serial number but was engraved "Alvan Clark & Sons, 1875, Cambridgeport, Mass." Inside the iron pillar was hand-painted, "Abbot Female Academy."
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The new telescope was installed in Abbot Hall’s observatory in 1875. The instrument was mounted on a brick pier, which rested on the foundation of the building. As a way of introducing the telescope to students and townspeople, noted early American pioneer of solar physics, Charles A. Young, gave a series of twelve lectures which attracted much acclaim and interest in the telescope.
If you would like to know where Abbot’s telescope is located now, please read Part Two of this story in the next A@A newsletter.
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The Last Abbot Staff Employee: Liz George
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The last employee to have worked at both Abbot Academy and Andover, Liz George, Staff Assistant to the Abbot Academy Fund (AAF), retired in October 2020 after 48 years of service to the school.
Since joining Abbot Academy in 1972 and moving up the hill during the Andover-Abbot merger of 1973, George worked in the College Counseling Office (CCO) and assisted in a number of offices on campus, including the Offices of the Head of School, Dean of Students, and Community and Multicultural Development (CAMD). Prior to her retirement, George had served in her role with AAF for 12 years.
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George was first introduced to Abbot Academy by former co-director of Abbot college counseling Marion Finbury. Finbury, who happened to be one of George’s neighbors and family friends, asked if George would be interested in applying for a job as her secretary. George says hearing the word “Andover’” will always remind her of Finbury, who passed away seven years ago.
When Abbot and Andover merged at the end of her first school year at Abbot, George recalled the general apprehension about the merger. Arriving on the Andover campus, George recollected how she and her colleagues challenged campus convention by wearing pants to work. She was one of the few Abbot staff members who continued to work at Andover.
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“Most people were very welcoming, but there were some who were not happy to have us there. I would say that I found the environment to be a little more formal than at Abbot. I remember the first winter at Andover; on a snowy day I came to the office wearing a pantsuit. I was told by a staff member in another office that ‘we don’t wear pants here. We women wear skirts no matter what the weather is.’ I laugh now, remembering that it wasn’t more than a couple of weeks later that a number of women staff members were coming to work wearing pants. I think it didn’t take too long for most of us to feel at home at Andover,” said George.
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Many of George’s favorite memories at Andover took place in the CCO, which was located in the basement of George Washington Hall. When she began working at Andover, the CCO was led by Finbury and co-director Robin Crawford, a part-time counselor. The office worked with 400 students in the first year of the merger, with Finbury managing an enormous group of 200 students that year.
George was universally loved by both students and her colleagues. As a parting gift after George left CCO, she was presented with a rocking chair inscribed with a student quote, “Mrs. George – she rocks!”.
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Thank you, Mrs. George. for keeping the Abbot spirit alive and well on campus for 48 years.
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Abbot Edibles - Apple Cream Consommé
Carol Hardin Kimball, AA '53
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Carol Hardin Kimball graduated from Abbot Academy in 1953 and in 1957 was a Cum Laude graduate of Smith College. Carol was passionate in her commitment to the arts and the environment. A gifted fundraiser, she held positions at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Columbia University, the Metropolitan Opera, the Environmental Defense Fund and at the Connecticut Chapter of the Nature Conservancy.
In the mid-seventies, Carol was instrumental in facilitating the merger between Abbot and Andover Academy. In 1974, she became the first woman appointed to the position of Charter Trustee of Andover. Carol served in this capacity until 1991 when she became a Trustee Emerita.
Please enjoy Carol’s Apple Cream Consommé recipe here.
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Abbot Alumnae with graduation years ending in 3s and 8s, we look forward to celebrating with you at Reunion Weekend 2023. Please save the date of Friday, June 9 for Abbot@Andover Day with Reunion continuing through Sunday, June 11, 2023. We hope you will be a part of this process and volunteer to serve on your class’s Reunion Planning Committee.
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Lee Sullivan ’68, co-chair
Lori Goodman Seegers ’73, P’05, co-chair
Committee Members
Anstiss Bowser Agnew ’67, Blakeman Hazzard Allen ’66,
Nathalie Taft Andrews ’59, Mae Concemi Bradshaw ’62, Jane Christie ’58, P’85, ’87, GP’24, Sandra Castle Hull ’58, P’81, ’84, Martha Mason Denzel ’62,
Elizabeth Humstone ’66, Sara Ingram ’71, Cornelia Weldon LeMaitre ’53, P’80, ’82,’86, ’86, ’87, GP’ 13, ’16, Noreen A. Markley ’73, P’11,
Lynne Moriarty Langlois ’62, P’90, Chandri Navarro ’82, P’15,
Susan W. Peters ’75, P’09, ’12, Holly Robertson Taylor ’59,
Ruth Sisson Weiner ’66, P’97, ’01
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