Phillips Academy - History

History

Phillips Academy was founded during the American Revolution as an all-boys school in 1778 by Samuel Phillips, Jr., a member of the revolutionary war family, the Phillipses. The great seal of the school was designed by Paul Revere. George Washington spoke at the school in its first year and was so impressed that he recommended that his nephews go there, which they did. John Hancock, the famous signer of the United States Declaration of Independence, signed the school's articles of incorporation. Phillips Academy's traditional opponent is Phillips Exeter Academy, which was established three years later in Exeter, New Hampshire by Samuel Phillips' uncle, Dr. John Phillips. There is a rivalry between the two schools. The football teams have met nearly every year since 1878, making it one of the oldest high school rivalries in the country.

For 100 years of its history, Phillips Academy shared its campus with the Andover Theological Seminary, which was founded on Phillips Hill in 1807 by orthodox Calvinists who had fled Harvard College after it appointed a liberal Unitarian theologian to a professorship of divinity. The Andover Theological Seminary was independent from Phillips Academy but shared the same board of directors. In 1908, the seminary departed Phillips Academy, leaving behind its key buildings: academic building Pearson Hall (formerly a chapel), and dormitories Foxcroft Hall and Bartlet Hall. These buildings later became the heart of the Andover campus, which was expanded in the 1920s and 30s around this historic core with new buildings of similar Georgian style: Samuel Phillips Hall, George Washington Hall, Samuel Morse Hall, Paul Revere Hall, Oliver Wendell Holmes Library, Commons, the Addison Gallery of American Art and Cochran Chapel. Along with this new construction, at least nine existing buildings were moved to make way for the Vista and the Great Lawn and the creation of a formal West Quad. Small portions of Andover's campus were laid out by Frederick Law Olmsted, designer of Central Park and himself a graduate of the school. Other campus structures include the Memorial Bell Tower, which recently underwent a $5 million renovation, Samuel Phillips Hall, Bulfinch Hall, and Pearson Hall.

Paul Revere incorporated bees, a beehive, and the sun into his design of the school's seal, which is masonic in nature. The school's primary motto, Non Sibi, located in the sun, means "not for oneself". This has led to the development of Non Sibi Day, a day when many of Andover alumni and all of its students participate in community service across the world. The school's second motto, Finis Origine Pendet, meaning "the end depends upon the beginning", is scrolled across the bottom of the seal. Phillips Academy aims to attract and educate "qualified youth from every quarter", a phrase often used by the admissions department.

Phillips Academy offers a broad curriculum and extracurricular activities that include music ensembles, 30 competitive sports, a campus newspaper, a radio station, and a debate club. The academy raised $208 million through "Campaign Andover", which brought its endowment to around $550 million in 2004. In 1973 Phillips Academy merged with neighboring Abbot Academy, which was founded in 1829 as the first school for girls in New England and named for Sarah Abbot.

Phillips Academy is one of only a few private high schools (others include Roxbury Latin and St. Andrews School) in the United States that attained need-blind admissions in 2007 and 2008, and it has continued this policy through the present. In 2007 Phillips Academy matriculated 81% of its admitted students, the highest rate among any ESA school. In 2009 it received 2,711 applications and accepted 16.7%, with 77% of those going on to matriculate at the Academy. In 2010, Phillips Academy received a record 2,844 completed applications and accepted 405 students, for a 14.2% admission rate. For the 2012-2013 school year, Phillips Academy admitted a record low 14% of 3,130 completed applications, and had a record high yield of 84%, unparalleled by any similar boarding schools of its caliber.