:St. Mark's School (Massachusetts)

St. Mark's was founded in 1865 by Southborough native Joseph Burnett, a chemist and entrepreneur who amassed a large fortune manufacturing surgical anesthetic, cough syrup, hair tonic, cologne, soda, sausages, bottled milk, and most famously America's first commercially viable vanilla extract.{{Cite web |title=Looking back at Deerfoot Farms in Southborough |url=https://www.wickedlocal.com/story/village-news/2015/03/01/looking-back-at-deerfoot-farms/35085505007/ |access-date=2024-03-06 |website=Wicked Local |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |date=2022-04-19 |title=Burnett, Boston (Burnett's Extracts, Joseph Burnett & Co.) |url=https://baybottles.com/2022/04/19/__trashed/ |access-date=2024-03-06 |website=Bay Bottles |language=en-US}} Burnett was a major civic leader: in addition to establishing St. Mark's, he bankrolled the town's Episcopal church, town hall, library, and its other private school, Fay School (a junior high).{{Cite web |title=History {{!}} St. Mark's Church Southborough |url=https://stmarks-sb.org/history/ |access-date=2024-03-06 |website=stmarks-sb.org}}{{Cite web |title=Preserving Southborough's Historic Legacy: The Burnett-Garfield House {{!}} Community Preservation Coalition |url=https://www.communitypreservation.org/cpa-success-stories/news/preserving-southborough%E2%80%99s-historic-legacy-burnett-garfield-house |access-date=2024-03-06 |website=www.communitypreservation.org}} He also helped establish Boston's Church of the Advent.{{Cite book |last=Benson |first=Albert Emerson |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MCJGHcKy5I0C |title=History of Saint Mark's School |publisher=St. Mark's School |year=1925 |pages=10}}

Along with St. Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire, St. Mark's was one of the first New England schools founded on the British public school model, as opposed to Revolutionary-era academies like Andover and Exeter.Preparing for Power: America's Elite Boarding Schools, Basic Books, 1985, Peter W. Clarkson and Caroline Hodges Persell, p. 43 The resemblance was intentional, as Burnett had sent his eldest son to St. Paul's.Benson, p. 11. The Concord school was filled to capacity, and to relieve pressure on its admissions office, its headmaster encouraged Burnett to start a school of his own. St. Mark's started with twelve students and steadily grew, reaching 47 students by 1878 and 60 students by 1883.Benson, pp. 41, 74, 89.{{Cite web |date=2014-08-02 |title=St. Mark's through the years |url=https://stmarksschool1865.wordpress.com/timeline2/ |access-date=2024-03-06 |website=St. Mark's School 150th Anniversary |language=en}} New York financier August Belmont Sr. was an early supporter of the school, and his son August Belmont Jr. (a St. Mark's alumnus and trustee) eventually donated the school chapel and football field.Benson, pp. 96-97, 154-155.

File:Front of St. Mark's School.jpg

In 1882, William Peck became the headmaster of St. Mark's. He rapidly expanded enrollment and recruited the sons of some of America's richest families.{{Cite journal |last=Levine |first=Steven B. |date=October 1980 |title=The Rise of American Boarding Schools and the Development of a National Upper Class |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/800381 |journal=Social Problems |volume=28 |issue=1 |pages=80–81 |doi=10.2307/800381 |jstor=800381 }} In 1886, the school announced that it had outgrown its facilities and could not accept any more applicants.Benson, p. 96. It moved into a new school building in 1890, which allowed enrollment to increase to 103 students; St. Mark's still uses this building today.Benson, p. 97.

The school endured a severe crisis in 1894, when Peck resigned to start Pomfret School in Connecticut. The staunchly Episcopalian board of trustees clashed with Peck, a layman with (according to Pomfret) "progressive tendencies."{{Cite web |last=Foley |first=Jack |date=2016-02-02 |title=William Peck and Nativist Fears |url=https://smleo.com/2016/02/02/william-peck-and-nativist-fears/ |access-date=2024-03-06 |website=St. Mark's School LEO Academic Journal |language=en}}{{Cite web |title=History – Pomfret School |url=https://www.pomfret.org/about-us/history |access-date=2024-03-06 |website=www.pomfret.org |language=en-US}} Peck took half the faculty and a third of the student body with him. Joseph Burnett died that same year, robbing the school of its most important benefactor.

