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School History & Timeline

1901

  • Maria Bowen Chapin establishes Miss Chapin's School at 12 West 47 Street with seven teachers and 78 students.

1902

  • Mary Cecelia Fairfax joins Miss Chapin's faculty.

1903

  • Elocution and penmanship are important parts of the curriculum.

1904

  • A carpentry class is started at the school.

1905

  • The school moves to two townhouses at 46 and 48 East 58th Street.

1906

  • Miss Chapin sets up science laboratories in the basement of the East 58th Street building.

1908

  • Charlotte Harding and Sylvia Holt receive the first Chapin diplomas.

1909

  • Self-government begins.

1910

  • The school moves to 32 and 34 East 57 Street.

1911

  • The Athletic Association is formed.

1912

  • Students write the school song around this time, with help from music teacher Mrs. Cartwright.

1913

  • Mary Cecelia Fairfax becomes Associate Headmistress.
  • The first formal Commencement is held.

1914

  • The Alumnae Association is formed by Miss Chapin to do war and welfare work.

1917

  • The first issue of The Wheel, Chapin's literary magazine, is printed.
  • Margaret Henderson Bailie ’13 becomes the first Chapin alumna to graduate from college.

1920

  • The Dramatic Club forms and presents Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night as its first play.

1924

  • The school orchestra makes its first appearance and provides music for a school dancing competition at Club Night.

1925

  • The school is incorporated as Miss Chapin's School, Ltd. Twenty-three diplomas are awarded.
  • The enrollment is 319 students.

1928

  • The school moves to a new building at 100 East End Avenue.

1932

  • Miss Chapin retires.
  • Ethel Grey Stringfellow becomes Joint Headmistress with Miss Fairfax.

1933

  • Older girls are able to attend concerts, lectures, operas and plays in the afternoons.

1934

  • The name of the school is changed to The Chapin School, Ltd.
  • Miss Chapin dies.

1935

  • Miss Fairfax dies and Miss Stringfellow becomes Headmistress.
  • Author Pearl S. Buck comes to Chapin to speak at News about the situation of women in China.

1942

  • Most Club Nights are devoted to activities to advance the war effort.

1947

  • Students form a Current Events Club, including a debating society.

1959

  • Miss Stringfellow retires after 50 years at Chapin.
  • Mildred Jeanmaire Berendsen becomes Headmistress.

1963

  • Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy ’47 invites Chapin alumnae to visit the White House.

1968

  • Annual prizes for creative writing, known as the Margaret Emerson Bailey Memorial Awards, are established.

1969

  • The school purchases the adjacent building, at 535 East 84th Street, to be known as the Ethel Grey Stringfellow Wing.
  • The Parents' Association is formed.

1970

  • Students form the Multi-Media Club and go out to report from the street with a videotape machine.
  • Miss Stringfellow dies.

1971

  • The Interschool Program is established to provide expanded opportunities for students in curricular and extracurricular areas.

1972

  • Renovation of the Ethel Grey Stringfellow Wing is completed.
  • The Ethel Grey Stringfellow Library is dedicated.

1973

  • The Chapin-Brearley Academic Exchange is established, permitting girls in both schools to take courses offered by Chapin or Brearley.

1976

  • The first edition of Limelight, the student newspaper, is published.

1985

  • Chapin students participate in the Model United Nations conference at Harvard for the first time.

1990

  • Major construction and renovation in main and wing buildings is completed.

1993

  • Mrs. Berendsen retires after 44 years at Chapin.
  • Sandra J. Theunick is appointed Head of School.

1998

  • New facilities, including the Annenberg Center for Learning and Research, are completed and dedicated.

2001

  • The Chapin School celebrates its Centennial.

2003

  • Dr. Patricia T. Hayot becomes Chapin’s sixth Head of School.

 

Last updated 11.10.06

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