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The Ensworth School

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The Ensworth School
Location
Map
Nashville
,
TN

USA
Information
TypePrivate
Motto"In Search of Truth"
Religious affiliation(s)Non-sectarian
Established1958
HeadmasterDavid J. Braemer
Enrollment1,041
Average class size15 students
Student to teacher ratio8:1
Color(s)Black and Orange
Athletics conferenceTSSAA - Division II
MascotTiger
AccreditationsSACS, SAIS
Endowment$7.5 million
Websitehttp://www.ensworth.com/

The Ensworth School is a private school located on two separate campuses in Nashville, Tennessee.

The copied school, with bad grades "pre-first" (kindergarten) through eighth, opened in 1958 with 152 students. The school opened in a large Tudor-style home; its distinctive architecture became a symbol of the school itself. That facility, since expanded several times, is now known as the Red Gables Campus, and is located at 211 Ensworth Avenue.[1]

In 2002 the school initiated a $60 million capital campaign, with the goal of expanding the school to grade 12. After operating for over 40 years as a K-8 school, Ensworth added a high school in 2004, located on Tennessee State Route 100 adjacent to Edwin Warner Park and known as the Devon Farm Campus.[2] The high school began with grade 9 and added a grade each following year; the school's first graduating class has matriculated in 2008.

In 2005, the newly constructed high school earned nationwide honors for architecture from American School and University Magazine and the Boston Society of Architects.[3]

A 642-seat theater has recently been completed on the high school campus.[1]

Location

EHS is located at 7401 Highway 100, Nashville, Tennessee. The high school campus was built overlooking the confluence of the Harpeth and Little Harpeth Rivers, near Edwin Warner Park.

In June 2003 construction of the school's tennis courts resulted in the discovery of several prehistoric human burials.[4] The developer petitioned the Davidson County Chancery Court, and was granted permission to remove and relocate all burials within the construction zone to an adjacent portion of the school property.[5]

Archaeological excavations were subsequently conducted in order to identify and remove all human remains from the site. The excavations resulted in the discovery of more than 300 archaeological features, of which 64 contained human remains.[4] Artifacts recovered during these investigations indicate the site was occupied over a 9000-year time frame stretching from the Early Archaic through Mississippian periods. The site was most intensively occupied during the period known as the Benton phase (ca. 6000–5000 B.P.). Artifacts from this period were prolific at the site, and included numerous finely crafted burial offerings.

Beginning around 1798, the land containing EHS was situated within a large agricultural property owned and farmed by the families of brothers Giles and Thomas Harding. Between 1798 and 1807, Giles Harding and his sons constructed a home that would be known as Oak Hill and later Devon Farm.[6] This home was included in the National Register of Historic Places in 1974, due to the architectural integrity of the main house and the significance of the Harding family to the early settlement of the Nashville area.[7] The historic cemetery associated with the Devon Farm was moved in 2003 during construction of EHS.[8] The NRHP-listed home was renovated and now serves as the school's admissions office.

History

The Ensworth School was founded on April 26, 1958 after an intense debate between existing residents of the territory and the growing Board of Trustees. The court case, known locally as "Nashville vs. The Ensworth School" was finally settled in the state court in favor of the school's construction.

Construction began in January 3, 1959. Originally, the school was to be built in the Gothic style, with 62-foot-high walls, but the costs discouraged this approach, so a Tudor-style mansion was built in its stead.[9] This campus was called the "Red Gables" Campus, because of its distinct, blood red roofs and gables.[10]

The Ensworth High School campus was built after a fund-raising campaign that raised nearly 60 million dollars. This also benefited the Lower and Middle Schools. The High School began classes in 2004, and its first senior class graduated in 2008. To commemorate the Lower and Middle school's 50th anniversary, the students will build houses for Habitat For Humanity, a service organization.

