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atmosphere of academic success and leadership which continues
today.
Also. 40 years later, the study hall remains a study hall for
sixth graders, a place of intense concentration during exams
and also an occasional classroom, especially for one
seventh grade math section.
The "Pine Cone" housed the second through fifth grades
and the "Mushroom" nursery through first grades, an arrangement
which remained in effect until the late 1950’s.
Another major move came on Monday, May 2, 1940, when
the trustees of the Hartridge School and the trustees of The
Plainfield Country Day School announced a merger which
would take effect in September, 1940.
According to Barbara Hitchings, Mrs. Georgianna Hoadley
Smith Breese, an old Plainfield figure whose father was
with the Stock Market, founded the P.C.D.C. in 1933.
Miss Hitchings joined as head teacher through the connection
of the Child Education Foundation in New York, an
organization which helped organize the Plainfield school
and the place where Miss Hitchings trained.
Miss Hitchings was graduated from the University of
Maine in 1924, received a diploma from the Child Education
Foundation in 1926, and an A.M. from New York University
School of Education in 1948, having specialized in the field of
school psychology.
Before coming to Plainfield, Miss Hitchings was director
of the nursery school of Bowling Green Neighborhood
House. New York, and organized the nursery school of the
Mary C. Wheeler School in Providence. For seven years she
was in charge of the education program for the Plainfield
Country Day School. During the summers of 1933 to 1938 she
was in charge of the Educational Therapy Department of
Babies’ Hospital in New York.
Located in the big old Otterson house at 1333 Evergreen
Avenue, the school was based on Montessori principles and
accepted boys and girls.
The school opened with children from nursery school
through sixth grade and added a grade each year until 1940
when two young women graduated. There were 70 students
enrolled at the time of the merger, most of them in the
preschool and elementary grades.
Miss Hitchings said that a beech tree on the school property
is still standing, although the houses have been torn
down.
A squash court in the Otterson house was just right "for
Hartridge girls acting
Leal Basketball Team
storing outdoor equipment and playing in on rainy days. The
big sand box went to Hartridge, as did the big blocks for
building.”
All of the furniture in the Mushroom came from Evergreen
Avenue, and much playground equipment including swings
behind the Mushroom, which weren’t replaced until 1981.
Miss Elsie Goddard, who had joined the Plainfield Country
Day School in 1939 as co-director with Miss Hitchings, came
to Hartridge with the merger, as did most of the faculty,
trustees and students.
At Hartridge. Miss Hitchings and Harriet Sleeper were
chosen as associate principals by Miss Hartridge, while
Frances Hurrey was named principal. As Miss Hitchings
remembers it, each was paid $1,200 for her work.
Just as furniture, books and supplies were on the move
from the Plainfield Country Day School on Evergreen Avenue
to The Hartridge property on Plainfield Avenue, so too
was all of the equipment from the Hartridge building at
West Seventh Street and Arlington Avenue, a building
bought by the Plainfield Red Cross.
On Wednesday, Sept. 25, 1940, The Hartridge School reopened
as a day school.
Much had changed when less than a year later Miss
Mapelson died on July 25, 1941. Then Miss Hartridge died in
her sleep on Thursday night. Sept. 24,1942, at her apartment,
235 East 73rd Street, New York.
The news came as a shock to hundreds of former students
and former associates in Plainfield. She had been expected
to visit in town with two members of the faculty the following
weekend.
Funeral services were held in Savannah, and Miss Hartridge
was buried in the family plot in Bonaventure Cemetary,
Savannah. The memorial service for Miss Hartridge
was held on Oct. 12. 1942, at the Crescent Avenue Church in
Plainfield.
Trustees, faculty and students of The Hartridge School, as
well as former teachers, alumnae and friends, attended the
four o’clock service on Sunday.
Miss Amy L. Reed of the English department at Vassar
College represented the Associate Alumnae of Vassar. and
Miss Harriet L. Hunt, principal of the Kent Place School in
Summit, represented the Headmistresses Association of the
East, both groups with which Miss Hartridge was active.
All praised Miss Hartridge for her foresight as an educator
and an administrator, . a molder of women’s education.
Miss Frances A. Hurrey took over as principal after the
1940 commencement. She lead the school for II years and is
remembered for a number of accomplishments.
