Museum director illuminates history of the Fermata School

AIKEN - The history of the Fermata School for Girls was brought to life April 11 in an open house and lecture organized by the Fermata Foundation.

Lauren Virgo, director of the Aiken County Historical Museum, presented "History and Mystery of the Fermata," based on material from an exhibit now on display in an anteroom of the club's gymnasium.

The school, for daughters of residents of Aiken's Winter Colony, was founded by Marie Eustis Hofmann in Fermata cottage, the home she shared with her husband, internationally-known pianist and composer Josef Hofmann.

Hitchcock Heights condominiums is on the site of the home. A historical marker commemorates Hofmann and his career.

"You pass by that marker on Laurens Street right before you get to the bridge, and it says, 'Josef Hofmann.' Well, they need to give a little more credit to his wife, too," Virgo said.

The Hofmanns met at his performance on piano at Joye Cottage. It was Mrs. Hofmann's second marriage. Her first husband is quoted in a 1965 book about the Hofmanns as saying his ex-wife may have been following the example of other women who "dropped their husbands like petticoats."

"Evidently, there was a trend in the Aiken Winter Colony for the ladies to have a little bit more power in the relationship, and they could divorce their husbands as easily as the husbands could divorce them," Virgo said.

They had a daughter, Josefa, and realized the need for a school.

"There had been an experiment a year or two before where they had tried to make Aiken Prep coeducational, and it was a fantastic failure," Virgo said. "So, they were determined that Aiken Prep is going to stay for the boys, and there needed to be an alternative for the girls."

It opened on the third floor of Fermata cottage in October 1919 with five students and four teachers. In 1921 Mrs. Hofmann and Hope Goddard Iselin, whose estate became Hopelands Gardens, purchased Tall Pines, the former home of Col. Anthony and Susan Kuser.

The school's new home included classrooms, a library, a dining room, and rooms for boarding students. In 1929 the gymnasium, Fermata Hall, was built by McGhee & McGhee Construction for $22,000.

Virgo showed a photo of the cast of a student production of Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night," in their costumes on the stage of the gymnasium.

The company also added 50 boarding rooms to the Tall Pines mansion. At its peak, Fermata School had 70 boarders and 20 day students. The girls, ages 13-18, hailed mostly from the northeastern United States, but also from Minnesota, Wyoming, Canada and England.

A map of the campus drawn by three students in 1930 is on display in the exhibit. It shows an outdoor basketball court, three tennis courts, a studio for art and music, an infirmary, the gymnasium and the main house, all labeled with fanciful names and inside jokes.

"It's interesting to read that map closely and see how much fun they had with it," Virgo said.

F.A.M. Tabor became headmaster in 1926 and purchased the school in 1932.

Tabor and his wife hosted an annual costumed skating party in the gym, decorating it with lanterns and balloons and awarding prizes. In 1939, the winners were a polar bear, a hillbilly, Robin Hood, and a skater festooned with jingle bells.

Another annual event was Gymkhana, an afternoon of equestrian competitions and games, such as the Cigar & Umbrella race, in which contestants raced down the polo field, dismounted, lit a cigar, unfurled an umbrella, remounted and raced back to the finish. Proceeds from the 1941 event were donated to the Valley Welfare Fund.

"With the coming of World War II, a lot of families weren't sending their daughters away to finishing school anymore. It was a little bit more dangerous to have your daughter traveling across the nation, and so the school really winds down," Virgo said.

Tabor "kind of ran the school into the ground," Virgo said. "People weren't coming like they used to, so it went into foreclosure, and then it happened to catch fire."

The house didn't burn completely but had to be torn down. An ad in the exhibit advertises "the sale of all the doors, the mantles, all the furniture that was in tall pines, but it was torn down about 1944," Virgo said.

The property was acquired by a Catholic religious order, the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy of South Carolina. With the gymnasium, tennis courts and swimming pool still intact, they sold it to sixteen families of DuPont Company in 1952. They formed Fermata Club LLC.

For nearly 75 years the club has been part of life in Aiken, and its pool is used by swim teams from area high schools.

Work on the gymnasium's foundation work completed in December, and air conditioning has been installed for the first time in the building's history.

"We're looking forward to continuing the club on through the next 75 years," said Claire Cunningham, chair of the club's board of directors.

They're also looking to add to the exhibit about the history of the school and the club.

"If people have Fermata photos or memorabilia from over the years, we're looking to add to the exhibit," Cunningham said.

Fermata Club is holding a Spring Fling on April 25 from 5:30-9:30 pm, featuring square dancing with live musicians and a caller and a Lowcountry Boil. More details and tickets are available at the Fermata Club's website. Registration will close on April 22.

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