The 1890s
While St. Helen’s Hall had prospered, the diocese’s school for boys, Bishop Scott Academy, had floundered and was a financial drain on the diocese. The administration of both schools was taken out of the hands of the bishop and placed under a board of trustees in 1890. The new building was completed on the Vista site in 1891. However, the school suffered declining enrollment because of competition from a public high school, which was founded in 1883, and the Portland Academy, which opened in 1889. The Bishop Scott Academy for boys continued declining and then closed for good, and St. Helen’s Hall fell into debt.
The financial problems were augmented by a sense of personal loss when, on April 15, 1896, Mary Rodney died unexpectedly. Miss Eleanor Tibbetts, PhD, of Philadelphia and New York, was hired as principal.
A kindergarten was formed in 1896. Outdoor exercise was an important part of the school’s program and included calisthenics, walking, tennis, basketball, bicycling, and riding. On alternate Wednesday evenings, parlor lectures were given on various scientific, historic, and literary subjects. The school had three libraries: The Spencer Library contained 610 volumes on miscellaneous subjects, the Mary Rodney Memorial Art Library contained 300 volumes, and a lending library included miscellaneous books, laboratory equipment, and geological specimens. The monthly student publication was called “The Spinster.”
Information for this page was condensed from The First Century,
a history of St. Helen's Hall written by Sally Reed Stout.