The St. Mark's trustees responded to this crisis by appointing Groton School English teacher William Greenough Thayer as the new headmaster.{{Cite web |title=St. Andrew's Ayer – William Greenough Thayer |url=https://www.standrewsayer.org/parish-history/rectors-vicars/william-greenough-thayer |access-date=2024-03-06 |website=www.standrewsayer.org |language=en-US}} Not coincidentally, Bishop William Lawrence was president of the board of both St. Mark's and Groton.Benson, p. 13.{{Cite book |last=Ashburn |first=Frank D. |title=Fifty Years On: Groton School 1884–1934 |publisher=Sign of the Gosden Head |year=1934 |location=New York |pages=196}} Lawrence was one of Thayer's early mentors: he influenced him to convert from Presbyterianism to Episcopalianism, and led him to the Episcopalian ministry.{{Cite book |last1=Konolige |first1=Kit |title=The Power of Their Glory: America's Ruling Class: The Episcopalians |last2=Konolige |first2=Frederica |publisher=Wyden Books |year=1978 |location=New York |pages=133–34}} A "tireless fundraiser," Lawrence would later lead Harvard University's first capital campaign in 1904 and raise the money for the Harvard Business School campus in 1926.{{Cite web |last=Bethell |first=John T. |date=2000-11-01 |title=An Instrument of Good Will|url=https://www.harvardmagazine.com/node/2316 |access-date=2024-03-08 |website=www.harvardmagazine.com |language=en}}{{Cite book |last1=Bethell |first1=John T. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WGrBJFRw1GsC |title=Harvard A to Z |last2=Hunt |first2=Richard M. |last3=Shenton |first3=Robert |date=2009 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0-674-02089-4 |page=47 |language=en}} Thayer's relationship with Lawrence gave St. Mark's access to the bishop's vast network of donors.

Thayer ran the school for the next thirty-six years.{{Cite magazine |date=1929-12-02 |title=Education: Twill |url=https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,738172,00.html |access-date=2024-03-06 |magazine=Time |language=en-US |issn=0040-781X}} He revived and then accelerated St. Mark's institutional trajectory under Peck, building St. Mark's into a distinctly upper-class institution that commanded loyalty "from Boston and the Knickerbocker families of New York."{{Cite news |last=Taylor |first=Ihsan K. |date=1999-02-24 |title=School Life: A Literary Pastiche |url=https://www.edweek.org/education/school-life-a-literary-pastiche/1999/02 |access-date=2024-02-26 |website=Education Week}} He continued Peck's project of recruiting the sons of American business titans, adding William Kissam Vanderbilt and Joseph Pulitzer to the parent list.{{Cite book |last=Gittelman |first=Steven H. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CGRkHyO2JDQC |title=Willie K. Vanderbilt II: A Biography |date=2014|publisher=McFarland |isbn=978-0-7864-5823-3 |page=16 |language=en}} A study of the St. Mark's class of 1906 found that 79% of the graduates' fathers were listed in the Social Register; 59% had attended Ivy League schools; and 54% worked in finance, law, or other professional services.Levine, pp. 74–75, 78. The percentages for the Class of 1926 were arguably even more exclusive (74% Social Register families, 60% Ivy League alumni, 73% professional services). Thayer also built a strong pipeline to Harvard College; from 1906 to 1925, an average of fifteen St. Mark's students went on to Harvard every year.Benson, p. 251. (A future headmaster, Edward T. Hall '37, recalled that at the time, colleges "were for the most part willing to accept any boys who could pass the [College] Boards and whose fathers could pay the tuition," so "[s]trong boarding schools[] with capable disciplinarians who knew their subjects ... enjoyed phenomenal success in getting their students into any college they chose."{{Cite book |last=Hall |first=Edward Tuck |title=Saint Mark's School: A Centennial History |publisher=Stinehour Press |year=1967 |location=Lunenberg, VT |pages=18}})

As the school grew in stature, its enrollment rapidly increased, bouncing back to 131 in 1906 and 191 in 1926.Levine, p. 65. Competition for places was fierce, and Thayer estimated that he received 145 or more applicants for 30–35 openings a year.Hall, p. 52. Edward Hall recalled that "[e]xcept for a handful (it was seven in 1927) of competitive places, priority of application governed likelihood of acceptance. Getting into St. Mark's in the 1920s was a little like getting into the Somerset Club of Boston: a boy's name was put down within hours or days of his birth if he was to have a chance of acceptance."

