Buffalo Seminary History 2019 by Harry Schooley

“An institution must be a power
…. It must be up with the time
and in advance. It must lead …
seeking new methods of assault
on ignorance.”
Dr. Charles E. West

A Short History of Buffalo Seminary
Prepared by Harry B. Schooley
January 2019

SEM’s Bidwell-Potomac Campus

Buffalo Seminary was founded in 1851 as the
Buffalo Female Academy.

◄Buffalo Seminary Today
◄Johnson Park: Buffalo Female Academy
Buffalo Seminary Locations
Johnson Park, 1851 - 1900
623 Delaware Ave, 1900 - 1909
Bidwell Parkway, since 1909
◄ 623 Delaware Ave

Ebenezer Johnson (1786-1849) was
elected to two one-year terms as
Mayor, 1832-1833; 1834-1835.
Buffalo Female Academy’s first building was formerly the home of Buffalo’s
first Mayor, Ebenezar Johnson.

The house, known as Evergreen Cottage, and land were purchased for the school with funds from $40,000 raised by subscription.
The location was Johnson Park. The house faced Delaware Avenue and the grounds extended back to what is today Carolina St.
The school’s most generous benefactor was Buffalo businessman Jabez Goodell.

Goodell Hall, built in 1852, would serve as the BFA / SEM classroom building until 1900. (It would be demolished in 1924.)

Buffalo Female Academy, 1851- 1889
Evergreen Cottage and Goodell Hall

Evergreen Cottage remained the residence and office of the Principal (Head of School) and also
housed student borders who took their meals with the Principal’s family.

Chapel / Auditorium
Library
Goodell Hall
1852-1900

A wintry Buffalo
Female Academy!

Dr. Charles E. West
Principal, 1851-1860
Albert T. Chester
Sem’s first Heads of School: West and Chester

Before coming to SEM, Dr. West had served 12 years as the
first Head of the Rutgers Female Institute in Brooklyn, NY.
We see him here with the RFI Class of 1851.

From Dr. West’s Farewell Address to the
Rutgers Female Institute, July 1851.
s
In addition to being Principal,
Dr. West also taught Chemistry!

“An institution must be a power. Its blood must be living – its circulation brisk. It
must not be content with a respectable fossilization. Nor must it live on its past
reputation. It must be up with the time and in advance. It must lead … seeking new
methods of assault on ignorance.”
- Dr. Charles E. West
On the occasion of SEM’s 25th anniversary, 1876

Among SEM’s first Trustees was Joseph Dart!
Dart (1799 – 1879) was a Buffalo businessman who in 1842, along
with engineer Robert Dunbar, developed the world’s first steam-
operated grain elevator. By 1865 Buffalo was the world’s largest
grain port. Clearly, Mr. Dart saw virtue in women’s education. His
daughter Harriet was in the class of 1853.

It is also interesting that the Honorable George W. Clinton was on
SEM’s first Board of Visitors.
G. W. Clinton (1807 – 1885) was the former Mayor of Buffalo (1842-
1843) and son of DeWitt Clinton, former Mayor of New York City and
Governor of New York State. DeWitt Clinton played a decisive role in
the building of the Erie Canal.
In 1847 President James K. Polk appointed George W. Clinton as US
Attorney for the Northern District of New York State.
The Board of Visitors, made up of prominent local clergymen and other
professionals, served as an accrediting body, seeing that the school
remained true to its educational mission. Board member Rev. Albert
Chester would later serve as the school’s Principal.

Buffalo Female Academy Tuition, 1852
$8 to $10 per term!
With an additional $6 if one wanted to take French, German, or Drawing
an additional $10 for Painting!
and, an additional $15 for Piano!
So, if you were an artistic, musically-inclined student taking French, it would cost you $41 per term!
(It looks really inexpensive, but that $41 then would be $850 in today’s currency and that was a great deal of money in 1852!)

