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Miss Orton's Classical School for Girls

 


Women's Empowerment

Early in my research on Grace, I learned she was: a Suffragette, in the Women's League at the University of Wisconsin, and a member of the Brodhead's Women's Club.

What I learned in my most recent research, is that Grace did not simply support the cause through words ... she lived her beliefs through her actions.

Grace went west after the sale of Sunnyside in 1916, and was teaching in Pasadena.

Based on her address listed in the 1917 Alpha of Wisconsin Catalogue, I learned she was teaching and living at the Miss Orton's Classical School for Girls.




The Orton School

Written in the 1918 Handbook of Private Schools, Miss Orton's school is noted as:
"The Orton School ... an English-classical school for girls in Pasadena, was established in 1890 by Miss Anna B. Orton, a daughter of Professor James Orton of Vassar, the celebrated naturalist. The four-year high school course leading to college preparation may be continued into the first two years of college work."

More notable information about the Orton School includes:

"Miss Orton's school was the first non-religious private school for girls in Pasadena, and the only such school in the city until 1913, making Orton a pioneer of women's education in Pasadena."
"The school was designed to prepare girls for a higher education at a college in the Eastern United States, as most secondary schools in Pasadena at the time assumed their students would go to Stanford or Berkeley if they desired further education."



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