The Dexter Southfield School is an
independent
Independent or Independents may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups
* Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in Pennsylvania, United States
* Independentes (English: Independents), a Portuguese artist ...
co-educational day school located in
Brookline, Massachusetts
Brookline () is an affluent town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States, and part of the Greater Boston, Boston metropolitan area. An exclave of Norfolk County, Brookline borders six of Boston's neighborhoods: Brighton, Boston, Brighton ...
, educating students from pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade. Dexter Southfield was founded in 1926 as the Dexter School. In 2013 the Dexter School merged with the sister school
Southfield School to form Dexter Southfield with which it had shared its campus since 1992.
Statement and School History
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History
The Dexter School was founded in 1926 in response to the closure of the Noble & Greenough Lower School and lack of educational opportunities for boys in the Brookline area. The Dexter School opened on Freeman Street in the affluent Cottage Farm neighborhood educating boys through ninth grade. Dexter was attended by Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. and the 35th president of the United States, John F. Kennedy, along with other notable figures. The school developed a strong bond with many of Boston's leading families with ties to the leading preparatory and Ivy League schools. In 1966, Dexter sold its campus on Freeman Street and moved to its present location on Mount Walley on Newton Street on the South Brookline/Jamaica Plain line. The school bought the property from the Catholic Foreign Mission Society of America who had resided on the site since 1945. The property was the former estate of Anna Sears, who had built a Mediterranean Revival Style villa on the site in 1924. As Dexter expanded, the school continued the style of the white stucco façade and red terra-cotta roof of the Sears House. Today, the original house remains the central structure on campus and houses the Senior Lounge, Business Office and Admissions Office. In preparation for the school's move in 1966, the A building, Fiske Hall, and pool and gymnasium were built to the west of the Sears House. The Thorndike Hockey rink was added to the campus in 1973. From its long tradition as a boy's lower school, Dexter has undergone a vast transformation over the last 25 years. In the 1990s, further additions were made to the campus including the construction of the Mid-Rise and original lower school building. In 1992, the Southfield School was established on the same campus to expand Dexter's educational philosophy to young girls. In 2002, the Upper School was established to enable both the Dexter and Southfield schools to continue the school's mission into the competitive secondary school market. The Clay Center was also constructed to the east of the Sears House greatly altering the school campus. The new center included a new lecture hall, dining hall and fifth floor observatory. In 2011 Mr. and Mrs. William Phinney, who had led the school since 1964, and oversaw its move and expansion, retired after 47 years at the school. In 2013, the school was rededicated as the Dexter Southfield School, after receiving formal accreditation from the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC) Today, Dexter Southfield students offers single-sex classrooms in Pre-K through 8 and co-education in grades 9 through 12.
Campus
The campus on the Boston-Brookline border includes buildings such as Fiske Hall and the Sears House grace the campus. Of particular note is the Clay Center for Science and Technology which provided students with classroom opportunities as well as an astronomical observatory.
Academics
Dexter Southfield School's curriculum includes arts as painting, wood shop, choir, and much more. Beginning in Kindergarten 2, each homeroom does one public speaking event per year. When in seventh grade, each student takes Latin or a modern language. Every student in the seventh and eighth grades is required to take a language and all students take six classes in grade 8. In the high school, there are approximately fifteen AP courses offering anything from AP Physics to AP European History to AP Latin. There are also honors and accelerated level classes for most courses. There are many upper class electives in history, English, and science.
Athletics
The Varsity Hockey team is year after year one of the strongest in New England competing against teams like Cushing, Nobles
Nobility is a social class found in many societies that have an aristocracy. It is normally appointed by and ranked immediately below royalty. Nobility has often been an estate of the realm with many exclusive functions and characteristics. T ...
, Belmont Hill, Kimball Union, and Salisbury
Salisbury ( , ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and civil parish in Wiltshire, England with a population of 41,820, at the confluence of the rivers River Avon, Hampshire, Avon, River Nadder, Nadder and River Bourne, Wi ...
. Dexter's Varsity Tennis in 2012 was in NEPSAC Class A and beat teams like Phillips Andover and Phillips Exeter and advanced to the semifinals of the Class A tournament. The Varsity Hockey, Lacrosse, Tennis, Football, and Baseball teams have all had many athletes continue their careers at the Division 1 level of NCAA sports.