Who’s who in the Class of 1853.
Mary Shumway
Frances Sternberg
Elizabeth Beecher
Clara Hadley
Harriet Dart
Emmaline Guild
Harriet Robinson
Mary Blogett
Sarah Haynes
(from the SEM archives)

Class of 1853 (Daguerreotype in safe )
------------------------------------------------
In order from right of picture
Sarah T. Haynes (Mrs. Sarah Schuyler)
Mary F. Blogett (Mrs. G. H. Seymour
Harriet N. Robinson (Mrs. John S. Newberry)
Emmaline A. Guild (Mrs. Horace Winan)
Harriet E. Dart (Mrs. A. H. Plumb)
Clara Hadley
Elizabeth Beecher
Frances E. Sternberg (Mrs. George Wheelwright)
Mary H. Shumway (Mrs. George F. Lee)
-----------------------------------------------
Dr. West, Principal
Given by Miss Florence Lee

Dr. West with the Class of 1854

Dr. Albert Tracy Chester, DD
(1812-1892)
Principal, Buffalo Female Academy
1860-1887
Portrait by Ammi Farnham, c. 1885
Commissioned by Dr. Chester’s daughter, Georgiana
(Class of 1875) and given to the school with the
provision that it be hung beside the portrait of Dr. West
in West-Chester Hall.
Dr. Chester was 73 when this portrait was painted.
(mystery: West-Chester Hall did not exist until 1929.)
The above information is in the handwritten
note (below) on the back of the portrait.

Portrait of the Rev. Albert Tracey Chester D.D. born in Norwich Conn, June 16, 1812,
Died in Buffalo NY August 7. 1892_ Principal of Buffalo Female Academy from Sept 1860 to June 1887.
This portrait painted by Ammi M. Farnham about 1885. It is to be presented to the Buffalo
Seminary, Buffalo, NY _ and it is to be hung beside the portrait of Dr. Charles E. West in
“West_Chester Hall.” Buffalo, NY _ Georgiana W. Chester
(Georgiana W. Leuks {?} -B.F.A. Class of 1875) Albert (illegible)

Charlotte Mulligan
Class of 1863
Founder of the Buffalo Seminary
Graduates Association
(today, the Alumnae Association)
Founder of the Twentieth Century Club

During the Civil War, Charlotte,
concerned that the Confederacy
might invade Buffalo, organized
a student drill team to train for
defense of the school!
Semper FI!

Beware, you secessionist rebels!
(No, this isn’t Charlotte’s defense force. These are SEM girls taking aim in the 1940s.)

In the 1940s archery was an interscholastic and intramural sport!

The Graduates Association
Founded by Charlotte Mulligan in 1876,
the 25th anniversary of the founding of
the school.
The Charter House is today the
New Phoenix Theater on The Park.
In 1884 The Graduates purchased their first
clubhouse at 95 Johnson Park. They named it the
Charter House. This clubhouse was the first such
building in the country to be owned by a women’s
club. One of its larger rooms was used as a lecture
hall for both club programs and SEM classes. In
1894 the Graduates sold the Charter House and
relocated to their new headquarters on Delaware
Avenue, the Twentieth Century Club.
The Charter House

The Delaware Avenue Baptist Church (constructed 1883) was purchased in 1894
by Ms Mulligan to be the headquarters of the Graduates Association.
In that same year the Graduates Association formed the Twentieth Century Club,
a women’s club, dedicated to education, cultural enrichment, and tradition. The
club was renovated in 1896 with addition of a new clubhouse to the original
church building.
Charlotte Mulligan was founder of both the Buffalo Seminary
Graduates Association and the Twentieth Century Club.
The Twentieth Century Club (1911) and today. One
can see part of the original church on the right of
the building.
Delaware Avenue Baptist Church

In 1870 Mark Twain, then
editor of the Buffalo
Express, chaired a
committee judging a
literary contest at the
school and wrote about it
in his “Report to the
Buffalo Female Academy”

In concluding his report, Twain wrote …
The dead weight of custom and tradition have clogged school method and
discipline …(for) so long that they unconsciously continue to wear them in
these free, progressive latter days. For lingering ages, seemingly, the
seminary pupil has been expected to present, at stated intervals, a
composition constructed upon one and the same old heart-rending plan….
To the high credit of the principal and teachers of this academy, however, it
can be said that they are faithfully doing what they can do to destroy it and its
influence and occupy their place with something new and better.
Still (even though much of the traditional conventions of writing persist in) this
unquestionably excellent Female Academy, we feel that we are more than
complimentary when we say that the compositions we have been examining
average well indeed.
When the old sapless composition model is finally cast aside and the pupil
learns to write straight from his heart, he will apply his own language and his
own ideas to subjects and then the question with committees will not be which
composition to select for first prize, but which one they dare reject.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(It is a sign of traditional patriarchal custom that Twain refers to “the pupil” using “his” in regard to a school for women.)

Louis Agassiz (1807 –1873)
Swiss-born and European-trained biologist
and geologist recognized as an innovative and
prodigious scholar of Earth's natural history.
Millard Fillmore (1800-1874)
Former President Millard Fillmore
attended Sem’s 1854 commencement.
Later he was on a committee that
conducted special oral reading and
elocution examinations.
William Cullen Bryant (1794-1878)
American poet, journalist, editor, best
known for the poem “Thanatopsis,” which
he wrote at age 17.
Other 19th Century notable figures to visit Sem included …
(Source: Buffalo Currier-Express, Feb. 12, 1961.)

Speaking of famous (infamous?)
visitors to the school ….
In 1972 actress Jane Fonda visited
SEM and spoke to students in the
Chapel.
Her visit to SEM was highly
controversial because of her active
resistance to the American war in
Vietnam.
SEM was the only school she
visited when in Buffalo for an anti-
war rally at UB.

Jane Fonda
b. Dec. 1936
2015 photo
Fonda made her Broadway debut in the 1960 play There Was a Little Girl, for which she
received the first of two Tony Award nominations, and made her screen debut later the
same year in Tall Story. She rose to fame in 1960s films such as Period of
Adjustment (1962), Walk on the Wild Side (1962), Sunday in New York (1963), Cat
Ballou (1965), Barefoot in the Park (1967) and Barbarella (1968). Her first husband
was Barbarella director Roger Vadim. A seven-time Academy Award nominee, she received
her first nomination for They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969) and went on to win two Best
Actress Oscars in the 1970s for Klute (1971) and Coming Home (1978). Her other
nominations were for Julia (1977), The China Syndrome (1979), On Golden Pond (1981)
and The Morning After (1986). Her other major competitive awards include an Emmy
Award for the 1984 TV film The Dollmaker, two British Academy Film and Television Arts
Awards for Julia and The China Syndrome and four Golden Globe Awards.
In 1982, she released her first exercise video, Jane Fonda's Workout, which became the
highest-selling video of the time. It would be the first of 22 workout videos released by her
over the next 13 years which would collectively sell over 17 million copies. Divorced from
second husband Tom Hayden, she married billionaire media mogul Ted Turner in 1991 and
retired from acting. Fonda and Turner divorced in 2001.
She returned to acting with her first film in 15 years, the 2005 comedy Monster in Law.
Subsequent films have included Georgia Rule (2007), The Butler (2013), This Is Where I
Leave You (2014) and Youth (2015). In 2009, she returned to Broadway after a 45-year
absence, in the play 33 Variations which earned her a Tony Award nomination, while her
recurring role in the HBO drama series The Newsroom (2012–2014) earned her two Emmy
Award nominations. She also released another five exercise videos between 2010 and 2012.
She stars with Lily Tomlin, Sam Waterston and Martin Sheen in the Netflix original
series Grace and Frankie, which premiered in 2015. In 2017, she was awarded the Golden
Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the 74th Venice Film Festival. Jane graduated from Emma Willard School (‘55)
and attended Vassar College.

1889 The Buffalo Female Academy becomes Buffalo Seminary!
Lucy Cornelia Lynde Hartt,
Class of 1863
Principal, 1887 - 1899
It was under Mrs. Hartt’s leadership that in 1889 the school was renamed.
She also restructured the curriculum to meet college entrance requirements.

A few years following her graduation from SEM
(BFA back then) in 1863, Lucy Cornelia Lynde
married (1868) Charles Frederick Hartt, a young
Professor of Geology at Cornell University. They had
two children, a son and daughter.
In 1875 her family relocated to Brazil where her
husband headed a major geological survey of that
country’s natural resources. In 1877, Lucy, being
pregnant with twins, and her children returned to
the US. (Sadly, she lost both babies.) She would
never see her husband again. He died of disease in
Brazil in 1878.
Lucy then began a career in education, teaching at
the Brooklyn Heights Seminary. Her experience
took her to school administration. In 1887 she was
principal of a school on Staten Island when she
received the invitation to return to her Buffalo alma
mater. She would be at SEM until 1899.

In 1889 The Board of Trustees voted to change the school name to
Buffalo Seminary!

The change of name must have been quite disappointing!
(Actually, this is the 1907 yearbook staff!)

The 1907 Seminaria staff back at work!

A newspaper advertisement
(date and source unknown)
“The Seminary is enabled by its
endowment and large day school to
maintain the highest efficiency in
equipment and faculty. Excellent
opportunities for study in vocal and
instrumental music, drawing, and art.
Library, laboratory, physical culture.
The home, for a limited number of
girls, is beautifully situated in the
finest avenue of Buffalo, overlooking
a park in the rear, and is adapted
throughout to the greatest health
and comfort. For illustrated circular
address Mrs. C. F. Hartt, Principal.”
“The home, for a limited number of girls …”
indicates that SEM was taking residential students.

Ms Jessica E. Beers
We do not know about Ms Beers’ educational background
and experience before she came to SEM. We do know that on
retiring from SEM, she relocated to New York City and
became head of the Normal (teacher) Training Department of
the Ethical Culture Fieldston School.
The responsibility of running two schools proved exhausting
for Ms Beers, and she retired in 1903.
Ms Beers did, however, provide SEM with a significant legacy,
a woman who was hired in 1899 to teach Math and Poetry.
Her name was Lisbeth Gertrude Angell.
(Elmwood and SEM would remain in partnership until 1909.
In 1941 the Elmwood School would combine with the Franklin
School to form the Elmwood-Franklin School.)
1913 portrait
We also know that in 1899 Buffalo
Seminary combined with the Elmwood
School and that Ms Beers was Head of both
institutions. The Elmwood School was a
primary school for girls. It was located on
Bryant Street.

The Elmwood School
1913 photograph
The Elmwood School was founded in 1889. In 1941 the
Elmwood merged with the Franklin School, a boys’
elementary school. The Franklin School had been founded
in 1891 and was associated with the Department of
Pedagogy at Buffalo Normal College (today Buffalo State
College).
The new school was named Elmwood Franklin. With the
merger, the boys relocated to the Elmwood School’s Bryant
Street campus. In 1951 Elmwood Franklin moved to its
present campus on New Amsterdam Ave.
Ms. Jessica E. Beers was Principal of both SEM
and the Elmwood School from 1899 to 1903.

With the Johnson Park campus proving no longer adequate for SEM’s needs, the school in 1900 relocated to the upper
floors of the new Twentieth Century Club and the Heathcote School nearby on Delaware Avenue. This relocation was
temporary, pending the building of a new school building. It’s interesting that the school moved out of its home campus
without first having a new building. It would be nine years before SEM had a new permanent “home.”
Buffalo Seminary, 1900-1909
Twentieth Century Club Heathcote School *
* This location – 623 Delaware Ave – is today a parking lot.

Miss L. Gertrude Angell
Principal, 1903 – 1952
1905 photo The 1933 Library portrait

Let’s take a look at SEM’s academic
program for 1905-1906.
This is what would be called today
the school’s catalogue or view
book, or, maybe even its Website.
In 1905 SEM and the Elmwood
School were still in partnership.
This is SEM’s “Announcement,” that
being its program as separate from
Elmwood’s elementary educational
program.

SEM faculty, 1905-1906
Miss Angell taught Math and
Psychology.

Cartoon of Dr. Simpson from the March 18, 1932 issue of The Bee,
the student newspaper of the University of Buffalo.
The Simpson Arch on the campus of the Roswell Park
Cancer Institute. The arch, located near the corner of
Carlton and Elm Streets, was once the main entrance to
the institute’s second building erected in 1937. The arch
was dedicated in Dr. Simpson’s honor in 2002.
Dr. Burton T. Simpson
The cartoon shows Dr. Simpson as a football player and coach as
well as in the Gratwick Laboratory, the forerunner of Roswell Park.

SEM’s College Preparatory curriculum, from the 1905-1906 Catalogue.
Seminary Diploma and College Entrance Certificate

SEM’s English Course Curriculum, from the 1905-1906 Catalogue.
Seminary Diploma

SEM’s Elective Course Curriculum, from the 1905-1906 Catalogue.
Seminary Certificate

From the Illustrated Buffalo Express, October 14, 1906
SEM’s new building plans were announced in 1906.
Boston architect and Harvard architectural professor, George F. Newton’s 1906 plan
for the building was in the Collegiate Gothic style.

It’s interesting that of the figures in this illustration of the future building, only two appear to be female!

SEM relocated to its new building on Bidwell Parkway in 1909.