Among the most outstanding are: the organization of a
student government which became one of the strongest
features of the schooli evaluation and accreditation of the
Upper School by the Middle States Associations implementation
of a pension plan for faculty) student and faculty participation
in the Buck Hill Conference of the Council for
Religion in Independent Schools, an interest at Hartridge for
more than 20 years; establishment of a standardized
achievement testing program under the Educational Records
Bureau; and introduction of the evaluation of each
new student with an individually administered intelligence
test.
In a history of the Hartridge School published in The Hue
and Cry in April, 1965, is the following note: "Miss Hurrey
was gracious and charming. The school under her leadership
had an atmosphere of friendliness that was felt by faculty
and students alike. While guarding well the academic standard
which Miss Hartridge had established, she added the
gentleness and fun which were part of her personality. Her
sympathetic understanding and enthusiastic interest in the
girls and all they did was reflected by their devotion to her
and to the school. She was indeed a very happy choice as
principal.”
Although the United States was not yet at war, the school
had in its incoming student body several British refugees
who studied at Hartridge on partial scholarships offered by
the school. One such student was Marian Vans Agnew of
Truro, Cornwall, England, a high school student who resided
with her cousin. Mrs. William B. Jupp. at 915 Kensington
Avenue in Plainfield.
War changed everyone's life. The usual theory was that
school girls would suffer least disruption, and while this was
generally true, there were differences.
When the labor shortages became acute, the girls took
over major and minor cleaning chores in the classrooms and
halls. They swept floors, emptied wastebaskets, washed
blackboards, dusted chairs and desks.
Once again, all were members of the Junior Red Cross, the
organization Miss Hartridge founded nationwide. In addition
to annual donations, the girls voted to go without dessert
in the lunchroom one day a week, filling up on rolls to
help them last until supper and saving the nickels the desserts
represented.
Red Cross projects also included knitting afghans, sewing,
making scrapbooks and producing favors for the soldiers at
Lyons Veterans’ Hospital.
For its part, the service committee raised money by auctions.
Each girl and teacher brought something to school,
anything from a can of soup to a safety pin. Each item was
wrapped in secret and then auctioned off during assembly.
No one knew what she was bidding for. but there was
something about the crowd and the auction that really made
people part with their money.
The spring production of the dramatic club was given to
benefit the war effort.
On Dec. 9. 1946. Miss Frances Hurrey married Mr. Dixon
C. Philips, the mayor of Plainfield, in Montclair, N J. Inadvertantly,
Mrs. Philips’ marriage and the fact that she remained
head of the school may have been a first for Hartridge. for
unmarried teachers were virtually unknown at the time.
Mrs. Philips, Miss Hurrey at the time, had joined the
faculty in 1934 and become head of the French department
the next year.
As a member of the Head Mistresses Association of the
East, she served on its Professional Standards Committee
and was the representative from the association to the New
York Cooperative Bureau for Teachers. She also served on
the executive committee of the bureau. She was president
of the Alliance Francaise and a member of the Monday
Afternoon Club, the Plainfield College Club and the Mount
Holyoke Club of northern New Jersey.
In the fall of 1950. two new clubs were started, a drama
club under the direction of Mrs. Fred Wardlaw and a journalism
club, which produced a revised Wardlawsun for a couple
of years.
The Class of 1948 re-instituted the year book after a gap
of over 30 years.Yearbooks were issued in every subsequent
year except 1950. In 1951, Mr. Wardlaw was approaching 70.
and his strength, if not will, had been greatly drained by his
personal and physical tragedies.
Fred Wardlaw. although a devoted and loyal son, did not
have the desire to take over the active day-to-day running
of the school. It was at this time that Mr. Wardlaw turned to
Ralph Harris, a former teacher for a short period in the 30’s,
to assume the role of assistant principal.
Harris immediately rushed into the job with extreme vigor
and enthusiasm. In a short period, he revitalized the
school and literally kept it going until the sale to the Trustees
in 1959.
Harris, an indefatigable worker, was a combination business
manager, operations director, disciplinarian and athletic
director, among other things. He introduced soccer to
Wardlaw. replacing six-man football which had been played
in the late 40’s. Sports teams became better organized and
equipped during this period.
The Class of 1956 had ten members, the largest of the post
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