Founded in 1946 as the American Community School, a non-profit organization, the American School of Paris has existed in several forms from 1923. ...
In 1912 Dr. Prynce Hopkins built "Boyland", a private school for underprivileged boys, on a 13-acre campus near Las Tunas and Tremonto Roads.
Prynce Hopkins was born in 1885. While attending Ojai’s Thacher School, he demonstrated his fascination for the new flying machines by designing a working model for a helicopter. He earned degrees from London University, Yale, and Columbia and spoke five languages. Hopkins loved to travel, and he became deeply interested in Asia and eastern philosophies. In 1913, he returned to Santa Barbara to open a boy's school. Purchasing 13 acres on Mission Ridge, he built a large Swiss chalet, surrounded by vegetable gardens and a working miniature railway with a 200-pound locomotive. Hopkins was one of the earliest practitioners of the Montessori method of education. He felt play was just as important in the learning process as classroom work. Students attended class from 6 to 11 a.m. and spent the rest of the day in various pursuits, usually outdoors. As enrollment grew, Hopkins began to look for a new site to allow for expansion. In 1915, Hopkins bought 32 acres above Oak Park, where the Samarkand complex is now, and built his new school. Many of the buildings were done in a Persian architectural style. Riding stables, a fully equipped gym, formal gardens - all were built with the idea of the importance of outdoor activities in mind. The outstanding feature of the grounds was the 1.5-acre artificial lake with a topographic map of the world. The continents had volcanoes that belched smoke and running rivers. Students could climb into a raft or rowboat and sail across the Pacific to San Francisco Bay or sail from New York to the Mediterranean in shipping lanes mapped out with wire. The boys, in effect, took part in a living geography lesson. Opening in 1917, the innovative school was short-lived. Hopkins was a confirmed pacifist, an unpopular view especially when the U.S. entered in World War I. In April 1918, Hopkins was jailed and fined $20,000 under the Espionage Act for written works that purportedly gave aid to the enemy. One of his books, titled More Prussian Than Prussia, decried the U.S. penchant to enter the war and criticized what he perceived to be an erosion of civil liberty in this country. Hopkins's stance spelled the end of Boyland. In 1918, the grounds were used as an emergency hospital during the deadly influenza epidemic. Prynce's mother shortly thereafter transformed the school into the Samarkand Hotel, thus giving the surrounding neighborhood its name. Hopkins spent a number of years teaching in Europe and traveling, but he eventually returned to Santa Barbara. He lived in the family home until 1956, when he built a house in the International style at 1920 Garden Street. A founding member of the American Civil Liberties Union and the local United Nations chapter, Hopkins remained active until his death in 1970, celebrating his 85th birthday that year with a trip around the world.
It was the first American day school in France. DeRosay and his French wife, and Donald Jean MacJannet lived at the school, which had opened with about a score of pupils.
MacJannet opens "the Elms" in Saint Cloud while Paul G De Rosay continues alone in Auteuil
AUTEUIL DAY SCHOOL
Sunray Club Doing Away With Clothes
The school moves to the Chateau de Bures in the western suburbs
Prynce opened and operated a second progressive school for boys outside Paris, France, in about 1925, which closed upon the occupation of France by the Germans
1933-34 Brochure
Mrs. Edwin A. Bell receives a speedletter from the State Department Special War Problems Division inviting her to open an American school via the American Embassy in Paris. It offers Mrs. Bell $1800/year to begin classes on September 4 of that year.
The Board offered the first headmastership to Paul G. de Rosay, an American who had run his own private school in Paris between the two World Wars and who had been obliged to move his family to Washington, D.C., during the German Occupation.
ACS opens October 1st at the American Students and Artists Center on Boulevard Raspail, Paris
Graduation 1947. Standing students graduating from Junior High School. Note how small the high school graduating class.
The first of many productions of "Our Town" over the decades.
