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Belltower
6300 SW Nicol Road
Portland, OR 97223
(503) 246-7771



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The 1960s

The big news of the 1960s at St. Helen’s Hall was its forced removal from its campus in downtown Portland. The state highway department told the school that Interstate 405 would cut through the campus, and the Hall was given until June 1964 to vacate the land. The Board purchased 32 acres of rural land in Raleigh Hills that had formerly been the Nicol Riding Academy. Buildings were hastily constructed, and moving began in June even before commencement. During a ceremony outside Morris Hall, firefighters with a hook and ladder truck removed the cross from the top of the building, and it was moved to the new campus. The old cornerstone bearing the date of the school’s founding and the old brass bell also were taken to the new campus, where school opened in September 1964.

The other important development of the decade was the creation of a school for boys, Bishop Dagwell Hall. BDH opened its doors in September 1965 as a coordinate, not coeducational, institution sharing the campus with St. Helen’s Hall. The two schools shared the chapel, the library, the gymnasium, laboratories and the dining room. However, BDH and St. Helen’s Hall maintained separate classes and separate traditions. BDH was led by three principals in three successive years, with the third being the Rev. David Leech. After the retirement from St. Helen’s Hall of headmaster Gertrude Fariss in 1968, the Board decided to place both schools under a common headmaster, naming Rev. Leech to that position. It also created the name Oregon Episcopal Schools.

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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