by Harry Schooley

1. A Short History of Buffalo Seminary
Prepared by Harry B. Schooley
January 2016

2. SEM’s Bidwell-Potomac Campus

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

5. ◄Buffalo Seminary Today
◄Johnson Park: Buffalo Female Academy
Buffalo Seminary
Locations
Johnson Park, 1851
Bidwell Parkway,
since 1909

6. Evergeen Cottage in Johnson Park was formerly the home of
Ebenezer Johnson, an early Mayor of Buffalo
Buffalo Female Academy’s first building

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

9. Evergreen Cottage and Goodell Hall

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

11. Chapel / Auditorium
Library
Goodell Hall
1852-1900

12. Classrooms

13. Dr. Charles E. West
Headmaster, 1851-1860
Albert T. Chester
Headmaster, 1860-1887
Sem’s first Heads of School: West and Chester

14. “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

16. 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!)

18. 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)

19. 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

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

21. 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!

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

23. The Delaware Avenue Baptist Church (constructed 1883) was purchased
in 1894 by Ms Mulligan to be the headquarters of the Buffalo Seminary
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 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

24. 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”

25. 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.)

26. 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.)

27. 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.

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

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

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

31. The 1907 Seminaria staff back at work!

32. Ms Jessica E. Beers
Headmistress, 1899-1903
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.
We also know that in 1899 Buffalo Seminary combined with
the newly-founded Elmwood School and that Ms Beers was
Head of both institutions. The Elmwood School was a primary
school for girls.
The responsibility of running two schools proved exhausting
for Ms Beers, and she retired in 1903. Elmwood and SEM then
reverted back to separate institutions.
Ms Beers did, however, provide SEM with a significant legacy:
a woman who was hired to teach Math and Poetry in 1899.
Her name was Lisbeth Gertrude Angell.
(In 1941 the Elmwood School would combine with the Franklin
School to form the Elmwood-Franklin School.)
1913 portrait

33. 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 nearby Heathcote School 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

34. Miss L. Gertrude Angell
Headmistress, 1903 – 1952
1905 photo

35. 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.

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

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

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

39. 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.

40. The 1909 Science Lab
was where today’s
Development Office is.
Today there is an office and
classroom where the 1909 art
studio was, and Mr. Hopkins’ room
was the “Domestic Science” room.
Gallery
Chapel

41. The third floor spaces that are today
Ms. Miller’s and Dr. Joplin’s rooms and
the Music Studio were “unfinished,”
meaning available for future use.

42. The Chapel

43. The Study Hall

44. Library

45. SEM before West-Chester Hall was added.

46. 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!

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

48. West-Chester Hall today

49. West-
Chester
Gymnasium
Courtyard
1929 additions
Bidwell Ave
Potomac view

50. West-
Chester
Gymnasium
Courtyard
1929 additions
Bidwell Ave
Bidwell view

52. 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 2004 the Atrium was added by
excavating and enclosing the
former courtyard.

53. 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

54. 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)

55. Miss Angell’s Yellow Slips!

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

58. 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.

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

60. Fun Facts about Miss Angell!
When she was a student at Wellesley
College (1890- 1894) she …
… was a member of the Bicycle Club,
… was in “crew!”
… and was President of the Banjo Club!

61. 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!

63. Miss Angell from
the 1952 Seminaria

64. James W. Donnelly,
Headmaster, 1966-1967
Mr. Donnelly later served for 11 years as
Headmaster of the Severn School in Maryland.Richard W. Davis
Headmaster, 1959-1966
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
was a graduate of Vasser College.
Heads of School since Miss Angell

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

66. Robert A. Foster
Headmaster, 1967-1992
Mr. Foster joined the Sem English department in 1959. He
continued to teach English through to his retirement in 1992. Seminaria, 1991

67. Sarah K. Briggs
Head of School, 1992-1995
Marjorie Barney
Head of School, 1995-2001
Mrs. Barney taught Math at Sem
from 1979 to 1995.
Sandra Gilmor
Head of School, 2001-2007

68. Jo Ann Douglass
Head of School, 2007-present
Ms Douglass with Mr. Schooley’s Napoleon, 2010.

69. The Bidwell Parkway building dates from 1909; renovated in 2001 and 2002.
The midsection (including the gymnasium and art studio) and West-Chester Hall date
from 1929; renovated in 2001and 2002.
(The previous gymnasium was the room that is now the cafeteria. Imagine that!)
Larkin House and Larkin Field were acquired in 1957.
The science wing dates from 1964; renovated in 2000.
The Performing Arts Center dates from 1985.
The Gallery was restored in 2002.
The Mugel Atrium was completed in 2004.
The Bidwell Residences opened in 2009.
The Squash and Athletic Center opened in 2009.
The Potomac Residences opened in 2010.
The Soldiers Place residences opened in 2012 and 2013.

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

72. The Gallery (restored 2002)

73. 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.
From the 1970 Seminaria
From the 1965 Seminaria

74. These were the Study Hall desks until 2002.
All trimester or semester exams were taken here. The Study Hall from the front hall, 1965

75. The Mugel Atrium (constructed, 2003 – 2004)

76. 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.

77. This stringcourse was originally at ground level!

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

79. 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.

80. Ground surface level

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

83. Excavation complete!
The courtyard is gone.

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

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

87. Construction of the roof and walkways.

88. Construction took place over the winter. It was cold!

90. The fountain was relocated to the Atrium wall.

92. In 1957 SEM acquired Larkin House and Larkin Field.
In 2007 Larkin House was sold, but SEM retained ownership of the Field.

