Memorial House Dedicated, Choate Veterans Immortalized 2006 • 2007 News Centennial Celebration
By Grace Ann Marrinan
The News Staff
On May 30, 1921, the dedication of Memorial House honored the sixteen students of the Choate School who lost their lives in World War I. William Choate Atwater laid the ceremonial cornerstone of the new dorm which contained a 1921 quarter, the names of the sixteen Choate soldiers who died in the war, a copy of the convocation speech, and a copy of The News. The dedication of the dorm on Memorial Day of 1921 honored the heroic deaths of the sixteen Choate boys. A plaque with the names of the soldiers who died hangs in the Mem House common room.
Four hundred and thirty-six parents and alumni of the Choate School contributed to the $200,000 required to build the new dorm. The school struggled to raise enough funds for the project, and still owed money after the building’s completion, but the contributions of alumni and parents made the project possible. We face a similar challenge today at Choate Rosemary Hall as the school must raise enough money to fund the construction of the two new dorms. Today, the current proposal is estimated to cost approximately 10 times more than the project in 1921, and though the plans for the construction are in place, the school has yet to secure all of the necessary funding from parent and alumni donations.
In 1921, Memorial House served as the campus of the Lower School, which included fifty boys from seventh to ninth grade. The building contained dorm rooms for the boys, a study hall, a dining hall, and classrooms. Its completion illuminated the gradual development of the Choate School. The school administrators hoped that the new building would allow the school to increase the number of students by twenty boys. Memorial House’s completion honored the previous generation of Choaties and opened new doors for the next generation.
