2013 marks the 150th anniversary of the Hamlin School

Stanwood Hall

Sarah Dix Hamlin was born in Westford, Massachusetts. Her house on Hildreth Street is known locally as Fletcher Tavern.

Founded in 1792, Westford Academy is one of the oldest public high schools in the United States.

SDH moved to Block Island near Rhode Island to teach. Southeast Light, pictured here, sits on top of Mohegan Bluffs.

Southeast Light, Block Island

Sarah Dix Hamlin’s uncle was a prominent opponent of the extension of slavery.

President Abraham Lincoln

What later became know as the First Transcontinental Railroad was a 1,907-mile contiguous railroad line constructed between 1863 and 1869 across the western United States to connect the Pacific coast at San Francisco Bay with the existing Eastern U.S. rail network at Council Bluffs, Iowa, on the Missouri River.

Leland Stanford

The first Cliff House was a modest structure built in 1863 by Senator John Buckley and C. C. Butler. Captain Junius Foster eventually leased the Cliff House Restaurant from C. C. Butler and under his management wealthy San Franciscans flocked to the coast to enjoy the unique restaurant and wonderful views. The guest register bore the names of three U.S. presidents as well as prominent San Francisco families such as the Hearsts, Stanfords, and Crockers, who would drive their carriages out to Ocean Beach for horse racing and recreation.

The Cliff House in San Francisco

The Battle of Gettysburg was fought July 1–3, 1863, in and around the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania between Union and Confederate forces during the American Civil War. The battle involved the largest number of casualties of the entire war and is often described as the war’s turning point. Union Maj. Gen. George Gordon Meade’s Army of the Potomac defeated attacks by Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia, ending Lee’s invasion of the North. Source: Wikipedia.org

A scene from the siege of Vicksburg from Harper’s Weekly, July 25, 1863.

A precursor to the Van Ness Seminary, The Miel Institute was San Francisco’s first Kindergarten.

The Miel Institute

It has been an annual tradition since 1863, when, during the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national day of “Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens”, to be celebrated on Thursday, November 26.

The Chicago Tribune prints President Abraham Lincoln’s declaration of the last Thursday in November 1863 “as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens.”

The Home Institute is the second precursor to the Van Ness Seminary.

The Home Institute

SDH was one of first female students accepted to Michigan University. Michigan and a handful of other schools launched what was called a “dangerous experiment” — the “coeducation” of women and men in 1870.

Sarah Dix Hamlin’s graduating class at University of Michigan. SDH is standing in the back row, second woman from the right.

At the age of 30, Sarah Dix Hamlin was one of the first dozen women to graduate from the University

Sarah Dix Hamlin’s graduation photo

Sarah Dix Hamlin Teaches at Detroit High School

Old Capitol and Detroit High School

SDH works as a tutor for students in a mining camp near Cherry Creek, Nevada

She lived at 810 Leavenworth and taught at an unspecified private school in San Francisco

She moved to 1456 Franklin Street in San Francisco

1885, Van Ness Seminary Established.

1606 Van Ness Avenue in San Francisco

Sarah Dix Hamlin joins others to found The Century Club of California

The Century Club of California, 1355 Franklin Street in San Francisco

She was sent by the Ramabai Association of America to help establish a school for child widows. Pandita Ramabai, pictured here, was the leading advocate for the education of women and girls in India.

Pandita Ramabai

The San Francisco branch is the second oldest in the country.

An American-born member of the Parisian avant-garde of the early 20th century, Toklas met Gertrude Stein in Paris on September 8, 1907, the day she arrived. Together they hosted a salon that attracted expatriate American writers, such as Ernest Hemingway, Paul Bowles, Thornton Wilder, and Sherwood Anderson, and avant-garde painters, including Picasso, Matisse, and Braque.

At that time, an advertisement of the school, complete with a large picture, appeared in the classified section of the San Francisco telephone directory announcing “a boarding and day school offering superior advantages for pursuing both Common and Special Studies.” A distinguished educator, Dr. Willey was instrumental in helping to develop California’s educational system. He arrived in Monterey in 1849 and opened a school there. He played an important role in the establishment of Benicia’s Young Ladies’ Seminary, later to become Mills Seminary, and then Mills College. He was also one of the founders of the University of California, which, in his day, was the College of California in Oakland.

Samuel H. Willey

Sarah Dix Hamlin renames the school The Miss Hamlin’s School for Girls and Van Ness Seminary.

Article from the May 22, 1891 issue of the San Francisco Call

Speakers included Sarah Dix Hamlin and Susan B. Anthony

Portrait of Susan B. Anthony

The game was played at the Armory Hall in San Francisco between Stanford and Cal. Stanford won the contest 2-1.

1898, the school is renamed Miss Hamlin’s School for Girls.

The School’s first yearbook is published and given to students

The present-day site of The Hamlin School is an example of Italian Baroque Revival architecture.

The San Francisco earthquake of 1906 struck San Francisco and the coast of Northern California at 5:12 a.m. on Wednesday, April 18, 1906. The resulting fires left about 3,000 people dead and over 80% of San Francisco destroyed.

