Cardigan Mountain School

Cardigan Mountain School, also called Cardigan or CMS, for short, is an all-boys independent boarding school for grades six through nine, located on 62 Alumni Drive, Canaan, New Hampshire, USA. It was founded in 1945 on land provided by Dartmouth College.

Cardigan Mountain School
Address
62 Alumni Dr

Canaan, New Hampshire 03741
Information
TypePrivate boarding school
Founded1945
HeadmasterChristopher D. Day
Faculty60
Grades6-9
Enrollment215
Average class size12
Student to teacher ratio4:1
Campus size500 acres (200 ha)
Campus typeRural
Color(s)   
Athletics12 interscholastic sports
33 interscholastic teams
MascotCougar
RivalEaglebrook School
Websitewww.cardigan.org

It is a member of the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS), The Association of Boarding Schools (TABS), the Junior Boarding Schools Association (JBSA), and the Independent Schools Association of Northern New England (ISANNE). It is accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC).[1]

History

Cardigan Mountain School was founded in 1945 by a group of men with a vision for an educational program tailored to the needs of boys in the pre-preparatory school years.[2] The founders were prominent New England educators, businessmen, and civic leaders, including Ernest Martin Hopkins (president of Dartmouth College), William R. Brewster (headmaster of Kimball Union Academy), and Ralph Flanders (a U.S. senator from Vermont). Land for the school's campus had originally been donated to Dartmouth College by the Haffenreffer family. The founders believed the location to be ideal for a boys' school: the land and Haffenreffer mansion, which initially housed classrooms and a dormitory and is now called Clark-Morgan Hall, are situated on a peninsula in Canaan Street Lake with views of Mount Cardigan and the White Mountains to the east and the Green Mountains to the west. The school opened in 1946 with an enrollment of 24 boys, and its growth was fueled by the merger of the Clark School of Hanover, New Hampshire into Cardigan in 1953.[3]

Mission statement: Cardigan Mountain School offers a close-knit community that prepares middle school boys—in mind, body, and spirit—for responsible and meaningful lives in a global society.

Summer session

Cardigan Mountain School runs its Summer Session usually beginning in June and ending in August. Summer Session, unlike the academic year program, is coeducational and serves younger students (grades three through nine) for three- and six-week experiences that include academic enrichment classes in the morning, and summer-camp style activities for the rest of the day. A highlight of the summer's activities is a competition known as "Green and White" that runs throughout the Summer Session in which students are assigned to either the Green Team or the White Team to compete in an activity selected by the faculty on a Wednesday evening. The students will wear special (green or white) tee shirts on Green and White nights. In 2011, the Cardigan Outdoor Recreation Expeditions (C.O.R.E.)[4] program was added to its Summer Session offerings. C.O.R.E. participants experience week-long trips that may include hiking, camping, canoeing, kayaking, and outdoor education programming.

Facilities

The school has numerous dormitories and houses for boarding students and faculty.

Dormitories
  • Hayward 1 and 2
  • Clark Morgan
  • Brewster 1 and 2
  • Hinman 1 and 2
  • French 1and 2
  • McCusker 1 and 2

Houses
  • Franklin
  • Greenwood
  • Banks
  • Funnell
  • Dewar

Other buildings and facilities

The school's principal academic buildings are Hopkins, Bronfman (where science labs are located) and Stoddard (which houses the school's library and the Humann Theatre as well as classrooms). Other facilities include the Cardigan Commons (which opened in May 2013), the school's chapel, the Hamilton Family Student Health Center, the Kenerson Athletic Center, the Wakely Center (includes the Turner Arena hockey rink and Johnson-Wakely Fitness Center and wrestling facility), the Charles C. Gates I.D.E.A. Shop (which includes a woodshop), athletic fields, tennis courts, mountain biking course, woods and trails, a sledding slope on Clancy Hill, and a boat house with a fleet of boats on Canaan Street Lake. The school once maintained and ran a ski slope on property known as The Pinnacle, but it is no longer in use.[5] The school has an indoor hockey rink known as Turner Arena, located in the Wakely Center, which converts to four tennis courts in the spring.

Notable alumni

References
  1. "CIS Directory of Schools". New England Association of Schools and Colleges Commission on Independent Schools (CIS). Archived from the original on 2008-10-10. Retrieved 2008-09-26.
  2. Pearson, Haydn (August 3, 1952). "Basic Instruction, Happy Living Keystones of Cardigan School". Boston Herald.
  3. Hopkins, Robert C.; Rearick, Richard R. (1995). Cardigan Mountain School: History, 1945-1995. Littleton, NH: Sherwin Dodge. pp. 11–88.
  4. "C.O.R.E. Website". Archived from the original on 2013-11-10.
  5. "The Pinnacle, Cardigan Mountain School, Canaan, NH, c. 1964-1980s". New England Lost Ski Areas Project. Retrieved 8 October 2013.
  6. "Ben Lovejoy Brings Stanley Cup Back to School". NHL.com. National Hockey League. Retrieved 6 August 2016.

Further reading
  • "Bring a Broom" Time magazine article, December 30, 1946
  • Hopkins, Robert C.; Rearick, Richard R. (1995). Cardigan Mountain School: History, 1945–1995. Littleton, NH: Sherwin Dodge.
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