Beaver Country Day School - History

History

Beaver was incorporated as an elementary school and an all-girls' high school in 1920 by a group of parents who were interested in progressive education and the Country Day School movement.

The school took its name in Boston, where some of the founders had been involved with a school for younger children later referred to as "Little Beaver." In an amusing historical chain, it seems that Beaver Place was possibly named for the Beaver, one of the ships of the Boston Tea Party; the ship—a Nantucket trading vessel owned by Joseph Rotch--was in turn named for the North American beaver, the rodent whose pelt was valued in Europe as a source of felt for high-quality hats. Thus, the "how did the school get its name?" question has a convoluted answer.

Beaver's first head of school was Eugene Randolph Smith, a progressive educator and a follower of the educational reformer John Dewey; Smith had previously been head of the Park School of Baltimore. The school opened in a facility in Brookline, and moved to the present Chestnut Hill campus in the mid 1920s. Crosby Hodgman succeeded Smith as headmaster in 1943 and led the school until 1967, when Donald Nickerson became head. Nickerson resigned in 1973 and was succeeded by Philip E. McCurdy. McCurdy's successor, Jerome B. Martin. led the school from 1985 until 1992, when the current head of school, Peter R. Hutton, took over.

From the 1930s into the early 1940s Beaver was part of the Eight-Year Study, an educational experiment to test the efficacy of progressive education. The school adopted coeducation in 1971.