Hortense Bigelow Ingram Upper School Dedicated

1/23/2007
The Harpeth Hall School celebrated the dedication of the Hortense Bigelow Ingram Upper School on Tuesday. With a bagpiper leading the procession, dignitaries, students and faculty ushered in to the George N. Bullard Gymnasium where the ceremony took place. Head of School Ann Teaff opened the program with a special thank you to the many people who were devoted to the successful completion of this project.

The Harpeth Hall School celebrated the dedication of the Hortense Bigelow Ingram Upper School on Tuesday. With a bagpiper leading the procession, dignitaries, students and faculty ushered in to the George N. Bullard Gymnasium where the ceremony took place. Head of School Ann Teaff opened the program with a special thank you to the many people who were devoted to the successful completion of this project.

The Hortense Bigelow Ingram Upper School contains more than 35,000-square-feet of renovated space that will provide the academic facilities needed to support the rigorous college preparatory program of today and tomorrow.

Business and community leader Martha Ingram gave a tribute to her mother-in-law, Hortense Bigelow Ingram, who was a founding trustee of The Harpeth Hall School. When Hortense Bigelow Ingram joined the Board of Trustees, her own daughters were grown, said Martha Ingram.

“It was an unselfish thing to do in helping to found this school,” said Martha Ingram. “But she believed in single gender education for women and she wanted young women to be able to grow up and be the best they could be.”

Following Martha Ingram’s remarks, Harpeth Hall Board Chair Susan Willingham Simons ’60, shared information about the Bullard and Wallace families, whose multigenerational legacy of support has been paramount to the success of the Upper School.

Jack Wallace, son of Louise “Dede” Bullard Wallace and grandson of George N. Bullard, also gave a tribute to his family. George N. Bullard was a founding trustee with Hortense Bigelow Ingram. His daughters were members of Ward-Belmont School and when it closed, he was instrumental in raising money for Harpeth Hall, ensuring his daughters would have an excellent education, said Jack Wallace.

The new Upper School includes the Ella Petway and George N. Bullard Student Services Hall, which is home to the offices for Winterim, College Counseling, Service-Learning, and Upper School administrators, and the Louise Bullard Wallace Center for the Humanities, which houses the English, Foreign Languages and Social Sciences classrooms.

The $7.5 million Hortense Bigelow Ingram Upper School was designed by Street, Dixon Rick Architecture, PLC. The general contractor was The Parent Company. The Ingram family provided the lead gift for the project.

DEDICATION CELEBRATION PROGRAM

PLAQUE: HORTENSE BIGELOW INGRAM UPPER SCHOOL

PLAQUE: THE ELLA PETWAY AND GEORGE N. BULLARD STUDENT SERVICES CENTER

PLAQUE: LOUISE BULLARD WALLACE CENTER FOR THE HUMANITIES