Let's go back in time to 1908

• Ford produces the first Model T, with a price of $850 and can, says Ford, be purchased in any color the buyer wishes, as long as the buyer wants black.
• "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" is a new song.
• Lucy Maude Montgomery publishes ANNE OF GREEN GABLES.
• 77 boys form the student body of Fay School with 7 masters to teach them.
• A first class U.S. stamp costs 2 cents.
• Robert Peary and Matthew Henson set sail for the Artic North Pole.
• The Chicago Cubs win the World Series.
• Kenneth Grahame publishes THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS.
• Petroleum production starts in the Middle East.
• President Theodore Roosevelt establishes the National Conservation Commission
• Waldo Burnett Fay, Headmaster of Fay School, constructs the Schoolroom and purchases the Senior Field land on Middle Road.
• Scott Joplin’s PINEAPPLE RAG was a hit.
• Beatrix Potter publishes THE TALE OF JEMIMA PUDDLE DUCK.
• A beautiful library is donated by Mrs. Patrick A. Valentine in honor of her son, Alastair Valentine ’08—Fay School’s first library.

Library Timeline

• 1905 – What was life like for a Fay School Student in 1905? Read a letter written in 1958 by Leonard Outhwaite '05 to Mark Kunen '58 and published in THE PIONEER.
• 1908 – A new wing is added to the Main Building. The upper two floors are dormitory rooms. The lowest floor is Fay School’s first library, donated by Mrs. Patrick A. Valentine in honor of her son, Alastair I. G. Valentine ’08. “It was a long and relatively narrow room with dark wood paneling. Book-shelves and windows alternated along the room’s length, and from the window at the southern end of the room, one could look out over the playing fields to the reservoirs.” (Scott C. Steward ’78 The Fay School) “Its cozy window seats and the sunshine streaming into the room made the Valentine Library a delightful place to study, play chess, or pore over a stamp collection.” (Illustrated History of Fay School, 20)
• 1982 – The Board of Trustees vote to undertake a capital campaign for the purpose of building a new Library/Classroom building.
• 1983 – The Trustees decide that the old Main Building, including the Valentine Library, was too decrepit to be saved and would be demolished.
• 1984 – The Mr. & Mrs. Chapman S. Root Academic Center is dedicated during the Founder’s Weekend celebrations. The new Root building features 17 Upper School classrooms, 8 Lower School classrooms, a conference room, a computer center and a magnificent library.
• 1993 – The library collection of 14,000 items is accessible through an automated card catalog via two computer terminals in the library.
• 2001 – Fay School library web page provides access to the 18,000 items in our collection online subscriptions and databases, more than 100 pages provide sources chosen by librarians and teachers for Fay courses. THE RESEARCH ROAD is Fay’s own online tutorial to guide student research.
• 2008 – Fay School celebrates the 100th birthday of the Library.
  

updated 07/22/2008