With the exception of posters in the Humanities Building and pamphlets in the Archbold admissions waiting room, the rich history of our school is largely untaught to the students here at Choate. It is commonly known that Choate Rosemary Hall originated from two separate schools, Rosemary Hall and The Choate School, but most students don’t know much more.
Ms. Judy Donald, School Archivist and Rosemary Hall alumna, offered some insight on the origin of Rosemary Hall: “Judge William Choate and Mary Atwater Choate had a summer home right here in Wallingford, Connecticut — Homestead. They wanted to give back to the community and saw that there was a need for more schools. Right off the bat, they thought of creating an all-girls’ school, which I think was very progressive of them.”
Founded in 1890 by Mary Atwater Choate, Rosemary Hall was built on land passed down from Choate’s great-granduncle, Caleb Atwater. When the all-boys Choate School was established by Judge Choate in 1896 on the same land, Rosemary Hall lacked space. After receiving an offer from wealthy patrons in 1900, Rosemary Hall was relocated to Greenwich, Connecticut, where it remained separate from The Choate School for seven decades. Then, coinciding with the movement for co-education in the late 1900s, Rosemary Hall returned to Wallingford and reunited with The Choate School in 1971. The combined school was aptly named Choate Rosemary Hall.
According to Ms. Donald, Caroline Ruutz-Rees, the first headmistress of Rosemary Hall, aimed to empower young women to pursue a wide variety of intellectual studies. “In the early years, it had a strong academic curriculum, with probably only a weak link in science. Rosemary Hall was very strong in languages, English, history, art, and music. The headmistress was in favor of strong academics for students heading for college, and that was fairly radical in those days,” Ms. Donald explained. “Then in the ’70s, a clear gain for Rosemary Hall moving back to Wallingford and collaborating with The Choate School was increased curricular offerings with high-level sciences and high-level math.”
Aside from a rigorous academic curriculum, Rosemary Hall also mandated students to participate in afternoon athletic activities, akin to Choate’s athletic requirements today. In those days, many people thought it was harmful to girls’ physique if they engaged in athletics. Ms. Donald said, “Caroline Ruutz-Rees had none of that talk. She believed that girls should be physically active and engage in competitive athletics. At Rosemary Hall, you had to participate in sports.”
For Ms. Donald, the aspect of Rosemary Hall she loved the most was the traditions. According to Ms. Donald, Rosemary Hall’s small size fostered intimate and meaningful school traditions such as daily morning school gatherings.
“Every morning at 8 a.m., we gathered in the chapel. We sing a hymn, listen to the choir, and do a little anthem — very short, but you had to be there. All the faculty trooped in with robes, and there was a distinct seating order,” Ms. Donald said. “When we were in the chapel, we would look up, and in the rafters would be the names of graduates painted in gold. So you would see the class of 1893 over here, and then the class of 1905 over there.” Ms. Donald added, “I’m not a morning person — and getting to the chapel at 8 was a major challenge — so I sort of resented being there. But most alumni who remember the chapel, in spite of its early hour, remember it as the place of their fondest memories from Rosemary Hall.”
Another distinct tradition of Rosemary Hall was the strict dress code. Every student was required to wear a uniform of matching buttoned dresses, shoes, and tam caps, which are small circular hats similar to French berets. “Everything was a uniform, right down to putting your nametag in your kneesocks and tam. It was an innovation by Caroline Ruutz-Rees in the 1890s for girls to wear uniforms,” Ms. Donald said. “Uniforms was a tradition that only went away maybe two years after Rosemary Hall moved back; the girls didn’t protest very much.”
According to Ms. Donald, Rosemary Hall students possessed little creative license with their uniforms except for one piece: their tams. Ms. Donald said, “You adorned your tam with pins representing memberships in clubs. For example, if you were in the student government, you got a pin. When you entered campus, you were sorted as either a member of the R team or the H team, like how Choate today has the blue team and gold team. Everyone got a letter pin for their team. This way, no one had an empty tam.” Ms. Donald continued, “Tams were also distinct because only seniors could wear red tams. The red tams — the senior tams — were passed down from sixth formers to rising sixth formers. A junior would ask a senior, ‘May I have your tam?’ and it would be passed along. A new name tag would be stitched to the tam with the old one still inside, and the tam would get a new name tag added in every year.”
Other traditions included a ring ceremony during junior spring. Similar to the senior tam ritual, seniors passed down special senior rings to rising seniors. The new seniors would then wear the ring for a year until the next ring ceremony. Another tradition Ms. Donald remembered was a game called Beating the Bounds. Ms. Donald explained, “Someone would be designated the devil, usually the smallest girl, and they got a little head start with running and hiding somewhere around the perimeter of the school. After the head start, the rest of the school runs around the perimeter to try to find the devil, so quite literally beating the bounds to get rid of evil spirits. It was just fun to run together and maybe believe that you’re exorcising evil spirits.”
According to Ms. Donald, while it is important to remember the history of Rosemary Hall, students should also focus on enjoying the present. “There will never be another Rosemary Hall or another Choate School. But what has come of Rosemary Hall coming back to its birthplace and joining forces with The Choate School, it is yet again something unique than what those individual schools had been,” Ms. Donald said. “I work in a room that resonates traditions and is alive with traditions, but I’m not wedded to traditions. It’s okay to create new traditions as long as we remember the old. Creating new traditions — that’s the best thing.”