"Community Column" was the school's first newspaper and served as a basis for the yearbook which was launched in 1949
ACS is incorporated under the laws of the State of Delaware as an educational institution not-for-profit.
ACS moves hastily from its previous locations after being forced to leave its Paris campus
Some sort of "total Shakespeare" presentation.
"Two months after this photo was taken I was in the US Air Force in Germany where I served four years before going to college in States." Ken Powell '51
Lower grades move into a converted farmhouse in Boulogne Eventually, as the increasing number of primary pupils began to outgrow the space allotted to them in the American Church, another lease was negotiated on a large but dilapidated building at 12, rue de Sèvres, in Boulogne. In December, 1951, the kindergarten and Grades 1-3 moved into it, followed in March, 1952, by Grades 4-6, freeing the Boulevard d’Auteuil building for the junior high and high schools.
Gordon Parks, besides being a celebrated photographer, was also an ACS parent, his daughter Jo Ann (later Joanne Wilson) having graduated in 1950.
K-6 Curriculum 1954-55
ASP becomes the first overseas school to be inducted into the Cum Laude Society
ACS is accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools.
"A devoted Faculty and Board of Trustees have succeeded in keeping the American Community School constantly moving ahead, but today physical limitations make it difficult for the school to meet the obligations and the challenge it faces.
After first graduation exercises at Louveciennes and a whirl of congratulations, the Class of '58 wistfully leaves A.C.S., heading toward a number of far-flung colleges.
On January 21st, in an attempt to break the Pirates' seven -year winning streak, a combined A.C.S. team went out to Garches and made history. Our team, termed the Rebels by the cheerleaders, royally triumphed over the Pirates 35-26, through their determination, teamwork, and school support.
With the turn of the year, ACS officially changed its name to the American School of Paris.
Grades 10-12 moves into the Pavilion Dubarry
Grades 6 - 9 moved into the refurbished Bellevue property.
"This year has proved to be a very active one both academically and extracurricularly for the sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth grades.
With Mr. Wedge’s departure in June, 1962, Mr. Chapman became Headmaster, and John Steketee was appointed Director of the Elementary Grades.
ASP Head of School John B. Chapman dies in an accident involving TWA Flight 800 leaving Rome for a conference of heads of International schools at Athens.
An interview with Cherry Cook
In May, 1965, after a six-month search, the Trustees offered the headmastership to Paul Coste, who came to us after several years of experience in the administration of Army Dependents Schools in Europe.
The new location of the school signals another step in the development of a permanent American School in Paris.
The band formed in 1968, when the members were teenage classmates at the American School of Paris. They developed a following among the local American community by playing cover versions of contemporary hits. They came to the notice of recording scouts, and eventually signed with CBS, who marketed them as Les Irrésistibles. The arrangement included British carmaker Triumph as a corporate sponsor and the company's TR5 roadster featured prominently in the group's first video and early publicity photos.
Rosemary Du Aime remembers the first years of Kindergarten teaching at Saint Cloud
In September, 1970, the current school year opened with our welcome to Burton MacLean as fifth Headmaster of the American School of Paris.
Many politicians talk about school busing but it is doubtful that any of them have ever ridden on one under actual combat conditions. Only those who have been on a school bus mission know what busing is all about.
“Sigillum Vulturis" would mean seal of the vulture. Zooensis would mean "from the zoo."
April 1972, ASP hosted the first Paris Festival of the Arts with "Our World of Beauty" as its theme.
Columnist Art Buchwald said he was going to leave them laughing, and in good “Show Biz” tradition, he did.
Polethylenepollicotta: ASP's new crop
Sixty-four students plus chaperones, after a briefing by Neale Austin, invaded the USSR via Helsinki on February 8 to spend a week touring palaces, museums and monuments in Leningrad and Moscow. They also took in the opera, ballet and the Moscow Circus. Organized by lrv Levin, this was ASP's first organized excursion behind the Iron Curtain. Students returned enthusiastic about this unusual opportunity.
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