About Opentopia
Opentopia Directory Encyclopedia Tools

The Hill School

Encyclopedia : T : TH : THE : The Hill School

The Hill School (The Hill) is an American boarding school for boys and girls in grades nine through twelve. Founded in 1851, The Hill is located in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, about forty-five minutes north-west of Philadelphia.

The Hill is part of an organization known as The Ten Schools Admissions Organization. This organization was founded more than forty years ago on the basis of a number of common goals and traditions. Member schools include The Hill, Choate Rosemary Hall, Deerfield Academy, The Lawrenceville School, The Taft School, The Hotchkiss School, St. Paul's School, Loomis Chaffee, Phillips Exeter Academy, and Phillips Academy Andover.

In 2005, The Hill's endowment totaled at US$109,000,000.

Contents

History

The Hill School was founded in 1851 by the Revered Matthew Meigs as "The Family Boarding School." The Hill was the first school in the country to have students live with faculty on the school's campus rather than in a boarding house nearby. At the conclusion of the American Civil War in 1865, The Hill adopted school colors of Blue and Grey to symbolize the re-unification of the United States. School alumni fought on both sides of the conflict.

For nearly its entire history The Hill has maintained 500 students per year from which the school song "A Thousand Hands" is drawn. The Hill was an all-boys institution until 1998. As of 2005, the ratio between boys and girls at the school is 60:40. The Hill continues to attract legacies, who make up roughly one-third of the student body.

Owing to its age, The Hill has a campus rich with historic architecture. The Hill's all wood-paneled Dining Hall houses a valuable collection of paintings by the famous American illustrator N.C. Wyeth, father of the notable American painter Andrew Wyeth. A photo of the Dining Hall interior is the cover of Tobias Wolff's novel, Old School.

School Motto

"Whatsoever things are true." This excerpt from St. Paul's Epistle to the Philippians (Philippians 4:8) continues: "...whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report ...."

School Traditions

The Quad, a field surrounded by four of the school's most prominent buildings: The Alumni Memorial Chapel in the East (seen in this picture), Hunt Upper School dormitory in the North, Ryan Library in the West, and the Academic Building in the South
The Quad, a field surrounded by four of the school's most prominent buildings: The Alumni Memorial Chapel in the East (seen in this picture), Hunt Upper School dormitory in the North, Ryan Library in the West, and the Academic Building in the South

Athletics

The Hill competes in the Mid-Atlantic Prep League. The Hill's teams are called the "Blues" or the "Rams". The Hill's arch-rival is The Lawrenceville School of Lawrenceville, New Jersey. The rivalry is celebrated annually on the first or second weekend of November. The festivities alternate between the two schools each year, and it is the 5th oldest school rivalry,and 3rd oldest high-school rivalry, in the nation.

Besides Hill and Lawrenceville, other schools in the league are Hun School of Princeton in Princeton, New Jersey, Mercersburg Academy of Mercersburg, Pennsylvania, Peddie School in Hightstown, New Jersey, and Blair Academy in Blairstown, New Jersey.

Some of the schools that The Hill also competes against include St. Andrew's School in Middletown, Delaware, Episcopal High School in Alexandria, Virginia, The Taft School in Watertown, Connecticut, Hotchkiss School in Lakeville, Connecticut, Deerfield Academy in Deerfield, Massachusetts, Governor Dummer Academy in Byfield, Mass; Westminster School in Simsbury, Connecticut, and Wyoming Seminary College Prep, in Kingston, Pa.

All students are required to participate at some level of athletics, whether it be at the varsity or intramural level. Interscholastic sports include cross country, football, field hockey, soccer, tennis, squash, water polo, swimming, basketball, ice hockey, wrestling, baseball, softball, lacrosse, track, and golf.

Notable alumni

Years not listed

Headmasters

External links

 

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.

Search Titles
0123456789
ABCDEFGHIJ
KLMNOPQRST
UVWXYZ?

E-mail this article to:

Personal Message: