[4][5] The academy was established in the remote town of Deerfield, at the time "the principal [European] settlement on the western frontier.
"[6] A Mr. John Williams organized a coalition of local grandees, including future U.S. congressmen Ebenezer Mattoon and Samuel Taggart,[3] to raise $1,300 to build a school house and another $1,400 for an endowment.
[8] Like many early "boarding" academies in New England, Deerfield did not have its own dormitories when it opened, and out-of-town students were required to rent rooms from local families.
Industrialization had depopulated large portions of western Massachusetts, depriving the academy of many potential students.
[11] Boyden revitalized the academy by transforming it into a private, boys-only college-preparatory boarding school that drew its students not from the surrounding area but the entire country.
Boyden gradually rebuilt the academy's enrollment, invested in teacher salaries,[17] and developed strong relationships with college administrators.
[18]) He restored Deerfield's boarding department in 1916, hoping to attract wealthy families whose tuition payments could rescue the school's financial situation.
[19] To attract boarders to what was essentially a brand-new school, Boyden hired advertising executive Bruce Barton to pitch Deerfield to prospective parents as "the cradle ... of the New England conscience,"[20] and popularized "[t]he notion of the Deerfield Boy ... intelligent, but more important[ly], well-rounded, ... plac[ing] a high value on ethics, morals and sportsmanship.
[24] (Boyden may have welcomed the change, because "Deerfield's rising population of immigrant Polish farmers" conflicted with his desire "to maintain the school as a Yankee institution"; he told a colleague that Deerfield needed a boarding department "to help settle the Polish problem.
"[27] In Boyden's early years, Deerfield "w[as] comparatively inexpensive, drew [its] students from a broader social spectrum, and imposed a less Victorian regimen" than Episcopalian church schools like St. Paul's, Groton, and Kent.
[29] However, the academy's rising reputation also attracted the attention of major donors from around the country, including Nelson Rockefeller and John Gideon Searle, who sent their children to Deerfield.
[45] In 2004 an alumnus revealed to Deerfield's then-headmaster Eric Widmer that he had been sexually abused in the winter of 1983 by faculty member Peter Hindle.
[46] A parent had previously raised concerns about Hindle to the academy in the 1980s, and Deerfield had responded with written and verbal warnings.
[47] Nearly a decade later in 2012, the alumnus raised the matter again, this time with the new headmaster Margarita Curtis, who he says "displayed clear moral authority and offered unconditional support from the start.
"[46] An investigation by the academy's lawyers confirmed the allegations and uncovered more: In late March 2013 the academy published information that two former faculty members had engaged in multiple sexual contacts with students: Peter Hindle (who taught at Deerfield from 1956 to 2000), and Bryce Lambert (who retired in 1990 and died in 2007).
[50] Deerfield spokesman David Thiel said "I think you saw from us an amount of transparency when this came to light that was unusual, and I hope that sets a good example for institutions and helps to assure that students are safer everywhere.
[51] However, at Deerfield (as with most boarding schools), requesting financial aid may affect an applicant's chances of admission.
On Wednesdays, classes end at 12:45 pm to accommodate athletic events, as well as to provide more time for clubs and community service.
[61][62] Source:[76] Deerfield has 15 dormitories: Barton, Bewkes (now a faculty residence), DeNunzio, Field, Harold Smith, John Louis, John Williams, Johnson-Doubleday, Louis-Marx, Mather, McAlister, Pocumtuck, Rosenwald-Shumway, Scaife, the recently christened O'Byrne Curtis—named for retiring Head of School Margarita O'Byrne Curtis, and the newly constructed Simmons replacing Dewey.