Student Life at Tome

Academics played an Important role at Tome, with teachers - known as professors -who had themselves been educated at leading colleges such as Harvard and Princeton. In 1919, according to a county-wide business guide published by the local Cecil Whig newspaper, the headmaster of Tome was Murray Peabody Brush, Ph.D., Formerly Dean at the prestigious Johns Hopkins University. Courses in biology, chemistry, physics, and general science were taught in the well-equipped labs at Memorial Hall.

was not the only focus at Tome. students took part in a variety of sports including, swimming at the indoor pool, golf on the 9-hole campus course, track and field, horseback riding, tennis, soccer, shooting sports, and of course football. The boys wore leather helmets and padded uniforms emblazoned with a large “T.” While Tome had Varsity teams that competed against other schools, intramural games involved the entire student body. The boys on campus were divided into two groups for this purpose, called the Olympians and the Pythians.

All boys are encouraged to learn to swim correctly and play a passable game of tennis and golf, the school catalog stated. It is felt that these are activities they can carry on When they are out in the world, and therefore are part of their preparedness program. The boy must have a definite center of interest... Other activities included, a student newspaper, drama club, glee club, the Quill and Tome literary club, and shops to pursue hobbies such as carpentry.

Students often visited the town of Port Deposit, using the steep trail that crisscrossed the cliff face. Markers along the way celebrated athletic victories. One sailors arrived at Bainbridge, they also use the trail as a shortcut into town. A challenging but more direct route into town was the steep staircase known as Jacob’s Ladder. The 365 steps were originally used by workers commuting from their lodgings in town to the construction site at the top of the hill. the staircase was closed when pranksters from the school begin rolling manhole covers into the town for below.