The two new dormitories on North Elm Street have been named the Rebecca Tenney Agnew ’27 and Arnold and Janet Bernhard dorms. The new dorms will host eighty students and eight faculty families, and will open in the fall of this year.
“The new dorms will be great, and will contribute significantly to campus life and the surroundings,” says Headmaster Edward J. Shanahan. These dorms will be the first new additions to grace the campus since Spencer House opened in 1962, before Rosemary Hall and Choate had merged. They will tower over North Elm and Curtis Avenue with a combined 57,000 square feet.
Mrs. Agnew, the lead donor, left the money for the dorms in her will, and had imagined a similar structure to her Smith College dorm. Her name will grace that of the fourth-form boys’ dorm, and will be called Tenney House. Mrs. Agnew wanted “artistry,” according to Daniel Courcey, Director of Development and Alumni Relations. The dorms will be modeled in a Georgian-Greek Revival design in her honor.
The News reported in a November 2005 article that Mrs. Agnew “loved being at Rosemary Hall,” according to Choate’s Former Director of Principal Gifts, Catherine Spinelli, who worked closely on the bequest. Her bequest of $6 million was to be donated either to residential life or athletics, and once she heard about the opportunity of donating to this initiative, she decided to put her gift behind it. Her 6 million was part of the 23 to 24 million required to build the dormitories. “We did have to borrow some to complete this project, as construction is cheapest now, and we don’t have to wait for pledges to come through,” says Courcey.
Born Rebecca Williams Tenney in Ardmore, Pennsylvania, Mrs. Agnew grew up in Greenwich and entered Rosemary Hall in 1919. She was the former head of Chorega, a vice-captain on the track team, and received the Prize for Improvement in Spoken English. Nicknamed “Billy,” Mrs. Agnew graduated in the class of 1927 and matriculated to Smith College.
Trustee Jean Buttner ’53, whose parents will be the namesake of the girls’ dorm, is the current Chairman of the Board, President, and CEO of Value Line, Inc. After graduating from Rosemary Hall, she matriculated at Vassar, and then to the Harvard-Radcliffe Program in Business Administration. She currently lives in Westport, CT, and serves on the Academic Affairs, Audit, Buildings and Grounds, and Student Life Committees.
Amy Salot, who has toured and contributed to the layout of the new dorms, says that they “will change the landscape of residential life here on campus.” The dorms will help contribute to the administration’s goal of single-form houses, and the elimination of small senior dorms. Some, like Brian McDermott ’08, complain about the administration’s decision to eliminate multi-form dorms: “There is something special to living both with older and younger grades, as well as living in a small senior dorm. The dorm arrangement is perfect now; I’m not sure why someone would want to change it.”
Mari-Taylor Troutman ’09, a prefect in the Buttner dorm, exclaims, “I’m so excited to live in the new dorms and start new traditions with the other prefects.” Students and faculty alike are excited about the prospect of being the first to be in either of the houses. James Stanley, currently a resident of Memorial House, says, “The faculty apartments are extremely well-designed, and the opportunity for my daughters to grow up with girls [The Bernhard House] made it a prime location for my family.” Freshman Jamie Greenwald ’11 agreed. He listed Tenney House as his first choice, noting, “I am excited to possibly be one of the first ones there… I’m keeping my fingers crossed that my roommate or I drew one of the winning numbers.”
A great arch to the street will be a defining feature of the dorms, as the connection between the girls’ and the boys’ dorms. A central courtyard that slopes down to the athletic fields will both serve as an informal meeting place for students and will also be a prime naming opportunity in the near future.
The dorms will also contain many conservation-friendly elements. The green elements will include a geo-thermal heat system that will use a standing column well system underground for heating and cooling, utilizing two 1,500 ft. deep-standing column wells. It will also include limited soil disturbance, native plantings, and the usage of sustainable materials such as engineered recycled wood flooring, brick, and stone counters in faculty apartments. Lizzie Needham, president of the Environmental Action Coalition, and Sustainability Committee member, says, “It’s really exciting that the school is taking its theme of ‘sustainability’ and applying it to our biggest project in years.”
