Hallways
HALCYON DAYS ON OSWEGO LAKE
By Libby Hoagland Berridge
just decided to stay year-round,” Margaret said. “It was like living in the wilds. At that time you could hike around the lake.” She and her two sisters were each allowed to bring a friend from school on the weekend, so sometimes the house was full of girls. Despite living so far out in the country,
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Peggy Newhall ’36 and her granddaughter, Debbie Rath Kennison ’86.
Margaret and her sisters were not isolated from other schoolmates, because St. Helen’s Hall had bought a cottage on Oswego Lake called “Everglade” in order to provide more outdoor life for the students. On weekends the boarders headed for the lake with the Sisters from the Order of St. John Baptist, who ran the school from 1904 to 1945. T e Sisters wanted a tennis court for the girls, and soon everyone was helping to build a court with a wooden fl oor. T ey set boards and pounded nails until the court was fi nished. In addition to tennis, the Sisters taught swimming, diving, lifesaving, canoeing and boating at the lake. Everglade was sold in 1950.
igh school life for Margaret Newhall ’36 centered on Oswego Lake. Her family was the fi rst to live year-round at the lake, which at that time was just summer cottages about a half an hour’s drive from St. Helen’s Hall in downtown Portland. “We all loved it so much that we
“T e Sisters were such fun—really delightful
people,” Margaret said. “T ere were four of them. T e trick to getting along with Sister Superior was to coax her into a good mood and then you could ask for anything.” At that time, Margaret went by the name Peggy
Lou Smith, and her mother, Ruth Carter Smith, taught dramatic arts at St. Helen’s Hall. Margaret attended T e Hall from the fi fth grade through senior year and then attended St. Helen’s Hall Junior College for a year before transferring to the University of Oregon, where she earned a degree in English. She recalls attending school during the Depression years, when her family had little money. “Everyone had one dress, one skirt, and that was
plenty,” she said. But during her junior year, her father could not aff ord to send her and her sisters to the Hall so they had to go to Lincoln High. She said she cried for her whole fi rst week at Lincoln and then refused to go to school. Her mother found a tutor for her daughters, and the next year the school found a scholarship that enabled them to return to the Hall. After college, Margaret taught at a private school and then started her own school in the country for students who were not succeeding at other schools. She had six to eight students a year and taught them all subjects. Now she lives in Washington, D.C.
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