hopkins’ gender-inclusive campus may feel natural today, but half a century ago, the decision for two institutions to buck tradition and inch closer to inclusivity through a merger was seen by many as revolutionary.
In these features, we look back at how the merger between Hopkins Grammar School (HGS)—then an all-boys school— and the all-girls school Day Prospect Hill (DPH) came to pass and hear from several of those who experienced this moment firsthand.
How the Merger Came to Be
by thom peters, hopkins archivist
T he 1960s and ’70s were a turbulent time in our nation’s history in terms of social change. In particular, traditional roles of gender were questioned, and one arena in which this struggle was played was education. As Banning Repplier, President of the DPH Board of Trustees at the time of the merger, pointed out, “Education was experiencing major changes, but most of these simply reflected the changes that society itself was undergoing, including different perceptions of male/female roles and relationships.” Private single-sex schools such as Hopkins Grammar School and Day Prospect Hill were forced to reexamine their assumptions about the virtues of single-sex education in the face of growing cultural and economic factors that began to weigh in favor of what was referred to then as coeducation. The economic factors included the need to continue to attract strong student applicants when “the secondary-school generation was no longer willing to
left : The graduating class, 1974.
VIEWS FROM THE HILL | 2023 • ISSUE 1
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