In 1909 classrooms were called
recitation rooms.
There was a “Club Room” at the
end of the main hallway.
Library “Study Room”
First Floor, 1909

In the 1909 the gymnasium
was where the cafeteria is
today!
The 1909 Lunch Room is
today’s locker room.
The school’s janitor
(maintenance man) lived in
the building in a basement
apartment.
Basement, 1909

The 1909 Science Lab
was where today’s
Advancement Office is.
Today there is an office and
classroom where the 1909 art
studio was, and Mr. Hopkins’ room
was the “Domestic Science” room,
complete with cooking ovens!
Gallery
Chapel
Second Floor, 1909

The third floor spaces that are today
classrooms and the Music Studio were
“unfinished,” meaning available for
future use.
Third Floor, 1909

The Chapel
Notice that there is no door at the front left of the room. That door would not be cut until 1964.

The Glee Club in the Chapel, 1914
At the piano is SEM’s Music Director, Seth Clark.

An organ was later
installed as were stairs to
the stage.
The lancet windows on
the sides of the stage are
actually screens for the
organ pipes.

Prior to the installation of the organ

From the 1963 Seminaria – Glee Club rehearsal
There’s a new lecturn.

In 1964 the pews were installed, the
organ was moved to the other side
of the stage, and a door was cut to
the back hallway. The organ, its
pipes ruined by a water leak, was
removed and sold in the late 1970s.
The Chapel today

The organ relocated to the right front of the chapel.
(A Modern Dance class on the stage, 1972)

SEM’s organ was manufactured at the Rudolph Wurlitzer Company’s
plant in North Tonawanda and was dedicated in honor of Miss Angell.
Hans and Ruth Vigeland were SEM’s
glee club directors for many years.
Hans is at the organ keyboard.
Debra Reilly, Class of 1974
Online photo of an organ with similar stop tabs.

The Social Room – today, The Gallery
We are looking towards what is today Mr. Hopkins’ classroom. Back then the large room beyond was the Art Studio and beyond the
closed doors was the Domestic Science Room (today, Mr. Hopkins’ room).

The Science Lab on the second floor. This is where the Advancement Office is today. Notice that the seats are on tiers.

The Music Studio was relocated to the third floor

Library
This photograph is post 1933
as Miss Angell’s portrait is
above the fireplace.

Library
This photograph is post
1933 as Miss Angell’s
portrait is above the
fireplace.

The school assembles for an all-
school photograph on the
chapel balcony and fire escape!
This photo pre-dates 1929 as
the gymnasium and West-
Chester additions have not yet
been added. Once the gym and
West-Chester were built, this
open space would become the
Senior Courtyard.
Today this space is the Atrium!
This is the garage for
34 Soldiers Place.

SEM before West-Chester Hall was added.

The house at 34 Soldiers Place belonged to James Wilson and was purchased in 1928 as part of a $100,000 campaign
to add a major addition for a new gymnasium, art studio, classrooms and West-Chester Hall.

West-Chester Hall, the
headquarters of the Graduates
Association was added to the
building in 1929.
Abutting West-Chester were a
new gymnasium, classrooms,
and the third floor art studio.

Lower West-Chester, 1929
(Today this space is the Admissions Office.)

Upper West-Chester, 1929
(Today this space is the Colby Room.)

The Colby Room, West-Chester Hall
1930s
Today
Built in 1929, West-Chester Hall was the headquarters of
– and owned by – the Graduates Association.

West-
Chester
Gymnasium
Courtyard
1929 additions
Bidwell Ave
Potomac view

Courtyard
1929 additions
Bidwell Ave
Bidwell view
Art was relocated from the
second floor to a new
studio with north-facing
skylights on the third floor.

The new Art Studio was part of the 1929 addition.

1970s photos of the gymnasium. In one we see the Hornets
practicing an H formation for Hornet-Jacket Day. Students
playing badminton in the other.
The Gymnasium was part of the 1929 addition.

Locker
Room
PE
Office
PE
Equipment
storage
Gym
Balcony
Gym
floor
The gym floor was on the
basement level. A balcony with
tiered seating (long high steps)
was on the first floor level.
The Physical Education Office
and storage space was below
West-Chester Hall.
A passageway connected the
gym and PE office with
the locker room.
West-
Chester

The wooden floor was replaced with a new surface in the 1980s.
In the 1970s the gym floor was wood parkay.
There was no matting along the walls as we see in the
2007 photo at right.

Today this is the floor of the PAC. West-Chester is at left and one of the Art Studio windows is at upper right.
The houses beyond are where the Oishei and Wendt residences are today.
The Gymnasium Roof
Location
of
Oishei
Location
of
Wendt
This house would be
torn down in 1963.

the gym roof
From the
1978
Seminaria

Back to Miss Angell!
Principal, 1903 – 1952
1905 photo The 1933 Library portrait

Life is just one damn thing after another.
Three minutes to think.
Three minutes to write.