San Francisco City Hall after the 1906 Earthquake.

Mr. and Mrs. Flood move into Stanwood Hall after fire gutted the Flood Mansion at 2222 Broadway. The School relocates to 2230 Pacific Avenue until 1927

1907, Sarah Dix Hamlin moves Miss Hamlin’s to 2230 and 2234 Pacific Avenue, San Francisco.

1915, Sarah Dix Hamlin begins holding classes at 2119 and 2123 Broadway Street, San Francisco.

Mrs. Mert Thompson Kruger serves as Principal and Mrs. Mert Thompson Kruger serves as Principal.

A close friend of Sarah Dix Hamlin, as well as a member of her faculty, Mrs. Stanwood bought one of the Flood mansions, which had been built by James L. Flood and later given by Miss Jennie Flood to the University of California. Under Mrs. Stanwood’s guidance, the Sarah Dix Hamlin School moved to its current site on Broadway and continued to develop its fine academic program. Its graduates went on to competitive colleges nationally. In 1947, Mrs. Stanwood retired after 19 years of devoted service.

Cornelia McKinne Stanwood

2120 Broadway in San Francisco.

June 1st, 1929, First Class Graduates from Present Site of School

June 1st, 1929, Hamlin’s First Field Day

January 5th, 1933, Construction of Golden Gate Bridge Begins

Behind 2120 Broadway

In June 1957, the school was established as a nonprofit corporation, and a board of directors was formed. Miss Mereen retired on September 1, 1958.

Edith A. Mereen

In October of 1959 Miss Lila McKinne, sister of Mrs. Stanwood, generously deeded to the corporation the school property. Subsequently a new classroom building was constructed on Vallejo Street. At the dedication on September 6, 1961, it became known as McKinne Hall and the building at 2120 Broadway as Stanwood Hall.

The boarding department was abolished and Stanwood Hall was now used for administrative offices and classrooms. Development of additional space permitted an expansion of the curriculum, particularly in the area of the fine and performing arts.

Mrs. Ernest H. Wiener

Miss Mereen’s successor was Miss E. Louise Colvert who had come from Milwaukee-Downer Seminary where she had served for a number of years, first as teacher of English, then as head of the English Department, and finally as academic dean.

E. Louise Colvert

In the summer of 1970 the Jennie Mae Hooker Laboratory, housing science classrooms, was constructed in the area between Stanwood and McKinne Halls.

In 1971, the Board of Directors added a new dimension to Hamlin with the decision to accept boys in the high school. Hamlin remained coeducational in grades 9-12 until the high school closed in 1975.

Upon Mrs. Wiener’s retirement, Mr. Donald Gordon became the first male head of school.

7Donald Gordon

Virginia MacLean, a graduate of Mills College, who had served as a teacher, assistant in admissions, and assistant to the principal, was named principal.

Virginia MacLean

A graduate of Brooklyn College and the University of Illinois, Ms. Hogan came to Hamlin from the Mary Institute in St. Louis, where she held administrative positions including assistant head of the upper school and head of the middle school. During her thirteen years as head of Hamlin, she also served as president of the California Association of Independent Schools and the National Coalition of Girls’ Schools. Under her leadership, Hamlin became a nationally recognized leader in girls’ education and constructed a new library, kindergarten rooms, gymnasium, and state-of-the-art technology and information center. Ms. Hogan completed her tenure in 1997.

Arlene Hogan

Hamlin’s tenth head was Mrs. Coreen Ruiz Hester. During her ten-year tenure, the school completed a successful capital campaign, the largest in Hamlin’s history, which reconfigured the campus and brought the school into compliance with City ordinances for safety. In addition, the school expanded the footprint of the campus for the first time since 1927 by acquiring a lot adjacent to the school on Broadway and by receiving a donation of a house adjacent to the school on Vallejo Street. Along with other educational leaders in the community, Mrs. Hester was instrumental in the founding of the Bay Area Teacher Development Collaborative, a non-profit organization for the benefit of effective and strategic professional development for Bay Area teachers.

Coreen Ruiz Hester

Wanda Holland Greene is a graduate of Columbia College, and received her Master of Arts degree in the Department of Curriculum and Teaching from Columbia University. Ms. Holland Greene was most recently the Assistant Head of The Park School in Brookline, Massachusetts, a pre-school through 9th grade co-ed day school. She joined The Park School in 1997 and served as Head of the Upper School for seven years and as the Acting Head of The Park School for six months, just prior to being promoted to Assistant Head of School in 2004.

Guests included Brandi Chastain, Megan Delehanty, and Missy Park. “Our mission at Hamlin of developing extraordinary thinkers and innovators, courageous leaders, and women of integrity continues to have resonance in a world where many women continue to struggle for parity, self-sufficiency, physical safety, equal pay, access to education, and representation in government,” said Head of School Wanda M. Holland Greene. “It is our hope that Hamlin’s celebration of the 40th anniversary of Title IX will ignite a spark of activism in our girls so that they see themselves as participants in American history and young global citizens who can make a difference for girls and women around the world.”