Northfield Mount Hermon

History

The school was originally founded by famed Protestant evangelist Dwight Lyman Moody (DLM) as two separate institutions: The Northfield Seminary for Young Ladies in 1879 and Mount Hermon School for Boys in 1881. DLM envisioned both these schools as parts of his dream to provide the best possible education for less privileged people. Indeed, even, in their infancy, DLM’s schools matriculated students whose parents were slaves, Native-Americans, and from outside the US -- something that was unimaginable in many elite private schools at that time. Dwight Lyman Moody's birthplace and burial place are both located on the Northfield campus.

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In DLM's view, Christian religious education was an essential part of the objective of his schools. However, under subsequent administrations, the schools became more theologically liberal and ultimately became nonsectarian and ceased evangelization of students. (This change put them at odds with other Moody institutions such as the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago.) Religious life continued to be an important part of the schools, but religious services ceased to be compulsory and students were no longer instructed in Christian doctrine.

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In the 1970s and 1980s, many U.S. private secondary schools that had previously offered single-sex education either became coeducational unilaterally or merged with other schools to become coeducational. In what was then a controversial decision, the Northfield Seminary and the Mount Hermon School merged to become a single coeducational institution in 1971. The settlement of mutually accepted terms was a contrast to the takeover of Abbott Academy by its neighbor, Phillips Andover. The new school was dubbed Northfield Mount Hermon School. Both original campuses were retained and made co-educational, but students were initially segregated by sex at the dormitory level. The school has operated on two campuses since that time by providing a regular bus service transport for the five-mile-interval across the Connecticut River.

Related Topics:
Phillips Andover - Connecticut River

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In 1980, a history of NMH entitled So Much to Learn was written by Burnham Carter on the occasion of the school's 100th anniversary.

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