The Tradition Continues - Lauralton Hall set to celebrate 100th anniversary

Posted on Sep 19, 2005

By Frank Juliano, September 18, 2005
©2005CONNECTICUT POST (Used with permission)

MILFORD -- The angels don't live upstairs anymore. The students don't wear beanies to chapel anymore, either. But in all of the important ways, Lauralton Hall is the same school as when it opened 100 years ago.

"We're all about tradition here," Stefanie Stevens, the school's publicity coordinator, said as she guided visitors through the mahogany-paneled foyer of the school's Pond-Taylor Mansion. "We haven't changed at all in the things that really matter."

Stevens is a member of the Class of 1994; 30 percent of the faculty and staff are alumnae. She pointed out the basement room where her locker had been - it's a state-of-the-art science lab now - and the former gym, which is now the library. Lauralton's field house, the newest building on the 34-acre High Street campus, opened in 2001.

When the Sisters of Mercy established the Academy of Our Lady of Mercy - the school's formal name - the Pond-Taylor Mansion, the school's centerpiece, was the only building. Two classroom buildings were opened soon afterward.

Mother M. Augustine Claven, mother superior of the Sisters of Mercy, purchased the mansion in spring 1905, and the first classes at Lauralton were held on Sept. 12 of that year.

The third floor of the main building, where many staff offices are located, was known as the "Angel Dorm" because it housed the youngest boarding students, Stevens said.

Among those who lived upstairs from their classrooms was Rosa DeLauro of New Haven, the veteran Democratic congresswoman from the 3rd District.

"The years I spent at Lauralton Hall were the best years of my life," DeLauro said. "It was there that I learned to nourish my mind and my heart - to reach out, to work hard, to fulfill my potential and be whatever I wanted to be. I am closer with the friends I made at Lauralton than those I made in college."

At one time, the school accepted girls as young as 4, Stevens said, and offered kindergarten and eight primary grades, as well as high school-level classes. The boarding school closed in 1956.

The Sisters of Mercy, a religious order dedicated to the education of young women, staffed and ran the school for much of its existence, but there are now only three nuns on the faculty.

Though Lauralton continues to be owned and sponsored by the Sisters of Mercy, since 1973 the school has been managed by a board of trustees made up of men and women from the education, banking, law and business fields.

The board created the position of president to oversee planning, development and community relations. Barbara C. Griffin, who has an extensive background in Catholic education, has been Lauralton's president the past two years.

The school, which comes under the auspices of the Archdiocese of Hartford, provides religious education courses and requires its students to perform community service projects.

With enrollment at 453 students this year, close to the school's capacity, Principal Ann Pratson said administrators are considering breaking down walls, as Lauralton has done symbolically for a century, to turn those offices into classrooms.

There have been changes through the years that have been embraced by the young women at the school. The cheerleaders for example, now cheer for Lauralton's own sports teams, not for the young men at Fairfield College Preparatory School, as they had for years. "Some girls didn't want to do it as much when there was no Prep football [to cheer for]," Stevens said. "But we've had quite a turnaround, and our cheerleaders have been featured in a national magazine."

There are advanced-placement classes in many academic subjects, including Latin and physics, which many high schools don't offer. "We believe women can do anything, and they can excel in math and science," Pratson said. Scores on the Scholastic Aptitude Test are well above the state and national averages, and 100 percent of Lauralton's recent graduating classes have gone on to four-year colleges, the principal said. The annual tuition is $10,600, and the school offers need-based and academic scholarships.

But academics are only one element of what makes Lauralton special, alumnae and students said. Many students are the third or fourth generation of their families to attend. Ryan Donahue, a senior from Trumbull, is the daughter of the school's alumnae director, Kathleen Donahue. Ryan, wearing a plastic apron and safety goggles, was setting up her first lab experiment in her oceanography class last week. "I was looking to take a lab science that was different than what other schools offer," she said. The elective course, taught by Dawn Poulin, will have students dissect squid and measure the metabolic rate of clams this semester.

For Kathleen Donahue, who with Stevens is organizing the school's 100th anniversary celebrations, this is a poignant year. "My daughter will graduate as I celebrate my 25th reunion and the school marks its 100th anniversary," said Donahue, the school's alumnae director. "My daughter is walking in the same halls I do. She loves this school and has taken its values to heart."

Edna Waters Miller, a Bridgeport native who graduated from Lauralton Hall in 1941, has seen her five daughters and four granddaughters go through the school. "It was something I always hoped for - that if the Lord gave me a daughter that I could send her to Lauralton. He sent me five," said Miller, who now lives in Fairfield. "There is a pervasive spirituality about that place, and I loved every minute I was there. It was a small school; there were only 38 people in my class."

Through the years, in keeping with the school's philosophy that women can do anything, alumnae have distinguished themselves in the fields of medicine, sports, performing arts, journalism, law and paleontology. Jennifer Smith, who lived in Trumbull when she attended Lauralton, was part of a research team that identified a dinosaur species, Donahue said. Smith now lives in the St. Louis area.

Other notable alumnae include Cynthia Kennard, Class of 1972, who has worked in the London and Moscow bureaus of CBS News; Judith Lisi, 1964, the former head of the Shubert Theater Foundation in New Haven and the current president of the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center; Marcia Kiesel, 1975, cookbook author and director of test kitchens for Food and Wine magazine; Marcia Frederick, gymnastics gold medal winner at the 1980 Olympics; Kathleen Lenihan Nastri, 1979, the first woman president of the Connecticut Trial Lawyers Association; and Mary Morgan Wolff, 1965, warden of the Webster Correctional Institute in Cheshire.

To connect with her far-flung alumnae network, Donahue has revamped a newsletter into a quarterly magazine and added a blog for graduates to the school's Web site. "You have to keep up with the times," the alumnae director said.

Archbishop Henry Mansell will celebrate the 100th anniversary Mass in the Lauralton Hall chapel at 3 p.m. Friday to officially open the centennial observance.