In April 2008, Connecticut Friends School purchased 15.5 acres on the Westport/Norwalk border, approximately six miles from its current location on the grounds of Wilton Friends Meeting House.
Connecticut Friends School is developing the new White Barn Campus in order to increase its student body to 125 students, just over double the number of current students (60). In addition to the entire K-8 student body, the new campus will serve preschoolers. We will add a summer camp and expand our after school program. Ongoing generations of children, including Norwalk low-income youth, will receive a top-quality Friends education and share their skills and ideas with their families, neighbors, and the greater community.
As one parent said, “Connecticut Friends is much more than a private school. It is an oasis of simplicity in complicated times, a spot where children are encouraged to respect themselves and their peers and to take action to change the world. Learning isn’t tied solely to the ABCs or writing a good essay; it is linked to larger, essential issues such as peace, compassion, and social activism.”
Connecticut Friends students will benefit from attending school on the White Barn campus in three distinct and important ways.
With more space, Connecticut Friends School plans to add a pre-school program and to double in size, with a cap of 125 students (much of the effectiveness of the CFS community is tied to its intimate size, and this ambitious project does not lose sight of this foundational fact). Starting in 2010, the school will run a Connecticut Friends Summer Camp at the White Barn property and host year-round art, music, and nature classes to serve parents with young toddlers. We also hope to serve appropriate institutions such as dance schools or music programs by encouraging periodic use of the property and buildings.
The White Barn Campus is rich in natural beauty and a variety of habitats to be studied, protected and enhanced. Students of all ages and Connecticut Friends School families and friends will learn from the land and benefit from its abundant beauty.
Connecticut Friends School students are already taking advantage of the White Barn Campus as a living classroom through a truly hands-on curriculum of the environment. Our eldest students recently built a nature trail from scratch through part of the property. Other middle-schoolers researched, wrote, and published a field guide to 20 of the trees at White Barn. Lower school children observed woodland animals and used math to calculate the volume of water in the pond.
Faculty are creating curricular units on nutrition, health, agriculture, cooking, and composting via an organic vegetable garden that will be a focal point of science units throughout the school. The garden program developing on the White Barn campus is a model that will be available to other educators interested in an edible garden curriculum.
The photographs below capture some of the natural beauty of the White Barn property as well as the White Barn Theatre before its renovation. Black and white sketches on the interior walls include an original by famous Broadway caricaturist Al Hirshfeld. The Lortel home is shown after its remodel, which was completed in September 2008.
We are an unconventional school doing an unconventional capital campaign—seeking "those of similar leading" who feel called to help make this ambitious project a reality. Optimistic and proactive founders, visionaries and pioneers, we are committed to education, conservation, and arts leadership as a way to address pressing needs in our community and the world.
We already have raised $2 million out of the necessary $10 million needed to move the school to the new site. Funding for the remaining $8 million is the goal of our Open the Way Capital Campaign. We will continue to fund-raise over the next several years.
There is an immediate need to raise $4 million in funding for the renovation of the historic White Barn Theatre Building and related site work. The refurbished theater structure will serve initially as Connecticut Friends School's main classroom building on the property. Additionally we seek to pay down the remaining $4 million in land purchase costs.
TOTAL current need is $8 million.
Newtown Avenue
Side Entrance
The White Barn property was the home of a 148-seat summer theatre and residence of Lucille Lortel, the “Queen of Off-Broadway” productions. Since 1947, the White Barn Theatre had been an asset to the community but was closed in 2002. By 2006, a real estate developer had purchased the land and was going to replace the theatre building with luxury homes. Instead, Connecticut Friends School raised the down payment to purchase the White Barn property and rescue the historic White Barn Theatre. The school also secured agreements between five different stakeholder groups (White Barn neighbors, Norwalk Land Trust, elected officials, the previous owner of the property and CFS) to place 5.2 acres into conservation easement that, in turn, reduced the purchase price for the White Barn property by $700,000 via city and state open space grants. The school paid down $2 million of the $6.1 million purchase price and received financing from the seller for the remaining $4 million.
We have already renovated a private residence on the White Barn property, referred to as the Lortel House, named for the founding artistic director of the summer theater. The house is currently occupied by one of our co-heads of school and will serve indefinitely as CFS staff housing as well as a venue for meetings and receptions.
We have approval from the city of Norwalk to operate a school on the White Barn campus. Our immediate goal is to renovate the existing theater to use as initial classroom space. Connecticut Friends School will renovate the structure while preserving its integrity, to create classroom and administrative space. Classroom facilities in the renovated theater building will accommodate 95 students. The school anticipates moving to White Barn in 2010 or 2011.
The combination of “outdoor classrooms” and sustainable architecture represents an opportunity to educate visitors with simple guided tours meant to inspire innovative thinking about stewardship of land, ways to harness natural energy sources (and thereby cut down on consumption of fossil fuels), and mindful choices about building materials, waste management and construction practices.
Residents of the area will surely treasure such a multi-faceted resource including walking trails and open space, the school's leadership in energy and environmental design, and preservation and revitalization of an historic theater—an important part of Westport and Norwalk's cultural heritage. CFS plans to re-establish the White Barn Theatre as a home for creative and educational events. Its original focus on innovative works will be embraced through the talents of CFS students and staff and local dramatic arts mentors. The theatre will also be a host venue for community functions and film screenings.
The property is a beautiful parcel of over 15 acres including a pond. CFS has set aside approximately a third of the property for land conservation, most of which is open to the public. The flora and fauna will be protected by careful environmental stewardship. In a community thick with houses, this green space alone will be a great asset.
"As the project matches the goals of the program and, most notably, promotes a design of thoughtful innovation, responsible energy use, and a deep commitment to the environment and the beauty of the particular parcel of land, I know of no more exciting and outstanding school project. The residents of Norwalk and the state will take great pride in this project."
—Douglas Lyons, Executive Director of the Connecticut Association of Independent Schools (speaking before the Norwalk Planning and Zoning Committee at the public hearing for Connecticut Friends Schools White Barn Theatre Property.)
"This is going to be a win-win for everybody in the greater Norwalk area."
—D. Steely Hubbard, Norwalk Land Trust
The New York Times, Sunday, 10.22.06 (PDF)
The Advocate, Saturday, 2.24.07 (PDF)
The Advocate, Wednesday, 2.28.07 (PDF)
The Hour, Wednesday, 2.28.07 (PDF)
The Advocate, Saturday, 4.21.07 (PDF)
The Hour, Wednesday, 4.25.07 (PDF)
The Hour, Thursday, 4.17.08 (PDF)
The Advocate, Thursday, 4.24.08 (PDF)
Norwalk Citizen News, Friday, 4.25.08 (PDF)
The Hour, Wednesday, 10.01.08 (PDF)