Thayer retired in 1930. He was allowed to pick his successor, and chose Francis Parkman '15, a former administrator at Harvard College.Hall, pp. 80–84. Parkman reformed the admissions system. He increased the number of students admitted by competitive examination to ten and based the remaining admissions on a mixture of factors, which still included priority of application but also interviews and geographic diversity.Hall, p. 85. However, he was not a natural fundraiser, which was becoming an increasingly important skill for boarding school headmasters,Hall, pp. 125–126, 130–131. particularly during the worst periods of the Great Depression, when many St. Mark's families encountered financial difficulties and turned to the school for financial aid.Hall, p. 89. Parkman resigned in 1942 and joined the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II.Hall, pp. 132–136. After the war, he joined the predecessor of the National Association of Independent Schools; when NAIS was created, he became its first president.{{Cite news |date=1990-07-18 |title=Francis Parkman, 92, Ex-Headmaster In Massachusetts |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1990/07/18/obituaries/francis-parkman-92-ex-headmaster-in-massachusetts.html |access-date=2024-03-22 |work=The New York Times}}

William Brewster (h. 1943–48) made the first concerted attempts to change the school's image as an institution of social elites.Hall, pp. 146–148. He increased the number of financial aid students, although he initially did not condition aid awards on academic achievement.Hall, p. 148. He was quickly forced to change course, as college admissions were becoming increasingly competitive, and the 1945–46 school year was the first year that a St. Mark's diploma no longer guaranteed students admission to the college of their choice.Hall, pp. 151–152. In April 1946, the school adopted a policy of awarding financial aid based on scholastic promise, financial need, and geographic distribution.Hall, pp. 148–149. Finding the money to fund a financial aid program was another matter; the school's endowment traditionally lagged its peers', and in 1955 only 11% of the school was on scholarship.Hall, pp. 125, 201. In 1956 Brewster's successor William Barber Jr. '28 (h. 1948–68) hired a professional fundraising firm to manage a full-scale fundraising campaign, which more than doubled the size of the school's endowment.Hall, pp. 207–210.

St. Mark's began accepting day students in 1944, black students in 1962 (the first black student to matriculate arrived in 1964), and female students in 1977.Hall, pp. 147–148, 200–201.{{Cite web |title=Southborough School – St. Mark's School |url=https://www.stmarksschool.org/alumni/southborough-school |access-date=2024-03-06 |website=www.stmarksschool.org |language=en-US}} In the 1960s, the school took its first steps towards coeducation by agreeing to move the all-girls St. Margaret's School in Waterbury, Connecticut to Southborough; St. Mark's hoped that St. Margaret's would accommodate female students who wished to attend St. Mark's but could not due to the boys-only policy in force at the time.Konolige, p. 169. However, the Connecticut legislature torpedoed the plans. The St. Margaret's leadership moved to Southborough anyway and established Southborough School in 1972 to serve as St. Mark's sister school instead.Konolige, pp. 169–170. The two schools formally merged five years later.

In the 21st century, St. Mark's has focused on expanding its facilities and raising money for teacher salaries and student financial aid. The school completed a $50 million fundraising campaign in 2002 and a $112 million fundraising campaign in 2022.{{Cite web |title=Capital Gifts – St. Mark's School |url=https://www.stmarksschool.org/giving/capital-gifts |access-date=2024-03-06 |website=www.stmarksschool.org |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |title=LOC Impact – St. Mark's School |url=https://www.stmarksschool.org/loc-impact |access-date=2024-03-06 |website=www.stmarksschool.org |language=en-US}} In 2012, the school issued a $25 million bond to renovate its student center and build a new STEM building.{{Cite web |title=St. Mark's to Build New Residential Dormitory |url=https://www.massdevelopment.com/news/st-marks-to-build-new-residential-dormitory/ |access-date=2024-03-06 |website=www.massdevelopment.com}} In 2021, the school issued a $48 million bond to build a new dormitory housing 150 students, which opened in 2022.{{Cite web |title=Residential Life |url=https://www.stmarksschool.org/community/residential-life |access-date=2024-05-28 |website=St. Mark's School |language=en-US}}