Miss Angell’s guidelines for life.
She would expect students to know and live by these “slogans,” as she called
them.
In conversation with a student she might begin a “slogan” and the student
would be expected to complete it as if it were part of a natural discussion.

Cult of Personality? Miss Angell’s portrait was hanging in the library long before she retired!
The 1940 Seminaria editors.

The Miss Angel Portrait
Painted by Serge Ivanowski
1933
It made its Library debut in the 1933-1934 academic year,
18 years before Miss Angell retired.
Ivanowski’s daughter Irenka graduated from SEM in 1919.
The portrait was a gift to SEM from Mrs. Harold Esty, Sr.
(Mrs. Esty was Frances “Daisy” Larkin, daughter of John D. Larkin.
She did not attend SEM.)

An 1892 photograph of the Wellesley College Banjo Club!
Miss Angell is at center.

The first senior class to use the new building was the Class of 1910.
This 1910 senior remains a significant part of our SEM lives! Why?
Because of something she wrote in her senior year.

Mary Gail Clark
Class of 1910
To Alma Mater as published in the (1910) Seminaria.
Mary was captain of
the basketball team, a
member of the Glee
Club, and Editor in
Chief of the Seminaria.
Composer of To Alma Mater (1910)

It was during Miss Angell’s administration
that a very special time-honored tradition
began at SEM.
In 1916, the basketball league to which
SEM belonged cancelled its season. To fill
the void for the SEM team and the rest of
the school, the Graduates Association
created a cup to be competed for by
intramural basketball teams. The two
teams became the Hornets and the
Jackets. The rest is history!
The 1916 Basketball Team!

The Student Hornet-Jacket Cup!
The Hornets won in ´15-´16 and ´16-´17.
The Jackets won in ‘17-’18!

The Alumnae
Hornet-Jacket Cup!
The Alumnae Jackets
are the current Cup
holders!

Before we leave Miss Angell, here’s another little-known Fact!
She was instrumental in the founding of a new Buffalo PUBLIC school!
Miss Angell graduated from Buffalo’s Central High
School in 1891 and from Wellesley College in 1894.
Before her 1899 appointment to SEM, she taught
English and math in the Buffalo public school
system.
In 1900 it was determined that Buffalo needed a
third high school. Even though by that time she
was already on the faculty at SEM, Miss Angell, as a
member of the Buffalo School Association, was
instrumental in the founding of that new school. It
opened in the fall of 1903, the same year that she
became SEM’s headmistress. The school?
Lafayette High School at the corner of Lafayette and
Baines Avenue. The school, with its iconic 120-foot
ornamental tower, is today the oldest Buffalo high
school in continuous use as an educational
institution.

(from the 1952 Seminaria)
Her spaniels in the photo above are
Minx and Rogue.
Miss Angell loved dogs!

James W. Donnelly,
Headmaster, 1966-1967
Mr. Donnelly later served for 11 years as
Headmaster of the Severn School in Maryland.Richard W. Davis
In 1966 Mr. Davis became Headmaster
of Miss Porter’s School in Connecticut,
retiring in 1975.
Marian W. Smith
Headmistress, 1952-1959
Miss Angell’s successor, Miss Smith
came to SEM from Barnard College
where she had been admissions
director.
Heads of School since Miss Angell

Mr. Davis was the only Head of School to have been
included in the Seminaria as a member of a senior class!

In 1967 Mr. Donnelly hired …
…this guy to teach freshman history.

From the 1971 Seminaria
Tara at SEM, Dec. 2018

Robert A. Foster
Mr. Foster joined the Sem English department in 1959. He
continued to teach English through to his retirement in 1992. Seminaria, 1991

Sarah K. Briggs
Head of School, 1992-1995
Marjorie Barney
Mrs. Barney taught Math at Sem
from 1979 to 1995.
Sandra Gilmor

Jo Ann Douglass
Head of School, 2007 – 2016
Ms Douglass with Mr. Schooley’s Napoleon, 2010.

Helen Ladds Marlette
Head of School, 2016 -
Mrs. and Mr. Marlette on the occasion of
her induction ceremony, October 2016

SEM’s yearbook, the Seminaria,
was first published in 1905.

Seminaria Board
From the 1905 Seminaria.

In 1953 SEM acquired Larkin House and Larkin Field.

