Darrow opened in the fall of 1932 as the Lebanon School for Boys. In 1938 president Charles S. Haight died and C. Lambert Heyniger purchased the school, becoming its headmaster and treasurer. Heyniger was a Princeton alumnus who had taught as a missionary in China and then pursued graduate study at Columbia University before joining General Motors. He renamed the school in the Shaker tradition, after a family prominent among the religious colony.[1]
In 1963, three Darrow students set a fire and destroyed the century-old dining hall and fire leveled the 156-year-old gymnasium. Both fires threatened dormitories housing 175 pupils. The boys had hoped school officials would send all the pupils home until repairs were made.[2]
In late 2023, the school's precarious finanical situation almost led to closure.[3]
Campus
The campus is situated on the original site of the Mount Lebanon Shaker Village, a National Historic Landmark.[4] It spans over 365 acres of land, with 26 buildings, tennis courts, playing fields, ponds, orchards, pastures, marshlands, and a vast forest.
Student body
The school currently enrolls 110 students from across the United States and beyond.
Athletics
Student participate in a number of competitive and non-competitive sports:[5]
Fall
Cross-country
Soccer
Outdoor education
Mixed martial arts
Winter
Girls varsity basketball
Boys varsity basketball
Boys prep basketball
Alpine
Spring
Lacrosse
Softball
Outdoor education
Esports
Traditions
The strong visual traces of Shaker austerity stand in contrast with the modern and less conventional morés of some affluent students raised in such different moral settings. In an interview, teacher Ed Noggle stated that a fascination with ghosts resulted. "These young people," Noggle says, "are very much of this world, very sensual, sexual beings. It has always been a matter of 'Ha, ha, what would the Shakers do if they could see all this? They'd roll over in their graves.'"[6]
Notable alumni
This article's list of alumni may not follow Wikipedia's verifiability policy. Please improve this article by removing names that do not have independent reliable sources showing they merit inclusion in this article AND are alumni, or by incorporating the relevant publications into the body of the article through appropriate citations.(September 2023)
Gerald A Cann, Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Class of 1949