St. Mark's was a major filming location for Alexander Payne's 2023 film The Holdovers, standing in for the fictional Barton Academy.{{Cite web |last=Rathe |first=Adam |date=2023-11-04 |title=How The Holdovers Makes a Star of Boarding School |url=https://www.townandcountrymag.com/leisure/arts-and-culture/a45726766/the-holdovers-movie-filming-locations-alexander-payne-interview/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240226002441/https://www.townandcountrymag.com/leisure/arts-and-culture/a45726766/the-holdovers-movie-filming-locations-alexander-payne-interview/ |archive-date=2024-02-26 |access-date=2024-02-26 |website=Town & Country |language=en-US}} The production team shot footage in the dining hall, headmaster's office, and basketball court.{{Cite web |last=Moon |first=Ra |title=Where was The Holdovers filmed? The Barton School and all the locations |url=https://www.atlasofwonders.com/2023/11/where-was-the-holdovers-filmed.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240226001250/https://www.atlasofwonders.com/2023/11/where-was-the-holdovers-filmed.html |archive-date=2024-02-26 |access-date=2024-02-26 |website=Atlas of Wonders |language=en}} Although the St. Mark's campus has been modernized since the 1970s (when the movie is set), anachronistic fixtures were temporarily removed to accommodate the production crew.{{Cite web |date=2023-12-21 |title=The Holdovers—Focus Features films at St. Mark's School |url=https://www.edibleboston.com/blog/2023/12/15/the-holdoversat-st-marks-school |access-date=2024-03-06 |website=Edible Boston |language=en-US}}

File:Dining hall, St. Mark's School, Southborough, MA - IMG 0665.JPG|Dining Hall (featured in The Holdovers)

File:Performing Arts Center, St. Mark's School, Southborough, MA - IMG 0622.JPG|Performing Arts Center

File:St. Mark's School, Southborough, MA - IMG 0646.JPG|Faculty Room (featured in The Holdovers)

Tuition and fees for the 2023–2024 academic year are $72,930 for boarding students and $58,080 for day students. 30% of the student body is on financial aid. In the 2021–2022 school year, the average financial aid grant was $55,400.{{Cite web |title=St. Mark's School Endowment: 2021–22 Impact Report |url=https://resources.finalsite.net/images/v1681928227/stmarksschool/oqlemgxexwqensgjhpqh/EndowedFundImpactReport2023FINAl.pdf |access-date=2024-03-06 |website=St. Mark's School}}

St. Mark's financial endowment stood at $150.1 million as of June 30, 2022. In its Internal Revenue Service filings for the 2021–22 school year, St. Mark's reported total assets of $236.8 million, net assets of $185.8 million, investment holdings of $146.9 million, and cash holdings of $13.3 million. St. Mark's also reported $29.8 million in program service expenses and $6.0 million in grants (primarily student financial aid).{{Cite web |title=IRS Form 990 |url=https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/42103623/202331359349306463/full |access-date=2024-03-06 |website=ProPublica|date=May 9, 2013 }}

Dr. Ivory D. Hills is St. Mark's current head of school. Prior to coming to St. Mark's, Dr. Hills was the faculty dean at Deerfield Academy.{{Cite web |date=2023-07-31 |title=Ivory D. Hills Announced as Next Head of St. Mark's School |url=https://www.stmarksschool.org/about/news-and-publications/news-page/~board/migrated-news/post/ivory-d-hills-announced-as-next-head-of-st-marks-school |access-date=2024-02-01 |website=www.stmarksschool.org |language=en-US}} Dr. Hills succeeds John C. Warren '74, who served as head of school from 2006 through June 2024.

• John Kerfoot Lewis, 1865–1866
• George Herbert Patterson, 1866–1869
• Robert Traill Spence Lowell, 1869–1873
• William Ivers Trecothick Coolidge, 1873–1882
• William Edward Peck, 1882–1894
• William Greenough Thayer, 1894–1930
• Francis Parkman '15, 1930–1942
• William Brewster, 19431948
• William Wyatt Barber Jr. '28, 1948–1968
• Edward Tuck Hall '37, 1968–1974
• Robert Raymond Hansel, 1974–1977
• William Evill (interim), 1977–1978
• Mark Barlow Jr., 1978–1988
• Christopher T. Mabley, 1988–1994
• Antony J. de V. Hill, 1994–2006
• Elsa N. Hill, 1996–2006
• John C. Warren '74, 2006–2024The Echo of Their Voices: 150 Years of St. Mark's School, Hollis Publishing, 2015, Richard E. Noble, pg. 712
• Ivory D. Hills, 2024–

St. Mark's is a member of the Independent School League, previously known as the Private School League. St. Mark's and Groton began playing an annual football game in 1886; they contest the fifth-oldest high school football rivalry in the United States.{{Cite web |last=Moreno |first=Eric |title=The oldest high school football rivalries in the U.S. |url=https://blogs.usafootball.com/blog/6512/the-oldest-high-school-football-rivalries-in-the-u-s |access-date=2023-10-25 |website=blogs.usafootball.com}}

