With the retirement of Miss Jane Allen Saxon and Miss Lois Robison, the Board of Trustees asked Mrs. Gertrude Houk Fariss to return in 1954. Mrs. Fariss had been the dean of the Junior College before its closure in 1947 and had great executive abilities. Mrs. Fariss called upon parents, faculty, and alumnae to help the school regain a firm financial foundation after years of mounting deficits. With their help the school weathered a severe financial crisis in 1954.

Social events proliferated at the Hall in the 1950s. The year began with the Old Girl-New Girl Tea in Scadding Hall or on the lawn. The Christmas season included a visit from Santa Claus and a formal dance, and the highlight of the season was a dramatic presentation of the Christmas story and the announcement of the girl who would portray the Virgin Mary, a coveted role in that production. The annual Country Fair fund-raiser began in the early 1950s and continued for decades.

The uniform for girls was a navy blue jumper and a short-sleeved blouse topped with a dark blue blazer. Each student wore a colored scarf to indicate her class. Skirts were required to reach mid-calf, and the boys in the Lower School word navy blue cords, white shirts and pullover sweaters. The chapel veils were replaced with “beanies.”

The buildings of the campus consisted of Morris Hall, which housed the chapel, administration, library, classrooms, and dining rooms; Scott Hall, a residence; the Mary Rodney House for senior residents; Scadding Hall with its auditorium and music and art studios, the Lower School; the gymnasium; the preschool; and “the cottage,” a residence for students in fifth to eighth grades and occasionally even younger students.

In photo at right, Pat Kelley from Hawaii, Pat Vandel from Peru, and Helen Farmin from Idaho, prepare a horn of plenty in the SHH Chapel during the 1953-54 school year.

Information for this page was condensed from The First Century, a history of St. Helen's Hall written by Sally Reed Stout.

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