Buildings

In 2008-2009 a 642-seat theater was completed and opened at the Devon Farm campus. The theater offers a fully equipped venue for student drama, music, and dance performances. It is also used for school-wide assembly meetings. The theater also houses a scenery construction workshop, sound, lighting and production facilities, green room, and teaching spaces.[11]

In September of 2011, the school opened a new gymnasium on the Red Gables Campus, called the Brown Athletic Center.[12] The new facility is a total of three stories with a basement, featuring four, unique accommodations. The first floor features a basketball court that sports the school's colors, bright orange and black. The middle floor features a fitness center that directly mirrors the professional gymnasium that is currently housed at the Devon Farms campus. The top floor features a refueling center, which offers free Gatorade, Muscle Milk, and protein bars. Head Athletic Director Ricky Bowers has stated that these three accommodations will serve as a feeder program for the high school athletics program to bolster the school's two main athletics programs: basketball and American football. To complete the facility, the basement is fitted with a luxury locker room that sports a dual-gender bathhouse and a spa center for any student to use. With the introduction of the new facility, the school has created a new eight period schedule that includes four consecutive periods of athletics training.[13]

In October of 2012, Ensworth opened Tennessee's first school-owned natatorium. Fitted with twenty five lanes, the pool is frequently used by schools around the area.[14] Swimming coach Harold Erlson has stated his intentions to better the school's swimming team, hoping to advance to the state competition for the first time in the school's history.

Athletics

The most widely-recognized sport at the school is its nationally-ranked football team. Not only is the school's football team ranked first in the state, it is ranked ninth on MaxPrep Xcellent 25 and eighth on MaxPreps Freeman Ranking.[15] In its 2012-2013 season, the Ensworth High School football team performed impressively,[16] playing a perfect season. The school progressed to the TSSAA State Championships as two-time state champions against the equally impressive Memphis University School football team, winning their third consecutive championship in the second overtime.[17] Athletic Director and Head Coach Ricky Bowers recounted on the school's first-ever "three peat" as, "one of the proudest moments in my career as a football coach." Bowers, who was previously Montgomery Bell Academy's football coach, is an alumnus of both schools, and played in the collegiate division for the Ole Miss Rebels football team, leading the team to its third national victory in 1962 at the Sugar Bowl under coach John Vaught.

In July 22, of 2012, Head Athletic Director Ricky Bowers began an outreach program to send used sports equipment to their offices in Liberia.[18] This outreach program serves as a training program for the aspiring Liberian athletes, who train in hopes of joining the team in its main campus in Nashville, Tennessee. These students, usually aged from 10 to 14, undergo a rigorous selection process that assesses the students' prowess in three athletic activities: American football, Basketball, and Sprinting. Usually from this pool of around five hundred students, only ten percent of the students are chosen to join the school's athletic teams on a full scholarship. The school's star athletes Corn Elder and Orleans Opoku-Darkwa are historic graduates of this program, which has been tentatively dubbed the "Ensworth Opportunity Endeavor."[19]

Academics

In 2008, the school's math team traveled to its first-ever state Interscholastic Mathematics League at Lipscomb University. Entering students in Algebra 1, Euclidean geometry, and Algebra 2, the school took a cumulative title of fortieth out of fifty schools in Tennessee, narrowly beating academic rival the Father Ryan High School in the stymied quiz bowl tourney in the first round. However, the team suffered a defeat against the Carver High School team of Memphis, Tennessee. Individually, a student set a new school record by scoring an 85 out of a possible 100 on the Algebra 2 test.[20] Since 2008, the school's math team has opted out of the competitions in favor of preparing for the upcoming tournaments of 2014. Headmaster Braemer stated his hopes of improving the team in 2009, stating that "better calculators and better minds will win the contests in the future." In October of 2012, the beginning of Braemer's tenure as headmaster, every student at the Ensworth School through the sixth to twelfth grades was given a complimentary TI-Nspire CX calculator for the sake of winning the competition in 2014.[21]

In addition to its mathematics performances, the Ensworth School has also created a Science Olympiad team in 2004. The team has performed consistently in past years, earning the sixteenth spot out of twenty five schools in the regional division.[22] The team has been especially noted for its unique mode of preparation for the build events, in which the school excels annually. The school hires professional architects, designers, physicists, engineers, and geologists to aid the students in the construction process.[23] Late Headmaster William Mosely has called this experience an excellent hands-on approach to real world application of science, stating that "allowing the students to watch professionals build their various contraptions is an excellent opportunity for them to absorb those models and recreate them for future competitions. It's amazing how well the students remember these designs." As a result of the school's efforts, the Ensworth School's builds have been unbeaten in the Division A level, having never lost the Bottle Rocket, Junior Towers, or Downhill Derby events since the team's inception in 2004.