St. Mark's has educated several Olympic athletes, including Truxtun Hare in track and field (also one of only four four-time College Football All-Americans),{{Cite web |title=Truxton Hare (1951) – Hall of Fame |url=https://footballfoundation.org/hof_search.aspx?hof=2105 |access-date=2024-03-06 |website=National Football Foundation |language=en}} Suzanne King in cross-country skiing, Scott Young and Greg Brown in ice hockey,{{cite web |title=Legends of Hockey – NHL Player Search – Player – Scott Young |url=http://www.hhof.com/LegendsOfHockey/jsp/SearchPlayer.jsp?player=11778 |access-date=September 30, 2017 |website=www.HHOF.com}}{{cite web |title=SabresLegends.com |url=http://www.sabreslegends.com/brown_g_bio.html |access-date=September 30, 2017 |website=SabresLegends.com}} and Chris Sahs in rowing.{{Cite web |title=Chris Sahs Bio, Stats, and Results |url=https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/sa/chris-sahs-1.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200418085438/https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/sa/chris-sahs-1.html |archive-date=2020-04-18 |access-date=2017-11-29 |website=Olympics at Sports-Reference.com |language=en}}File:Elkins Athletic Building.jpgThe boys' ice hockey team won New England championships in 1992, 2015, and 2016; ISL Eberhart Division championships in 1976, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2015, 2020, and 2022; and ISL/Private School League Championships in 1959, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1997, 1998, 1999, and 2000.{{cite web|url=https://www.stmarksschool.org/athletics/team-pages/team-details/~athletics-team-id/139|title=Team Details – St. Mark's School|website=www.StMarksSchool.org|access-date=September 30, 2017}} Alumni have gone on to careers in the National Hockey League.

In 2006 and 2007, St. Mark's boys' cross-country team was the New England Division IV Champion, while the girls' cross-country team was the runner-up in 2007.{{Cite web|url=http://www.coolrunning.com/results/06/ma/Nov11_NEPSTA_set2.shtml|title=Cool Running :: NEPSTA Division IV Cross-Country Championships Race Results|last=gstate|website=www.coolrunning.com|access-date=2018-02-13}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.coolrunning.com/results/07/ct/Nov10_2007NE_set4.shtml|title=Cool Running :: 2007 NEPSTA Division 4 Cross-Country Championships Race Results|last=gstate|website=www.coolrunning.com|access-date=2018-02-13}} After finishing second in the New England championships in 2008, 2009, and 2010, St. Mark's boys' cross-country had an undefeated season in 2011 and went on to win the ISL Championships and New England Division II Championship.{{Cite web|url=http://www.coolrunning.com/results/11/ma/Nov4_2011IS_set5.shtml|title=Cool Running :: 2011 ISL XC CHAMPIONSHIPS Race Results|last=gstate|website=www.coolrunning.com|access-date=2018-02-13}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.coolrunning.com/results/11/ma/Nov12_2011NE_set4.shtml|title=Cool Running :: 2011 NEPSTA Division II Race Results|last=gstate|website=www.coolrunning.com|access-date=2018-02-13}} St. Mark's boys' cross-country replicated this feat in 2013, capturing the ISL and New England Championships.{{Cite web|url=http://www.coolrunning.com/results/13/ma/Nov1_2013IS_set3.shtml|title=Cool Running {{!}} 2013 ISL XC CHAMPIONSHIPS Race Results|last=gstate|website=www.coolrunning.com|access-date=2018-02-13}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.coolrunning.com/results/13/ct/Nov9_NEPSTA_set4.shtml|title=Cool Running {{!}} NEPSTA Division II Cross Country Championships Race Results|last=gstate|website=www.coolrunning.com|access-date=2018-02-13}}

The girls' field hockey team won the New England championship in 1992, 1997, 2012, and 2013.{{cite web|url=http://www.nepsac.org/page/2792|title=Girls' Varsity Field Hockey – NEPSAC|website=www.NEPSAC.org|access-date=September 30, 2017}}

The boys' basketball team won ISL/Private School League championships in 1951, 1954, 1972, 1999, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2011, and 2012, and were New England champions in 1972, 1973, 1999, 2006, 2008, 2009, and 2012.{{Cite web|url=https://blogs.stmarksschool.org/magazine/2015/10/14/308/|title = Alumni Basketball Game|date = October 14, 2015}}

{{main|List of St. Mark's School alumni}}

• Saint Grottlesex

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Category:Private high schools in Massachusetts

Category:Independent School League

Category:Episcopal schools in the United States

Category:Educational institutions established in 1865

Category:Boarding schools in Massachusetts

Category:Schools in Worcester County, Massachusetts

Category:Southborough, Massachusetts

Category:1865 establishments in Massachusetts