Phillips Academy

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Template:Infobox Private School Phillips Academy (also known as Andover, Phillips Andover, or simply PA) is a coed high school for boarding and day students grades 9-12 located in Andover, Massachusetts, near Boston.

Phillips Academy is the 4th oldest private boarding school in the United States. The school's endowment stood around $622.8 million on June 5, 2005. This is nearly $600,000 per student, higher than the per-student endowments at nearly every American university.

The academy traditionally educated its students for Yale University, but this association has deteriorated in recent years and students now matriculate to a wide range of colleges and universities. Andover has educated two American Presidents, George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush.

Andover has a rigorous curriculum aimed at preparing its students for the challenges of the world. Despite this preparedness, competition for entrance into universities is its highest yet, and many excellent students are left disappointed.

The Phillipian, the school's student-run newspaper, is one of the oldest secondary school newspapers in the US.

Contents

History

Phillips Academy was founded during the American Revolution as an all-boys school in 1778 by Samuel Phillips, Jr., a member of the important revolutionary war family, the Phillips. The great seal of the school was designed by Paul Revere. George Washington spoke at the school in its first year and was so impressed that he recommended that his nephews go there, which they did; one of Gilbert Stuart's famous portraits of Washington hangs above the front desk. John Hancock, the famous signer of the United States Declaration of Independence, signed the school's articles of incorporation.

Phillips Academy's traditional rival is Phillips Exeter Academy, established three years later in Exeter, New Hampshire by Samuel Phillips' uncle, Dr. John Phillips. They are the two closest American equivalents to respectively Eton and Harrow, the prestigious public schools of England; a wave of schools founded in the mid-19th century, like St. Paul's, Groton, and Choate, correspond to Marlborough College, Winchester, and Rugby. The football teams have met nearly every year since 1878, making it one of the oldest high school rivalries in the country. The names Andover and Exeter are often used to distinguish the two.

Andover's campus was laid out by Frederick Law Olmsted, designer of Central Park and himself a graduate of the school. It is dominated by neo-Georgian architecture and centered around the several-acre Great Lawn. Campus structures include the Memorial Bell Tower, which recently underwent a $5 million renovation, Samuel Phillips Hall, Bulfinch Hall, and Pearson Hall.

Paul Revere incorporated bees, a beehive, and the sun into his design of the school's seal. The school's primary motto, Finis Origine Pendet, meaning "the end depends upon the beginning," is scrolled across the bottom of the seal. The school's second motto, Non Sibi, located in the sun, means "not for self." Phillips Academy was chartered to educate "qualified youth from every quarter."

Phillips Academy offers a broad curriculum and extracurricular activities that include music ensembles, 30 competitive sports, a campus newspaper and a debate club. The academy raised $208 million through "Campaign Andover," which brought its endowment to around $550 million in 2004.

In 1973, Phillips Academy merged with neighboring Abbot Academy, which was founded in 1829 as the first school for girls in New England and named for Sarah Abbot.

Facilities

Academic facilities

Image:SamPhilAugust2005.JPG Bulfinch Hall was designed by architect Charles Bulfinch and built in 1819. It is now the English Department building.

</br >The Gelb Science Center was paid for mainly by the wealthy alumnus Richard Gelb and opened for classes in January 2004. The center contains twenty laboratories, classrooms, seminar rooms, instrument rooms, preparatory areas, study-session spaces, and a roof-top astronomical observatory, and is the newest building on campus.1

</br >Graham House is used by both the school's Psychology Department and the school's psychological counselors.

</br >Morse Hall is home to the Math Department, student publications, and WPAA -- a student run radio station. Morse Hall is named after Samuel Morse, who invented the telegraph.

</br >Oliver Wendell Holmes Library (OWHL) takes its namesake from the poet Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., an 1825 graduate of Phillips Academy. The library houses 120,000 books, the Phillips Academy Computer Center (PACC), a video library, and subscriptions to roughly 250 periodicals.

</br >Samuel Phillips Hall (Sam Phil) was built in 1924 and named after the founder of the school. This building houses the World Languages Department and the History and Social Sciences Department, as well as the "Language Learning Center," a computer lab with video, audio, and programs designed to supplement classroom work in language classes.

</br >Pearson Hall is the classics building. The only subjects with classes that meet in Pearson are Latin, Greek, Greek literature, mythology, and etymology. It was named after the school's first headmaster, Eliphalet Pearson.

Arts and Student Life Facilities

The Addison Gallery of American Art is an art museum given to the school by alumnus Thomas Cochran. It is widely considered one of the finest small museums in America and its last two directors have gone on to direct the Yale Art Gallery and the Whitney Museum of American Art. Its permanent collection includes Winslow Homer's "Eight Bells," along with work by John Singleton Copley, Benjamin West, Thomas Eakins, James McNeill Whistler, Frederic Remington, George Bellows, Edward Hopper, Georgia O'Keeffe, Jackson Pollock, Frank Stella and Andrew Wyeth. It was one of the first museums in America to seriously collect photography, and took an early and prescient interest in artists such as Carleton Watkins and Margaret Bourke-White, with the result that its photography collection is equal to some of the largest museums in America. Another strength is in decorative arts, with Silver and Furniture dating back to pre-colonial America, and a fine collection of colonial model ships. A rotating schedule of exhibitions, including current ones of William Wegman and Southworth and Hawes, is open to students and the public alike.

</br>Cochran Chapel is a neo-Georgian church located on the north side of campus, and is the center of religious life on campus for students and faculty. It is also home to the Department of Religion and Philosophy, and to the Community Service Program. The Chapel hosts many concerts, lectures and gatherings throughout the year, and a weekly All School Meeting is held here on Wednesdays.

Image:Eight bells.jpg

Commons is the school's dining hall. It has four large dining rooms along with three smaller rooms, which may be utilized by classes or speakers for eating a more personal environment. It also houses the Ryley Room, a grill-style student hang out, in the basement of Commons.

</br>George Washington Hall (GW) was built in 1926. The building serves numerous functions, including an administration building (Head of School's office, among others), a post-office (the student's mail room), and the school's arts complex (with the Elson Arts Center, the Polk-Lillard Electronic Imaging and Audio-Visual Center, and both the Tang and Steinbach theaters).

</br >Graves Hall is the music building, with classrooms, a concert hall, a record library, and practice studios.

</br >The Robert S. Peabody Museum was founded in 1901 and is now "one of the nation's major repositories of Native American archaeological collections." The collection includes materials from the Northeast, Southeast, Midwest, Southwest, Mexico and the Arctic, and range from Paleo Indian (10,000+ years ago) to the present day. It is currently only open by appointment due to the high cost of constant operation and low attendance.

Residential Facilities

In addition to the above mentioned facilities, the school also includes a number of dormitories to serve the roughly 800 students that board. These buildings range in size from housing as few as 4 to as many as 40 students. Two notable dorms are America House, where the patriotic hymn America was pennedTemplate:Ref, and Stowe House, where American writer Harriet Beecher Stowe (author of Uncle Tom's Cabin) lived while her husband taught at the Andover Theological SeminaryTemplate:Ref. Stowe is also buried on campus in a cemetery behind Samuel Phillips HallTemplate:Ref.

Athletics

Fall

Winter

Spring

Non-Interscholastic

Notable alumni

See List of notable Phillips Academy alumni

Notable faculty

Resources

External links

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