Inspiration: Oaksmere, Mrs. Merrill’s School for Girls

For our anniversary, my husband and I spent the day exploring a local antique mall. Even before we started dating, visiting antique stores has been one of our favorite activities. As a woman with literary interests, I have always enjoyed looking through paper goods—postcards, letters, photographs, and books.

Front cover of book

On this particular trip, I found a little book called Oaksmere Mrs. Merrill’s School for Girls. The cover was hanging on by just a few threads, but the interior was in good condition and displayed photographs and information about a girls boarding school on the Long Island Sound.

I’ve worked in education marketing for the entirety of my career, so I was naturally curious about this little booklet. It includes photographs of the school buildings, classrooms, and dormitories as well as information about each building, the curriculum, tuition, school life, and more.

Upon bringing the book home, I wanted to learn more about this school. There aren’t many boarding schools left in the United States, especially those just for girls (though there are three boarding schools within an hour of where I live!), so I figured it had closed down a long time ago. As it happens, Oaksmere graduated its last class more than 100 years ago.

I could easily go down a rabbit hole trying to learn more. There is very little information about the school available online, and I potentially have one of the most comprehensive pieces of literature about the school left in existence. But I could learn a bit more about the people who founded the school and what happened to the seventeen-acre campus on the Orienta Point of the Long Island Sound in Mamaroneck, New York. So I started digging.

The Founder of Oaksmere

Mrs. Winifred Edgerton Merrill

The founder of the school was Mrs. Winifred Edgerton Merrill, the first female graduate of Columbia University, and the first American woman to earn a Ph.D. in mathematics. She was married to a Columbia graduate ten years her junior, and together, they had four children. She founded Oaksmere in 1906 as “a concept of the position of the modern woman in her home, in the social organization, in business life, and of the education and training the girl should receive to give her distinction in these activities” (p. 13).

Mrs. Merrill ran the school from 1906 until its final closure 1928, though the campus displayed in the booklet I purchased closed in 1923. After closing the girls' school, Mrs. Merrill moved to New York City where she worked as the librarian for the Barbizon Hotel, a short-term rental hotel for young women in the arts, but that’s another story for another day.

The Estate

The campus, referred to as “the estate,” was seventeen acres on the Orienta Sound in Long Island, New York. “Magnificent oak trees, some of them between two hundred and three hundred years old, give the estate its name” (p. 15). Silver birch, hickory, maple, and chestnut trees were also abundant on the campus. 

There were nine buildings on the campus, including:

• Merrilton House

• Senior House

• The Squash Court House

• The School House

• The Arts Building

• The Play House

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Additional outbuildings, including a servants’ hall, engine house, garage, stables, greenhouse, and bathing house supported the estate. The booklet even goes into detail on the estate’s water, heating, and lighting systems, which were innovative for their time. 

The school was known for its academic excellence, academics, and proximity to New York City. The campus included an athletic field, a basketball court, baseball diamond, hockey field, tennis courts, rifle range, billiard room, and squash court. Horseback riding was also an activity enjoyed by students at Oaksmere.

The Student Experience

Academic subjects were extensive, with subjects ranging from Latin, Greek, physiology, and gardening to English, mathematics, chemistry, and psychology. There were schools of Music, Art, Household Arts, Drama, Dancing, Business, and Physical Training, which included both Red Cross courses and athletics. 

Because Oaksmere was only 45 minutes from New York City, older students were afforded the opportunity to attend concerts, lectures, and theatre productions as well as visit museums and galleries, so long as their studies were not interrupted. 

Tuesday afternoons, girls attended tea in the Library with Mrs. Merrill, and the headmistress also spent a personal hour with the girls every Sunday evening in what she called the “Sunday evening talk” (p. 72). 

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The Inspiration

I don’t know if I’ll write a story set at this long-shuttered boarding school, but I think it’ll definitely inspire future stories. One question that has been in the back of my mind lately is, “What happens to school campuses when the schools close?” In the case of Oaksmere, it became a country club, the Orienta Beach Club. The campus’s many athletic facilities made the switch to the beach club an easy transition, and many of the historic buildings remain part of the club.

I’m very curious about other schools. Some colleges have had their buildings divided up by their communities, others are purchased by larger state colleges and turned into satellite campuses. Hiwassee College in Tennessee, a two-year college that closed in 2019 due to financial issues, was purchased by Bruderhof Communities, “a Christian intentional community of families and singles who share their possessions and live together seeking to fully live out Jesus’ teachings in the Sermon on the Mount.” Several dozen people now live on the campus and share all of their possessions and finances. 

I found several newspaper advertisements for Oaksmere, but there is very little information about the school online. I reached out to the Mamaroneck Historical Society to see if they had any additional resources, and their president replied to my inquiry and said he had more information and would provide it to me as soon as he can. I’ll share more with you when I have it!

What has inspired you recently? Share it with me in the comments.