Friends Select School (FSS) is a college-preparatory,
Quaker
Quakers are people who belong to the Religious Society of Friends, a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations. Members refer to each other as Friends after in the Bible, and originally, others referred to them as Quakers ...
school for pre-kindergarten through 12th grade located at 1651
Benjamin Franklin Parkway
Benjamin Franklin Parkway, commonly abbreviated to Ben Franklin Parkway and colloquially called the Parkway, is a boulevard that runs through the cultural heart of Philadelphia, the nation's sixth-largest city as of 2020.
The parkway is named ...
at the intersection of Cherry and N. 17th Streets in
Center City Philadelphia
Center City includes the central business district and central neighborhoods of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. It comprises the area that made up the City of Philadelphia prior to the Act of Consolidation, 1854, which extended the ci ...
. Quaker education in
Philadelphia
Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...
dates back to 1689. Friends Select, which was founded in 1833, has been located on this site since 1885.
The current building, which includes an office building owned by the school, was built in 1967-69. An adjacent campus building is located across the street at 1700
Race Street. The
Race Street Meetinghouse, built in 1856, is used by students and faculty for
Meeting for Worship
A meeting for worship is what the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) call their church service. Quakers#Splits, Different branches of Quakers have different types of worship, primarily consisting of three types. A meeting for worship in Engl ...
each Wednesday and Thursday. The school is under the joint care of both the Central Philadelphia
Monthly Meeting and the Monthly Meeting of Friends of Philadelphia, held at the
Arch Street Meeting House, and is governed by a board of trustees comprised equally of the two.
History
Friends Select School traces its history to the founding of the first Friends school managed directly by the Monthly Meeting of Friends of Philadelphia in 1689.
19th century
Friends Select has existed in its current form since 1833 and has been at its present location since 1885.
In 1832, a committee was appointed to set up two select schools.
In January 1833, a Select School for Boys opened in the meetinghouse on Orange Street (located from 7th to 8th Streets, between
Locust
Locusts (derived from the Latin ''locusta'', locust or lobster) are various species of short-horned grasshoppers in the family Acrididae that have a swarming phase. These insects are usually solitary, but under certain circumstances they b ...
and
Spruce
A spruce is a tree of the genus ''Picea'' ( ), a genus of about 40 species of coniferous evergreen trees in the family Pinaceae, found in the northern temperate and boreal ecosystem, boreal (taiga) regions of the Northern hemisphere. ''Picea'' ...
streets.) and a Select School for Girls opened in the meeting house on 12th Street at 20 South 12th St.
In 1885, a new school building on Sixteenth Street above Arch was nearing completion with a capacity for 60 scholars of each sex in the upper schools, and of twenty in each of the Primaries. In 1886, the boys' select school and the girls' select school moved to 16th and Cherry streets, the same location as present-day 17th Street and the Parkway. In 1886, the Parkway had not been constructed.
The school was built on the site of what was originally a
Quaker
Quakers are people who belong to the Religious Society of Friends, a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations. Members refer to each other as Friends after in the Bible, and originally, others referred to them as Quakers ...
burial ground that comprised the entire block; the remains were re-interred elsewhere to accommodate construction of the Parkway and site buildings.
An additional building was constructed in 1892, and a covered passageway joined the two buildings in 1894. A succession of additions extended the school along Cherry Street, almost the length of the block.
20th century
Construction of the
Benjamin Franklin Parkway
Benjamin Franklin Parkway, commonly abbreviated to Ben Franklin Parkway and colloquially called the Parkway, is a boulevard that runs through the cultural heart of Philadelphia, the nation's sixth-largest city as of 2020.
The parkway is named ...
was completed in 1916. A modern gymnasium was added in the late 1950s. In 1965, the school committee became serious about developing 17th and the Parkway for joint use.
The decision was made to tear down the old Friends Select School and to build a new school building and office building on the same site. Once school closed in the sixth month of 1967, preparations were made to move to the Central YMCA located at 1421
Arch Street.
For approximately a year and a half, the school relocated and classes were held at the Central Branch of the YMCA, about two blocks away, first on the third floor for the 1967-68 school year, then on the fourth floor for the fall of the 1968-69 school year. Construction had proceeded far enough for classes to move into the uncompleted new school building when Christmas break ended following New Year's Day, 1969. The Class of 1967 was the last class to graduate from the old school building, the Class of 1968 graduated from the YMCA location, and the Class of 1969 was the first class to graduate from the current school building.