In 2007 Larkin House was sold, but SEM retained ownership of the Field.

2008
SEM’s new mascot, the
Red Tailed Hawk!

William Blake, 1757-1827
Sir Hubert Parry, 1848-1918
“Jerusalem” was written
in 1804 by the English
poet William Blake.
The music for “Jerusalem” was
written by the English composer
Sir Hubert Parry in 1916.
SEM’s descant for
“Jerusalem” was written
by Hans Vigeland.
“Jerusalem” became part of SEM’s musical tradition in the late 1960s.

Atrium
2004
In 1964 the Science Wing was added.
In 1985 the PAC was built on the
roof above the gym and behind
West-Chester.
PAC
1985
In 2003 - 2004 the Atrium was
added by excavating and
enclosing the former courtyard.

The Science Wing dates from 1964.

The Science wing, 1964
Third Floor: Lecture Room * (with a
raised dais) and a classroom.
Second Floor: Chemistry Lab
Ground floor: Biology Lab and
Science Library.
* In the early 70s the Lecture Room
was converted to a Crafts Room with a
kiln! It is today the Physics Lab.
-
Biology Lab
Science
Library
Chemistry
Classroom
Lecture
Room
Classroom
Potomac Ave
---------------------
Closet with
ladder to roof
G 2 3
hallway hallway
hallway
raised dais
Oishei
House

In the 1970s and 80s the third floor Lecture Room (today the Physics
Lab) was the Crafts Room with a loom, pottery wheels, and a kiln!

1969 Back in the day when Nichols was not a SEM rival!
SEM girls were the
cheerleaders for
Nichols!

SEM
SEM
SEM
SEM
SEM
SEM
SEM
SEM
Ah! … That’s better!

The Physical Education / Athletics uniform
was a black (later navy blue) tunic.
One’s tunic was a visual record of one’s H-J team
and athletic achievement.
Tunics were worn from the 1940s to the 1990s.

Jacket
Hornet
Athletic Board Chairperson
MVP: basketball, hockey
Sports: Varsity Softball 3
seasons, HJ Softball 3 seasons,
HJ lacrosse 1 season, HJ Soccer
3 seasons, HJ Gymnastics 4
seasons, Varsity Lacrosse 1
season, Varsity Basketball 3
seasons, HJ Basketball 4
seasons, Skiing 3 seasons,
Varsity Hockey 3 seasons, HJ
Hockey, 4 seasons, HJ Volleyball
4 seasons, Varsity Volleyball I
season, Freshman basketball 1
season, HJ Tennis 3 seasons,
Badminton 1 season
Hornet Captain, Athletic Board,
Sports: Varsity Hockey 2
seasons, Varsity Softball s
seasons, HJ Tennis 3 seasons, HJ
softball 3 seasons, Varsity
Badminton 1 season, HJ
Badminton 3 seasons, HJ
Basketball 4 seasons, Varsity
Tennis 4 seasons, Varsity
Basketball 4 seasons, HJ Hockey
3 seasons, Skiing 1 season
A big BS meant participation in Varsity sports for ten or more seasons.
The small BS meant Intramural (H-J) participation.
Deciphering the tunics!
Sports awards were presented on Larkin Field Day at the end of the year.

In 1971 -1972 SEM considered
a coordination relationship
with the Nichols School.
Nichols was then an all-male
school.
We would relocate to the
Nichols campus but still have
our own building. SEM would
coordinate its curriculum with
that of Nichols yet somehow
retain its separate identity. This
is how the architect envisioned
the new Buffalo Seminary!
A new SEM?
Architectural design by Duane Lyman and Associates, Buffalo

The new SEM would be on
the Nichols campus at the
corner of Amherst and Colvin
where the Nichols Middle
School building is today.

In the early 1970s the
cafeteria was remodeled.
The overall color scheme
was red white and black.
A large black and white
mural depicting an ancient
Egyptian temple stretched
across the wall to the left
of the door.
(Today’s Atrium is where
the “Sem” wall is in this
photo.)

SEM’s Sesquicentennial Parade, 2001
In 2001 SEM
celebrated its first
150 years with a
gala parade on
Lincoln Parkway!

Students carrying the decade
standards wore dress
characteristic of the period.

SEM marchers assembled on the
Parkway in front of the school.

Parade dignitaries: Board of Trustees President Paul Koessler,
Buffalo Mayor Anthony Masiello, Head of School Marge Barney, and
NY Assemblyman Sam Hoyt
Some of the faculty and staff marchers.

