Talk:Virginia Episcopal School

assess
Hello. More topics and referencing to expand this. I have added some wikification. No idea who the alumni are - could there be a few words of explanation/ a reference or both. Pics would help. Welcome. (Oh! I guess this is a boys school from the motto ... it doesn't say so ... Victuallers 14:06, 2 May 2007 (UTC)


 * I added one photo. It's a coed school. Aigrette (talk) 03:18, 7 January 2011 (UTC)

Updating History
The history of the school is spotty and not fully formulated. I ask that you accept the following basic updates to provide a more robust picture:

The citation for all of this information is: Our Centennial History: Virginia Episcopal School 1916-2016 Abrams Mary Molyneux Blackwell Press 2015 978-1-938205-20-0 Lynchburg, VA 4-10, 22-23, 34,109-111,123, 158-166

Recognizing a void in educational opportunities in the South, in 1906, Dr. Robert Carter Jett formulated a plan that called for immediate action by the Episcopal Church of Southern Virginia to establish a way for deserving youth from all walks of life to achieve a superior secondary education. Bishop Jett made a commitment that tuition remain low so that the school would remain accessible to “families of limited means.” The school's mission — “The Full Stature of Manhood” — based on the Letter of St. Paul to the Ephesians Chapter 1, vv 15-23 — conveyed the founders' conviction that a quality education meant “training with character as its end."

Bishop Jett tapped the nationally distinguished architect Frederick H. Brooke to design a classically proportioned complex of red-brick buildings, which received both Virginia Historic Landmark and National Register of Historic Places designations in 1992. Virginia Episcopal School opened its doors to students in September 1916. Jett Hall was completed the same year under the direction of Frederick H. Brooke, a prominent Washington architect. Pendleton Hall was completed in 1918, enabling enrollment to be increased from 63 to 111 boys. In 1919, Langhorne Memorial Chapel was consecrated. This was followed by the opening of Barksdale Gymnasium in 1920.

The most prominent early donor to Jett’s vision was Lady Nancy Langhorne Astor [Viscountess Astor]— the first female elected to the British House of Commons and world symbol of women’s rights. When the determined founder of VES was visiting Lady Astor’s family estate, Mirador, in Albemarle County, Virginia, he bravely requested a charitable contribution to the school. Lady Astor promised Jett $10,000 on the condition that he raise $100,000 — a gift Jett described as “the first big spark” of financial support. Lady Astor maintained a keen interest in the school for the rest of her life and was instrumental in having her father, Chiswell Dabney Langhorne, donate in 1919 the school chapel—Langhorne Memorial Chapel—in memory of his wife, Nancy Witcher Keene (parents of Lady Astor).

During Jett’s lifetime — from the founding through the Great Depression and early years of World War II — Hamilton M. Barksdale and his wife, the former Ethel duPont, were the school’s largest benefactors. Mr. Barksdale, who served as General Manager of the E.I. duPont de Nemours and Company, made substantial donations to the original building fund. In 1919, Mrs. Barksdale honored her husband’s legacy with the landmark Barksdale Memorial Gymnasium. On the threshold of the Depression, Bishop Jett began an ambitious fundraising initiative to eliminate the school’s debt. Rising to the challenge were benefactors Lettie Pate Whitehead Evans, whose gifts to the VES debt-fund made her the school’s third-largest donor during that critical era.

Originally all-male and not integrated, in 1967, VES became the first in Virginia and among the first Southern boarding schools to integrate when the first two black students entered the school in a successful initiative organized by the Stouffer Foundation, which also arranged the integration of other elite prep schools in the South, including Saint Andrew's School in Florida, the Asheville School in North Carolina, and the Westminster School in Georgia.

VES’ mission to guide boys “toward full stature” broadened to encompass girls in 1986 when VES became the first boarding school in Virginia to coeducate.

Catherine Varner (talk) 06:14, 19 September 2019 (UTC)CatherineVarner


 * The content here is unambiguously promotional (ie. "nationally distinguished architect") and you still have yet to properly declare your COI as prompted on your talk page. This isn't basic, accurate, data. This is a promotional toned fluff piece. The content on the page currently is fine. Please read over our neutral point of view policy. HickoryOughtShirt?4 (talk) 06:16, 19 September 2019 (UTC)
 * Additionally, the same problems persist throughout the alumni section, which has been edited to include some people that simply aren't notable by Wikipedia standards. Nulltech (talk) 14:07, 30 September 2019 (UTC)