THEODATE POPE RIDDLE
This is the story of the founding of Avon Old Farms School. It is also the story of Theodate Pope Riddle, whose imaginative genius as an architect, whose faith in American young manhood, and whose personal wealth made pos sible the creation of this unique school. Although today's changes in the social dynamics and institutions of the United States have of necessity modified many of the Founder's educational ideas and ideals, particularly as defined in the Deed of Trust, the heart and core of her concepts remain valid. Avon has not only adjusted to the demands of a new and different era, but continues to maintain a leadership in innovative educational principles and in the maintenance of disciplines for enabling its students to aspire and persevere in the attainment of maturity and qualities of leadership. Theodate Pope Riddle was born in Salem, Ohio, February 2, 1868. Christened "Effie ", after her Aunt Effie Brooks Borden, she was later, at age 12, to change her name to "Theodate" after her paternal grandmother. Even as a child her spirit of determination began to assert itself, for she refused to respond henceforth to anyone who addressed her as "Effie". The beautiful portrait of her grandmother, Theodate, dressed in Quaker garb, hangs today in the Hill Stead Museum. Theodate was an only child, and as she explained it, >:' "I was born before I was needed and greatly to my mother 's resentment. One of my earliest memories is hearing my mother tell my father that she would not bear a child every year." Her mother's fear of childbirth dated from the time she witnessed as a girl of 16 the death of her own mother, Judith Twing Brooks, through a miscarriage, her tenth pregnancy. Theodate's paternal grandparents, Alton and Theodate Pope, carne from Vassalboro, Maine, where the family owned a woolen mill. They were ardent Quakers, and Mr. Pope along with four friends founded Oak Grove Academy for Quaker Children. Theodate's father, Alfred Atmore Pope, who was born in 1843, and his two older brothers, received the ir early education at this school. Alton Pope "had a decided artistic temperament but was extremely impractical and failed in his management of the woolen mills when my father was thirteen. In consequence, Father and his two
>:'Quotations appearing m the text which follows, unless otherwise noted, are taken from the random, unedited, exasperatingly few notes left by Mrs. Riddle. 1