Haverford School

The Haverford School
Location
Wikimedia | © OpenStreetMap
Haverford , Pennsylvania United States
Coordinates	40°00′52″N 75°18′19″W / 40.01444°N 75.30528°W / 40.01444; -75.30528Coordinates: 40°00′52″N 75°18′19″W / 40.01444°N 75.30528°W / 40.01444; -75.30528
Information
Type	Private, all-boys
Established	1884
Headmaster	John A. Nagl
Enrollment	1,013 total 436 Upper School 225 Middle School 352 Junior Kindergarten, Kindergarten, and Lower School
Average class size	16 students (Upper School) 17 Students (Lower and Middle School)
Student to teacher ratio	8:1
Campus	Suburban
Color(s)	Maroon and Gold
Rival	Episcopal Academy Malvern Preparatory School
Newspaper	The Index
Website	haverford.org

The Haverford School is a private, non-sectarian, all-boys college preparatory day school, junior kindergarten through grade twelve. Founded in 1884 as The Haverford College Grammar School, it is located in Haverford, Pennsylvania.

History[]

The school was founded in 1884 at the request of Alexander and Lois Cassatt, niece of President James Buchanan, as The Haverford College Grammar School. Originally affiliated with neighboring Haverford College, in 1903 the school became independent, changed its name to The Haverford School, and moved to its current location across Railroad Avenue from the college. The school was Quaker during its affiliation with the college, but is now nonsectarian.

Haverford's original school colors were red and yellow for the first decade of the school's existence. However, after the outbreak of the Spanish–American War in 1898, the official colors were changed to maroon and gold out of national pride, since the colors of the Spanish flag were the same red and yellow.^[1]

Athletics[]

Football on EA Day

The Haverford School is a member of the Inter Academic Athletic Association, the country's oldest inter-scholastic athletic conference.^{[citation needed]}

With eighteen interscholastic sports, Haverford ranks among the top 20% of private high schools in Pennsylvania for amount of sports offered.^[2][3]

The Haverford School lacrosse team gained national fame when the Fords won national championships in 2011 and 2015 after undefeated seasons. The 2015 team won USA Today's All-USA Boys' Lacrosse Team honors. The Fords lacrosse team is the most awarded team in the Inter-Ac League, having won two national championships, ten state championships, and eighteen Inter-Ac titles.^[4]

In 2018–19, Haverford captured the Inter-Ac's Heyward Cup for overall excellence in athletic competition. The Fords have won the Heyward Cup 18 times, more than any other school in the league.^[5]

Athletic traditions[]

EA Day[]

Haverford is known for its long-running rivalry with fellow Inter-Academic League member Episcopal Academy. The two schools have competed annually since 1889 in Haverford-EA Day, a day of competition occurring each November.^[6] The winner is determined by who wins more of the day's five events: cross-country, water polo, soccer, golf and football. In the event of a tie, victory goes to the incumbent champion. Each year's winner earns the "Sweater". The Sweater is made from parts of uniform sweaters from each schools, cut in half and sewn together down the middle. Each school has a side, indicated by its colors, onto which years of victory are embroidered. Since the inception of the Sweater in 1987, Haverford leads Episcopal Academy with 18 Haverford/EA Day wins. Haverford held the Sweater for a decade between 2006 and 2016, the longest streak between either school.

#10ve Cup[]

A newer, friendly rivalry exists between Haverford and Garnet Valley High School's lacrosse teams. When Kip Taviano, a Concord Township-native and Haverford School lacrosse and football player, was killed in a 2013 car accident, the two schools came together to establish the #10ve Foundation in his memory. Haverford School and Garnet Valley compete in the #10ve Cup, an annual lacrosse event to benefit the Kip Taviano '13 Scholarship Fund.^[7]

Campus and facilities[]

The Haverford School is located ten miles from Center City Philadelphia. The school has ten buildings, including a LEED Gold certified Upper School building constructed in 2008 and an alumni gathering space unveiled as Nostrant Pavilion in 2012. Academic facilities include eighty classrooms, two libraries with a combined 40,000 volumes, eleven science and five computer labs, two auditoriums, two theaters, and ten art and nine music studios. The school has three gymnasiums, three turfs, one grass athletic field, four tennis courts, a twenty-five-meter pool, four squash courts, a rubberized outside track, a fitness center, and an off-campus crew boathouse in Conshohocken. Before the construction of the Conshohocken boathouse, the school's crew team was associated with Undine Barge Club in Boathouse Row.^[8]

At the beginning of the 2020-2021 academic year, Haverford unveiled a new middle school building. It is LEED Green certified and, at over 30,000 square feet, is double the size of its nearly 70-year-old predecessor, Crosman Hall.^[9]

Sister schools[]

Haverford's sister schools are the Baldwin School in nearby Bryn Mawr and the Agnes Irwin School. The three schools hold several academic and community service events together across the Philadelphia region.

Notable alumni[]

The Haverford School has notable alumni in the arts, sciences, government, and business, including Maxfield Parrish, Ronald Perelman, John Hickenlooper, Smedley Butler, Steve Sabol, Jennifer Finney Boylan, and John S. Middleton.^[10]

Headmasters[]

• Charles Sumner Crosman, 1884–1912
• Edwin Mood Wilson, 1912–1937
• Cornelius B. Boocock, 1937–1942
• Leslie R. Severinghaus, 1942–1965
• Kenneth Kingham, 1965–1966
• Davis R. Parker, 1966–1987
• William Boulton Dixon, 1987–1992
• Joseph P. Healey, 1992–1998
• Joseph T. Cox, 1998–2013
• John A. Nagl, 2013–2021.^[11]
• Tyler Casertano, 2021–present.^[12]

References[]

External links[]

• A History of the Haverford School by Headmaster Joseph Cox
• "Building Better Men", Huffington Post blog (by Upper School Head Matt Green); accessed July 29, 2015.