Choate Rosemary Hall: Archbold Building (1928)

The Archbold Building, on the campus of Choate Rosemary Hall in Wallingford, was erected in 1928 and opened in 1929 as the school’s infirmary – the largest school infirmary in the country at the time. Designed by Ralph Adams Cram, the building was a gift of Anne Saunderson Archbold in recognition of the care her son received from Clara St. John, the headmaster’s wife, during a long illness when he was a student. After forty-five years as an infirmary, the building became a girl’s dormitory in the 1970s, when the school became co-ed. In 1998, the Archbold Building was renovated to incorporate the headmaster’s office and admissions offices, with dormitory housing on the upper of its three floors.

Choate Rosemary Hall: Paul Mellon Humanities Center (1938)

One of the many Georgian Revival buildings on the campus of Choate Rosemary Hall in Wallingford is the Paul Mellon Humanities Center. It was a gift of philanthropist and Choate graduate Paul Mellon, an art collector who also founded the Yale Center for British Art. Built in 1938, the building’s design by architect Charles F. Fuller has strong similarities to the Governor’s Palace at Colonial Williamsburg. The building was renovated in 1989 through another gift from Mellon.

Atwater Homestead (1774)

The house at 242 Christian Street in Wallingford was built in 1774 by Caleb Atwater (1741–1832), a wealthy merchant who supplied the patriot forces during the American Revolution. It was located on the Atwater property, which was in the family for many generations. There is a secret passage behind the chimney inside the house, which was possibly a station on the Underground Railroad. The Atwood family property, which became known as Rosemary Farm, was later the childhood home and summer residence of Caleb Atwater’s granddaughter, Mary Lyman Atwater. She married Judge William G. Choate. In 1890, Mary Choate founded a school for girls at Rosemary Farm called Rosemary Hall. The school initially utilized another Atwater family home, no longer extant, that was built in 1758. Soon other houses in the vicinity were rented for the growing school. William Choate also founded the Choate School for boys in 1896. The two schools were neighbors, but remained separate entities. Mary wold host dances for students of both schools at the 1774 homestead. Rosemary Hall moved to Greenwich in 1900, but would move back to Wallingford in 1971 and merge with Choate in 1974. Choate had acquired the Atwater Homestead from Hunt Atwater, a nephew of Mary Atwater Choate in 1933 and it has served as a dormitory since 1936. The school undertook a major restoration of the building, known as Homestead, in 2006.

Choate Rosemary Hall: Memorial House (1921)

Memorial House is a large Georgian Revival dormitory building on the campus of Choate Rosemary Hall in Wallingford. Completed in 1921, it was dedicated to the memory of the fifteen Choate boys who had fallen in the First World War. In 2014, new stair railings and new balustrade and columns for the entry portico were added in front of the building to mark the centennial of the war’s beginning. Memorial Hall was designed by Francis Waterman to be a mirror image of Hill House, which he had designed for the Choate campus a decade earlier.

Choate Rosemary Hall: Hill House (1911)

In 1908, George St John became headmaster of The Choate School in Wallingford. During his forty-year tenure, he oversaw a massive expansion of the school’s campus, which featured the erection of several large red brick Georgian Revival institutional buildings. The first of these was Hill House, completed in 1911. Designed by Francis Waterman, it set the style for the growing campus. The building was extended on the south side with the construction of the original Hill House Dining Hall in 1913-1914. Over the years, additional structures have been attached to Hill House, which remains at the heart of the Choate campus.

Choate Rosemary Hall: Seymour St. John Chapel (1924)

On the campus of Choate Rosemary Hall in Wallingford is the Seymour St. John Chapel, built in 1924. Designed by noted collegiate and ecclesiastical architect Ralph Adams Cram, it was originally named St. Andrew Chapel. In 1998, it was renamed in honor of Rev. Seymour St. John (1912-2006), who served as the school’s headmaster from 1947 to 1973. Over a decade ago the Chapel underwent a major renovation. In addition to repairs and updates to the building, the clock tower’s 10-bell Meneely Bell Co. Chime was also extensively restored and reconnected to the Chapel’s original Seth Thomas clock.