Clarence E. Allen - Headmaster from 1929-1953

One of the first things Mr. Allen did when he joined Rivers was to eliminate the school’s open-air policy. The administration realized that studying in sub-freezing temperatures was counter-productive. Within his first year as headmaster, Mr. Allen made sure both the upper and lower schools were heated.

The Great Depression presented a new challenge to Mr. Allen in his first years at Rivers. Private education became a luxury many families couldn’t afford, but Mr. Allen, using his previous experience as assistant headmaster at the Country Day School for Boys of Boston, seemed to work miracles. In response to the financial challenges, he lowered tuition, and didn’t accept his salary. Enrollment and staffing numbers were stable, and funds were found for school facilities. When the gym needed re-shingling, for example, he raised the money for the project. In fact, to help the school weather the Depression, Mr. Allen raised $50,000. Mr. Allen’s fiscal approach worked, and The Rivers School survived the Great Depression.

On the school’s 25th anniversary in 1940, Mr. Allen announced that Rivers would merge with his former employer, the Country Day School, located in Newton. Both schools had advocated fresh air and open space for their students, and were described as similar in size and intimacy. Country Day was on the verge of closing when the merger was announced.

The following year, it became apparent that the school’s Dean Road location was too expensive to maintain, and Mr. Allen helped the school acquire the Adie Estate on Heath Street in Chestnut Hill. Operating an independent school during World War II tested Mr. Allen’s skills. In addition to the typical duties of a headmaster, he oversaw chemistry and physics classes, and coordinated purchase of all rationed items, including food and fuel.

Even before Mr. Allen arrived at Rivers, he was involved in another project connected to “his devotion to the boys.” In 1917, he opened the 400-acre Camp Chewonki in Wiscasset, Maine. Thus began a valuable partnership between Chewonki and Rivers. Mr. Allen met naturalist, artist and educator Roger Tory Peterson, a counselor at Chewonki in 1930, and hired him to teach science and art at Rivers from 1931-34.

In 1934, Peterson’s book, “A Field Guide to Birds” was published by Houghton Mifflin Co. According to the publishing company, Peterson’s work at both Chewonki and Rivers gave him “his first opportunity to begin sharing his joy of birdwatching with the next generation.”

Mr. Allen’s ancestors came to this country in the early 1700s, and settled on the coast of Maine. Before entering Dartmouth College in 1905, he taught in a one-room schoolhouse in northern Vermont, and held various odd jobs to pay for college. After graduation in 1910, he taught physics at the Country Day School for 19 years, and then settled in as Rivers’ headmaster. He died in 1974.