The current building, which includes an office building owned by the school, was begun in 1967 and completed in 1969. An adjacent campus building is located across the street at 1700 Race Street. The office building occupies a 110 ft. wide strip along the south side of the property. The school owns the entire city block on which both structures are located. This building was originally leased to the Pennsalt Chemicals Corporation, later renamed Pennwalt, in a 99-year ground lease to help finance construction of the current school building. As of 2016,
Drexel University
Drexel University is a private university, private research university with its main campus in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Drexel's undergraduate school was founded in 1891 by Anthony Joseph Drexel, Anthony J. Drexel, a financier ...
is the tenant.
Lower school
Class size usually ranges from 12 to 20 students, with assistant teachers providing additional support in pre-kindergarten through grade three.
Middle school
Class size ranges from 15 to 20 students. Students have separate teachers for English, history, mathematics, science, and world languages. Specialists teach music, performance, visual art, and physical education. There is a six-day circuit, so students do not have the same classes every specific day of the week. Seventh and eighth graders sit for final academic exams. All students receive letter grades supplemented by extensive teacher commentary.
Upper school
Class size ranges from 5 to 18 students, and major courses used to meet five times in a six-day cycle, including a double period for each course. However at the start of the 2020-2021 school year, the upper school switched to a cycle based on the days of the week where all major courses were allotted an hour and five minutes. Faculty advisers counsel students on academic and social issues. A grade dean, a faculty member who monitors student progress and oversees the grade's advisory structure, remains with the class through graduation. Advisories, groups of eight to 10 students, also stay together through twelfth grade.
Athletics
The athletic program, open to students in grades five through twelve, helps students build a sense of self-esteem and of community through teamwork and individual accomplishment. Students learn skills and strategies of the games and participation in the athletic program encourages good sportsmanship, responsibility, and time management skills.
Facilities
Friends Select's athletic facilities include:
*25-yard swimming pool
*Full gymnasium
*Wrestling gymnasium
*Weight room
*Girls' locker room
*Boys' locker room
*Roof-top athletic fields (includes 8 tennis courts, field hockey field)
*Fitness center
*Dance studio
*Soccer, softball and baseball fields in Fairmount Park
*
Vesper Boat House
Friends Schools’ League Participating Schools
Abington Friends School
Abington Friends School is an independent Quaker school in Abington Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, United States, with a Jenkintown postal address. Serving students from age 3 to grade 12, Abington Friends School has stood on its or ...
,
The Academy of the New Church,
Friends' Central School,
George School,
Germantown Friends School,
Jack M. Barrack Hebrew Academy,
The Shipley School, and
Westtown School
Westtown School is a Quaker, coeducational, college preparatory day and boarding school for students in pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade, located in West Chester, Pennsylvania, United States, 20 miles west of Philadelphia. Founded in 179 ...
are the other eight members of the conference.
Student life
The Arts
The art curriculum, often interdisciplinary and multicultural, centers on engaging lessons based on the elements and principles of art and design. A major focus each year is the Lower School Artist Study. Weekly sessions in the art room from pre-kindergarten through second grade are taught in half-class groups.
Music
Music is a multi-tiered program offering singing, Orff instruments, movement and at least two stage performances per year. These revolve around thematic studies, or might simply be songs, skits, or dances that develop from students’ collective creativity. There are two weekly sessions in the music room for pre-kindergarten through second grade; three weekly sessions are offered to grades three and four.
Artist study
For a period each year, the lower school studies a special artist, one whose life provides an interesting story and whose artwork has a special appeal to children. Artists chosen recently have included ceramist, naturalist, painter and printer
Walter Inglis Anderson
Walter Inglis Anderson (September 29, 1903 – November 30, 1965) was an American painter and writer.
Anderson died from cancer November 30, 1965, at the age of 62.
Early life and education
Anderson was born in New Orleans to George Walter A ...
, sculptor and teacher
Selma Burke, architect
Frank Lloyd Wright
Frank Lloyd Wright Sr. (June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was an American architect, designer, writer, and educator. He designed List of Frank Lloyd Wright works, more than 1,000 structures over a creative period of 70 years. Wright played a key ...
, illustrator and author
Charles Santore, ceramist
Josefina Aguilar, filmmaker
Hayao Miyazaki
is a Japanese animator, filmmaker, and manga artist. He co-founded Studio Ghibli and serves as honorary chairman. Throughout his career, Miyazaki has attained international acclaim as a masterful storyteller and creator of Anime, Japanese ani ...
, and designer and director
Julie Taymor
Julie Taymor (born December 15, 1952) is an American director and writer of theater, opera, and film. Her stage adaptation of ''The Lion King (musical), The Lion King'' debuted in 1997 and received eleven Tony Awards, Tony Award nominations, with ...
. The objective is to experience the vision of an individual artist, learn ways that art is used in various cultures and come to appreciate the choices that each artist makes in terms of work and life. Each student artist creates his or her own artwork based on the themes and techniques of the artist being studied. The study concludes with an exhibit of every child's work and an interdisciplinary music-drama-art performance.
