Abbot Hall, room 13, circa 1879
Abbot Hall
For nearly 75 years, the Academy operated without dormitories. Instead, “the boys boarded about town,” as one Exeter historian writes. But as enrollment grew, along with the cost of living, the Trustees recognized the need to offer on-campus housing to help ensure equal opportunity for all students. Charles H. Bell explains this thinking in his 1883 book Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire: A Historical Sketch, writing that the Trustees “determined to establish at the charge of the Academy, a dormitory and commons hall for the members of the school of limited means, by which the expense of living should be reduced to the minimum.”
The school experimented first with housing students in an Academy-owned building on Spring Street, which had been the J. & B. Williams printing shop. The arrangement worked so well that in September 1852 the Trustees voted “to erect a more suitable and capacious building for the same purpose, in the Academy grounds,” Bell writes. “It opened for use in 1855. It was constructed of brick, and contained rooms for fifty young men, with a dining hall and other needful accommodations; and cost about twenty thousand dollars.”
As Frank H. Cunningham details in his book Familiar Sketches of The Phillips Exeter Academy and Surroundings, the rooms were “furnished at a nominal rent, so that fifty boys are thus supported at about one half the cost of living at the ordinary boarding houses.” Residents paid $1 a year for a room. “The Trustees believe that no other institution of the kind in the country has approached this Academy in giving substantial aid to young men of poverty and merit,” Cunningham writes.
The building was named Abbot Hall, in honor of Benjamin Abbot, the Academy’s second principal, who served from 1788 to 1838. Abbot was a respected and beloved instructor, teaching such subjects as Latin and Greek for 44 years and counting among his pupils statesman Daniel Webster.
Ever considerate of the Academy’s mission to educate students in goodness and knowledge, the Trustees voted to post, inside each student’s Abbot Hall door, a set of eight rules, including: “There shall not be in or about the building, during study hours, any singing or playing of musical instruments, or any other noise inconsistent with the quiet study; and good order shall be preserved at all times.”
Abbot Hall remained the only on-campus dormitory until Soule Hall was built in 1893.
Editor’s Note: This article first appeared in the fall 2022 issue of The Exeter Bulletin.
Early in the pandemic, while attending classes from her home in Seongnam, South Korea, Kim became aware that her fellow Exonians and millions globally were struggling to get a good night’s sleep. With tech and design thinking in her blood — she has lived in tech hubs Silicon Valley and Seattle — Kim and a teammate began exploring a new way for people and their doctors to track sleep data as part of the POSCO ICT AI Youth Challenge.
Delighted as a prep to be able to choose classes in any branch of science, Vesely quickly realized her favorite was physics, for its expansive focus on everything, including particles and galaxy clusters. She barreled through Exeter’s entire physics curriculum. “Physics really helped me have this analytical mind, always questioning.”
many of Hong Kong’s 64 consulates general and 56 honorary consulates as they could, then share information and highlights from the ensuing discussions with their peers. The result: Consulate Review, a global organization whose mission “to bridge current and aspiring world leaders through open, meaningful conversations” is carried out today through chapters run by students in San Francisco; Cairo; Bogotá, Colombia; and Dubai, among other cities.
From there, she worked at The Advisory Board Company in Washington, D.C., engaging in best-practice research with health systems across the country. She now serves on the board at her sons’ school for autism, Nashoba Learning Group, and the Lurie Center for Autism at Massachusetts General Hospital. Through the Operation House Call program at The Arc of Massachusetts, Basak teaches medical students at Boston University Medical Center and Harvard Medical School about treating individuals with developmental disabilities. An elected director of the GAA since 2018, she became a GAA vice president this year.
Sam Maruca entered as a prep from Lawrenceville, New Jersey, and lived in Bancroft Hall, Dunbar Hall and Lamont Hall. He was active in the glee club, orchestra, student government and basketball, and “majored” in classical languages. Maruca received a B.A. with honors in American studies from Yale College. After graduation, Sam worked for the House Administration Committee of the U.S. Congress and as a law clerk, while attending Georgetown University Law Center as an evening student. He served on The Georgetown Law Journal staff and graduated in 1982. During a long career in private practice in Washington, D.C., Maruca specialized in large case dispute resolution in the international tax field. He is currently senior counsel with Covington & Burling LLP and has an active pro bono practice. Maruca is the board treasurer of Capitol Hill Day School. Maruca has been an elected director of the GAA since 2018 and GAA secretary from 2020-22. He became a GAA vice president this year.
Council; and worked in the Elm Street Dining Hall. He holds a B.A. with honors in English from Columbia College and a J.D. from Columbia University School of Law, where he served as editor-in-chief of Columbia Human Rights Law Review. Schmidtberger is the chair of the executive committee of the international law firm of Sidley Austin LLP. His principal areas of practice are securities and commodities-related funds and corporate transactions, including related regulatory matters. Schmidtberger has been on the board of directors of the United Way of New York City since 2011 and has served as co-chair since 2016. He is also a member of the Columbia College Board of Visitors, a representative to the Partnership for New York City and a trustee of the Citizens Budget Commission.