93. Larkin Field

94. 2008 SEM’s new mascot, the Red Tailed Hawk!

95. 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.

96. SEM’s first residences at
130 / 132 Bidwell Parkway

97. SEM’s residences at
678 and 682 Potomac

98. The student residence at 682 Potomac

99. The Soldiers Place residences

100. SEM residential students, 2014-2015

101. SEM’s Sesquicentennial Parade, 2001

107. Robin Simon Magavern
Class of 1952

108. Robin would become one of SEM’s most beloved
teachers. She joined the English faculty in 1973
and retired in 2008.

109. Lauren Belfer
Class of 1971
Author, City of Light, 1999
Lauren was the first recipient of the
Buffalo Seminary History Department
Book Prize, 1971.
From the 1971 Seminaria

110. Lauren was in the first class I ever taught, 1967!
In 2012 Lauren was Commencement Speaker
for the last class I ever taught!

111. Lauren’s A Fierce Radiance was
published in 2010.

112. Tara Van Derveer
Class of 1971
Coach, Stanford University Women’s Basketball Team since 1985
1995-96 USA Senior National Team Head Coach
1996 Head Coach, Gold medal winning USA Olympic Women’s
Basketball Team

113. From the 1971 Seminaria
Tennis, sailing, hockey … not a word
about basketball!
But she did play Varsity Basketball in both 1970 and 1971.

114. From the Buffalo News, Dec. 23, 2010
Her 800th victory as a college coach.
Today she has 960* victories.
* (As of January, 2016)

115. On May 26, 2009, Tara returned to SEM, met with student leaders, and
spoke to an all-school assembly. Her topic? Live Large!
Speaking of “living large!” Sem’s mascot, the Red-Tailed Hawk!

116. Maybe if they had Tara as a
coach, the 1916 basketball team
would have looked a bit happier!
Newsweek, Nov. 27, 1995

117. Amy Holden Jones
Class of 1971
Screenwriter
Director

118. From the 1971 Seminaria
She did like photography!

119. Gwen Yates Whittle
Class of 1979 From the 1979 Seminaria
Gwen as SEM Commencement Speaker,
2013
Motion Picture Sound Editor for Skywalker Sound
Gwen …
… has worked on sound and dialogue editing for over 120 movies.
… was supervising sound editor for Avatar, Brave, Rio, Rio II, the Ice Age movies, and
many others, including Titanic and Saving Private Ryan.
… has been nominated for two Academy Awards: Avatar and Tron.

120. Mona Fetouh
Class of 1990
With Mona and Robin Magavern, 2005.
Presently works for the United Nations in
New York City.
Formerly worked for the International
Rescue Committee in Thailand and the
World Bank.

121. The weapons of mass destruction are paintings on a wall!Mona in Saddam Hussein’s throne, Iraq, 2004
Mona’s global reach at the time of her work in Bangkok, Thailand.

122. Nicole Lee
Class of 1994
Attorney
Civil Rights Activist
Former (and first) female president of TransAfrica Forum
From the 1994 Seminaria
At the SEM Commencement,
2009

123. Mara Hoffman
Class of 1995
Mara was the SEM Commencement Speaker, 2010
Fashion Designer
New York City

125. US Chief of Protocol, 1993 – 1997
"the mother hen of the diplomatic corps"
– Washington Post
Molly Millonzi Raiser
Class of 1960

126. Molly in a C-SPAN interview, April 1994
Molly’s first major assignment as Chief of Protocol was
arranging the September 1993 White House meeting of
President Bill Clinton with Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin
and Palestinian Liberation organization leader Yassir Arafat.

127. Marian De Forest (1864-1935)
Class of 1884
- was among the first women newspaper reporters in Western NY,
- wrote the stage play for Alcott’s “Little Women,”
- founded Zonta International,
- and was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame (2001).
Zonta International is an international service organization with the mission of
advancing the status of women. It was founded in Buffalo in 1919. Today it is
headquartered in Oak Brook, Illinois. There are some 34,000 members with
branches in 70 countries. Prominent among its earliest members was Amelia
Earhart. Zonta is a Lakota Sioux Indian word that means "honest and trustworthy."
In one of her early speeches, de Forest explained, "Zonta stands for the highest
standards in the business and professional world ... seeks cooperation rather than
competition and considers the Golden Rule not only good ethics but good business."
De Forest envisioned Zonta to become an international organization. In her own
words, "This is the woman's age and in distant lands and foreign climes women of all
nations are rallying to the call … Zonta is given the opportunity of uniting them into
one great, glorious whole."

128. Margaret L. Wendt (1885-1972)
Class of 1903
Philanthropist, founder of the Margaret L. Wendt Foundation
Portrait honoring Margaret L.
Wendt at Trocaire College

129. William Blake, 1757-1827
Sir Hubert Parry, 1848-1918
“Jerusalem” became part
of SEM’s musical tradition
in the late 1960s.
“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.

130. 165 years !

131. Sources
The Buffalo Seminary 125 Years (1976) a publication of the school compiled by the art faculty.
Christian, Diane. “The Buffalo Seminary: 150 Years Old and Radiant,” June 2001 (Art Voice article, appearing in full in the Semaphore.)
Ito, Gwen. “From Johnson Park to Bidwell Parkway and Beyond: A Short History of Buffalo Seminary.” Western New York Heritage, Volume 17 number 3, Fall 2015, pp. 18-26.