The parade
begins!
The parade route was from the school to the Albright Knox Art Gallery and then to Larkin Field.

The dixieland band “Barroom Buzzards” provided the parade music.
The faculty follow behind.

Our “earliest” alumnae
decade was the 1940s.

Sesquicentennial events
included a symposium of
presentations by panels of
distinguished alumnae.

Amy Jones, ‘71 Tara
VanDerveer, ‘71
Susan Hunt, ‘72,
Margaret Brown, ‘72
Creative Self-Empowerment: Living the Life You Love to Lead
Amy Jones, ‘71, Isabella Bannerman, ’78, Harry Schooley
(moderator), Ansie Baird, 55, Kate Wailand, ‘89

The Gallery, originally the Social Room (restored 2002)
Renovations, 2001 - 2002

Prior to its renovation, the Gallery
had been “filled” with, first, the
Headmaster’s and, later, other
administrative offices behind a
glass wall and a false ceiling.

In 2001 the Study Hall was
renovated and furnished
with tables, chairs, and
student “cubbies”- lockers.

The Study Hall
from the front hall,
1965

June 2017 – The tables are laden with end-of-school-year “Lost and Found” leftovers!

The Performing Arts Center was built atop the gym roof, 1984-1985.

The PAC being transformed into a Japanese Noh theater for the 2008 production of “At the Hawks’ Well.”

The Mugel Atrium (constructed, 2003 – 2004)

Between 1929 and 2003, the
space that is now the Atrium
was an open area known as the
“Senior Courtyard.” Student
access to the courtyard was a
senior privilege.

The Senior Courtyard
(from the 1980 Seminaria)

This stringcourse was originally at ground level!

The atrium serves as an extension of
the dining room, an area for
receptions, and a gallery for artwork.

The Atrium was once the
Senior Courtyard.
This is the Senior Courtyard
as “prepared” for
excavation. The fountain
foundation can be seen at
bottom right.
The Atrium was
constructed between
October 2003 and
June 2004.

The entire excavation of the
courtyard was done bucket-
by-bucket lifted over the
building and emptied into
waiting trucks.

Excavation complete!
The courtyard is gone.

The archways are complete. Work on the roof and walkways is underway.

The wall of the PAC had to be raised to support the atrium roof.

Construction of the roof and walkways.

Construction took place over the winter. It was cold!

The fountain was relocated to the Atrium wall.

In 2008-2009 the old gymnasium was converted to the Bassett Squash Courts and Ladds Fitness Center,
Kaitlin Hughes, '16, being interviewed by Channel 7, 2016.

Chunhui Xu from China and Da Som Kang from South Korea with their host parents,
Mr. and Mrs. Clinton Ivins
In 2008 SEM began a host-family program for residential students.

SEM’s first residences
were at
130 / 132 Bidwell Parkway
2010 photo

SEM’s Oishei and
Wendt residences at
678 and 682 Potomac

The Wendt residence at 682 Potomac

16 Soldiers Place:
The Lipke House
30 Soldiers Place: The Niscah House
26 Soldiers Place: The Douglass House

A lost mystery!
When the Chapel was renovated in the summer of 2016, the corbels along the walls were repainted. In so doing, SEM lost a fun mystery. At
some unknown date and year, one of the ornamental heads at the corbel base was “decorated.” It gazed down on us, possibly for decades,
and no one noticed until 2015.

Are they Henry VIII and his wives? If so,
that’s certainly an awkward choice of
decoration for a girls’ school. Most likely,
they’re just stylized generic sculptures
that the architect thought would work.
Probably the same thinking is behind
those bemused, stern, and scolding male
heads in the archivolts.

The mid-2010s saw robotics added to SEM’s STEAM program.
Gherty!
Gherty joined the IT staff in 2015. Pawlette jouned in 2016.

Would Miss Angell approve of Gherty? We think so!

Magavern-Sutton Courtyard
2016
Named in honor of the Magavern family and Gary Sutton.
(gift from Linda Robertson Magavern ‘73 and Bill Magavern)

Magavern-Sutton
Courtyard under
construction, summer
2016
Wendt and Oishei Houses
The red lines are
heating coils.

SEM residential students, 2014-2015

In 2016 SEM celebrated 100 Years
of Hornet-Jacket competition!

102 Years of Hornet-Jacket Competition!

Buffalo Seminary History 2019 by Harry Schooley

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Buffalo Seminary History 2019 by Harry Schooley