Proctor Academy - Shirley In Jest

Lyle Farrell served Proctor (from 1932) as a teacher, coach and (1952-71) as Headmaster. His career began in the school's most desperate economic days, and ended with a stable, debt-free college preparatory school with an emerging market niche. Lyle tapped the resources of trustees (some qualify as cronies) for building projects, including the north wing of Maxwell Savage and Holland Auditorium, Shirley Hall and Farrell Fieldhouse. William Shirley '16 contributed to the construction costs of the building bearing his name, and drew the architectural plans himself. Here's Lyle and Mr. Shirley breaking ground in the spring of 1961.

Shirley Hall has served the school well since its dedication on May 12, 1962. Originally, the upper floor was home to Lovejoy Library as well as the science classrooms that exist today. The lower floor provided space for hockey teams dressing for games on Proctor Pond, and later evolved into the Learning Skills Department. With the construction of the magnificent Fowler Learning Center (1994), the library space was chopped up into history classrooms, the science labs were renovated and the lower level became the math department. The biology lab, (technically Room 24,) is a bright, sunny, pleasantly cluttered space.

Working in teams, students pour over microscopes, studying the cell structure of onion root caps. The music of Tragically Hip plays softly in the background over the room's sound system.

Students sketch what they see in lab journals. There's hardly enough time to complete the lab. Some will return during the afternoon or evening to finish up.

Between classes, the hallways fill with students waiting access. The walls are brightly decked out with posters and ceramic murals. The floors are squeaky clean linoleum.

Around the corner, in Room 30, students get ready for the start of a history class. These guys are sitting in front of a dormant fireplace; a vestige of the old Lovejoy Library, when this room was six times larger.

If it is anything, Shirley Hall is versatile! The school's darkrooms are tucked into the south wall of the main corridor. Bright, colorful lockers inside the west entrance are dedicated to photography students.

Not anticipating the lower floor's conversion into a math department, Mr. Shirley didn't draw a stairway unifying the building.(Note correction in Comments.) The lower floor was renovated in 1994, with new floors, lighting and bathrooms.

At 9:45, the bell on Maxwell Savage rings, calling us together for assembly. Of course, you can't hear the bell in Shirley Hall (or at least from the lower floor.)