Notable alumni
* John F. Kennedy, 35th President of the United States
The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president directs the Federal government of the United States#Executive branch, executive branch of the Federal government of t ...
(1961–1963)
* Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. Brother of John F. Kennedy, Naval aviator during World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
; killed in action
* John W. Sears, American lawyer, historian and politician
* F. Warren McFarlan, Professor of Business Administration, Emeritus, at Harvard Business School
Harvard Business School (HBS) is the graduate school, graduate business school of Harvard University, a Private university, private Ivy League research university. Located in Allston, Massachusetts, HBS owns Harvard Business Publishing, which p ...
* Dmitri Nabokov, son of Vladimir Nabokov
Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov ( ; 2 July 1977), also known by the pen name Vladimir Sirin (), was a Russian and American novelist, poet, translator, and entomologist. Born in Imperial Russia in 1899, Nabokov wrote his first nine novels in Rus ...
, opera singer and author
* Story Musgrave
Franklin Story Musgrave (born August 19, 1935) is an American physician and a retired NASA astronaut. He is a public speaker and consultant to both Disney's Imagineering group and Applied Minds in California. In 1996, he became only the second a ...
, Astronaut
An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a List of human spaceflight programs, human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member of a spa ...
* Ben Bradlee
Benjamin Crowninshield Bradlee (, 1921 – , 2014) was an American journalist who served as managing editor and later as executive editor of ''The Washington Post'', from 1965 to 1991. He became a public figure when the ''Post'' joined ''The ...
, Editor of ''The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...
''
* McGeorge Bundy
McGeorge "Mac" Bundy (March 30, 1919 – September 16, 1996) was an American academic who served as the U.S. National Security Advisor to Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson from 1961 through 1966. He was president of the Ford Fou ...
, United States National Security Advisor
* William Bundy, American attorney and intelligence expert
* Gaston Caperton
William Gaston Caperton III (born February 21, 1940) is an American politician who served as the 31st governor of West Virginia from 1989 to 1997. He was president of the College Board, which administers the nationally recognized SAT and Advanced ...
, Governor of West Virginia
A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the type of political region or polity, a ''governor'' ma ...
, President of the College Board
The College Board, styled as CollegeBoard, is an American not-for-profit organization that was formed in December 1899 as the College Entrance Examination Board (CEEB) to expand access to higher education. While the College Board is not an asso ...
* Ernie Adams, Director of Football Operations for the New England Patriots
The New England Patriots are a professional American football team based in the Greater Boston area. The Patriots compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East division. The Pa ...
* David Walton, actor
* Ryan Donato, ice hockey
Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...
player for the Chicago Blackhawks
The Chicago Blackhawks (spelled Black Hawks until 1986, and known colloquially as the Hawks) are a professional ice hockey team based in Chicago. The Blackhawks compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division (N ...
* Conor Garland, ice hockey
Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...
player for the Vancouver Canucks
The Vancouver Canucks are a professional ice hockey team based in Vancouver. The Canucks compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Pacific Division (NHL), Pacific Division in the Western Conference (NHL), Western Conferenc ...
* Matthew Boldy, ice hockey
Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...
player for the Minnesota Wild
The Minnesota Wild are a professional ice hockey team based in Saint Paul, Minnesota. The Wild compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division (NHL), Central Division in the Western Conference (NHL), Western Confer ...
* Jack Rathbone, ice hockey
Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...
player in the Buffalo Sabres
The Buffalo Sabres are a professional ice hockey team based in Buffalo, New York. The Sabres compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Division (NHL), Atlantic Division in the Eastern Conference (NHL), Eastern Con ...
organization
* Joshua Baez, baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...
player in St. Louis Cardinals organization
* Stephen Belichick, defensive coordinator, North Carolina Tar Heels football
References
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1926 establishments in Massachusetts
Defunct boys' schools in the United States
Educational institutions established in 1926
Private elementary schools in Massachusetts
Private high schools in Massachusetts
Private middle schools in Massachusetts
Schools in Norfolk County, Massachusetts