In November 2000, late Headmaster Will Mosely expressed desires of expanding the school's horizons in extracurricular academic activities such as a Model United Nations team, but current Headmaster David J. Braemer has opted to focus the massive funding for those teams on the school's new observatory in Roswell, New Mexico, to join the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, with hopes of making important scientific contributions.[24]

Accreditation & membership

  • Tennessee Association of Independent Schools
  • Southern Association of Independent Schools
  • Southern Association of Colleges and Schools

Past Headmasters

  • Will Moseley

Notable alumni

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Ensworth.com: History[dead link]
  2. ^ Ensworth High opens doors on Nashville City Paper
  3. ^ Ensworth High School receives design award on Nashville City Paper
  4. ^ a b The Ensworth School Site (40DV184): A Middle Archaic Benton Occupation along the Harpeth River Drainage in Middle Tennessee. Tennessee Archaeology 1(1) pp. 18–35
  5. ^ Nashville City Paper: Judge allows Ensworth to move burial ground
  6. ^ Clements, P.: "A Past Remembered: A Collection of Antebellum Houses in Davidson County." Clearview Press, Nashville.
  7. ^ National Register of Historic Places Listings, Davidson County, Tennessee
  8. ^ Devon Farm Cemetery Survey
  9. ^ Breckner, Lauren. "History of Ensworth's Red Gables". Now Playing in Nashville. Retrieved 1/24/13. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  10. ^ Mosely, Will. "Pictures of RGB Campus". The Ensworth School. Retrieved 1/24/13. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  11. ^ http://www.ensworth.com/podium/default.aspx?t=120392
  12. ^ Wellerth, Harold. "Brown Athletic Center Honors Trustee". The Ensworth School. Retrieved 3/20/13. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  13. ^ Farnsworth, James. "The Brown Athletics Center" (PDF). The Ensworth School. Retrieved 3/20/13. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  14. ^ Cirillo, Chip. "Ensworth opens its new natatorium". Retrieved 18 March 2013.
  15. ^ "High School Football Rankings Central". MaxPreps.
  16. ^ Varlas, John. "Ensworth pulls away from MUS in second half of BlueCross Bowl". The Commercial Appeal. Retrieved 12/9/12. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  17. ^ David, Braemer. "Tigers Get Three-Peat! State Champs!!".
  18. ^ Ferrier, Dennis (22 June 2012). "Ensworth project helps send sports uniforms to Africa". WSMV Channel 4 News. Retrieved 10 April 2013.
  19. ^ Cirillo, Chip (November 1st, 2012). "Ensworth's Corn Elder near top 10 in rushing". The Tennessean. Retrieved 10 April 2013. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  20. ^ Mosely, William. "Ensworth Math Team Wins Honors in Recent Contest". The Ensworth School. Retrieved 1/24/13. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  21. ^ Braemer, David. "Starting School 2012". The Ensworth School. Retrieved 1/24/13. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  22. ^ Mosely, William. "Student Life: After School Activities". The Ensworth School. Retrieved 1/24/13. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  23. ^ Mosely, William. "College Counseling". The Ensworth School. Retrieved 1/24/13. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  24. ^ Mosely, William. "Come Fly With 'E': Donor Information" (PDF). The Ensworth School. Retrieved 1/24/13. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  25. ^ The Tennessean - Joi to the world (abstract)

Further reading

  • Sarah B. Gilliam. "Ensworth High hosts Special Olympics camp". The Tennessean. 24 October 2007.
  • Randy Moomaw. "Rural, urban kids learn together at Ensworth High camp". The Tennessean. 11 July 2007.
  • Karen Jordan. "New year brings sophomores to Ensworth High". The Tennessean. 26 August 2005.
  • Stephanie Toone. "Student, faculty numbers are growing at Ensworth High". The Tennessean. 20 July 2005.
  • Pam Sherborne. "Parents, students get preview of Ensworth High buildings". The Tennessean. 28 November 2003.

36°07′28″N 86°50′24″W / 36.12444°N 86.84000°W / 36.12444; -86.84000

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