Middle school
=Fine Arts
=
All middle school students take visual arts and music each year. In addition, students can choose to participate in orchestra, ensemble, chorus, or drama. These are performing ensembles. There is also an annual middle school drama production open to any middle school student who wishes to participate.
Upper School
=Fine Arts
=
Students complete at least two fine arts courses. Offerings in the performing arts include Choir, Introduction to Directing, Instrumental Ensemble and American Music in the 20th century. Courses in the visual arts include Art Foundations, Drawing and Painting I and II, Photography I and II, Introduction to Filmmaking, Studio Major, Graphic Design and Metalsmithing.
=Philadelphia Museum of Art Research Project
=
In year two of the Interdisciplinary Sequence, ninth grade students study at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. There, students select a work of art from the Medieval to Renaissance periods as their research focus. The culmination of the course is an evening at the museum, where each student presents a detailed and comprehensive description of a work of art to an audience of parents, friends, faculty and museum-goers.
Extra curricular activities
Co-curricular involvement is an integral part of each middle schooler's experience. It may include the literary magazine, mainstage theater, student government, peer tutoring, movie night and more. In addition, each student is required to participate in at least one season of after-school interscholastic athletics per year.
Upper school students select co-curricular activities from a variety of options. Opportunities include two mainstage productions each year, instrumental music and choir performances, student government, and such organizations as the Multicultural Student Union, the Jewish Student Union, the ''Falcon'' (student newspaper), ''The Cauldron'' (arts and literary journal), Worship & Ministry, the Operation Smile Club, Model UN, and the Mock Trial Team. In ninth and tenth grades, all students are required to participate in at least one season of after-school sports or in one theatrical production. Friends Select competes in the Friends School League and with other independent as well as public and parochial schools.
Notable alumni
*
Mira Sharpless Townsend (1798–1859), social reformer, activist and founder of the Rosine Association for the support of destitute women
*
Barrie Ciliberti, former
Maryland State Delegate
*
Patricia Degener (1924–2008), artist who specialized in
ceramics
A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant, and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porce ...
*
Anna Elizabeth Dickinson, lecturer for the abolition of slavery and for women's rights during the Civil War
*
Jennifer Freyd, 1974, psychology professor, author, founder and President of the Center for Institutional Courage
*
Andrea Kremer, 1976, sports reporter for
NBC Sports
NBC Sports is an American programming division for NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, that is responsible for sports broadcasts on their broadcast network NBC, the Cable television, cable channels NBC owns, and on Peacock (streaming service) ...
and former reporter for
ESPN
ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...
*
Louis Massiah, 1972, documentary filmmaker
*
John McWhorter
John Hamilton McWhorter V (; born October 6, 1965) is an American linguist. He is an associate professor of linguistics at Columbia University, where he also teaches American studies and music history. He has authored a number of books on race ...
, 1983,
linguist
Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...
at Columbia University, author
*
Peter O. Price, media executive and business person
*
Wendell Pritchett, Chancellor of
Rutgers University–Camden
Rutgers University–Camden is one of three regional campuses of Rutgers University, a public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. It is located in Camden, New Jersey. Founded in 1926 as the South Jersey Law ...
, Interim Dean and Presidential Professor at the
University of Pennsylvania Law School
The University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School (also known as Penn Carey Law, or Penn Law; previously University of Pennsylvania Law School) is the law school of the University of Pennsylvania, a private Ivy League research university in Phi ...
, and Provost of the
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...
*
David Schlessinger, 1972, founder of United States retail stores
Zany Brainy and
Five Below
*
Richard Vaux
Richard Vaux (December 19, 1816 – March 22, 1895) was an American politician who served as a Democratic Party (United States), Democratic member of the U.S. House of Representatives for Pennsylvania's 3rd congressional district from 1890 to 1891 ...
, United States Congressman, Mayor of Philadelphia
*
Aharon Wasserman, 2005, computer technologist
[
]
*
Maia Weintraub (born 2002), 2021, fencer, Two-time U.S. National Women's Foil Champion (2019, 2023), 2022 NCAA Individual Women's Foil Champion, Olympic Gold Medalist (Paris, 2024, U.S. women's team foil)
"Maia Weintraub ’21 Heads to the Olympics,"
Friends Select, November 5, 2021.
References
External links
Official website
{{Authority control
1833 establishments in Pennsylvania
Center City, Philadelphia
Educational institutions established in 1833
High schools in Philadelphia
Private elementary schools in Pennsylvania
Private middle schools in Pennsylvania
Private high schools in Pennsylvania
Quaker schools in Pennsylvania