Abbot Hall is the oldest dormitory

Dormitory

A dormitory, often shortened to dorm, in the United States is a residence hall consisting of sleeping quarters or entire buildings primarily providing sleeping and residential quarters for large numbers of people, often boarding school, college or university students...

 at Phillips Exeter Academy

Phillips Exeter Academy

Phillips Exeter Academy is a private secondary school located in Exeter, New Hampshire, in the United States.Exeter is noted for its application of Harkness education, a system based on a conference format of teacher and student interaction, similar to the Socratic method of learning through asking...

 in Exeter

Exeter, New Hampshire

Exeter is a town in Rockingham County, New Hampshire, United States. The town's population was 14,306 at the 2010 census. Exeter was the county seat until 1997, when county offices were moved to neighboring Brentwood...

, New Hampshire

New Hampshire

New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state was named after the southern English county of Hampshire. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Canadian...

. While it was named after the school's second principal, Benjamin Abbot

Benjamin Abbot

Benjamin Abbot, September 17, 1762–October 25, 1849 , was an American schoolteacher. His most significant work was his work as a teacher at the Phillips Exeter Academy....

, dorm mythology contends the dorm was actually founded by John Abbot, the infamous 18th century skryer and half-brother to Benjamin. Evidence of John's extensive ties to the occult are still evident today in the dorm's rituals and traditions. Some have even blamed the 1996 fire that caused extensive damage to the dorm on a bungled attempt to contact John in the great beyond. During the first night after the Abbot fire, prep and lowers spent a night in Peabody Hall while uppers and seniors survived a night in Soule Hall

Soule Hall

Soule Hall is a boy's residence hall on the North Side of campus at Phillips Exeter Academy. It was built in 1893. Soule is the only dormitory with spiral staircases, which were put in place with the intention of preventing riots by allowing any sounds to reverberate and intensify throughout the...

.

Location

The dorm is located in the center of campus, immediately to the east of the Academy Building. On this east side a row of dormitories extends further towards the school bookstore. These include Soule Hall and Hoyt Hall. Peabody Hall is located just south of Soule. Due to the close proximity to the Academy Building and thus the assembly hall, few Abboteers regularly attend assembly.

Faculty

The current head of the dorm is Inna Sysevich, instructor in Russian, known affectionately as Mama Inna. Other dorm faculty include Michael McLaughlin, instructor in chemistry

Chemistry

Chemistry is the science of matter, especially its chemical reactions, but also its composition, structure and properties. Chemistry is concerned with atoms and their interactions with other atoms, and particularly with the properties of chemical bonds....

, Nicholas Unger, instructor in the classics

Classics

Classics is the branch of the Humanities comprising the languages, literature, philosophy, history, art, archaeology and other culture of the ancient Mediterranean world ; especially Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome during Classical Antiquity Classics (sometimes encompassing Classical Studies or...

, and Barbara Desmond, instructor in English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

. Abbot faculty are noted both for their extreme popularity among their students and also for an easy-going approach to Academy policies. For example, Sysevich often takes students for walks around campus after midnight.

Faculty formerly associated with the dorm include: Mr. Baggia, Mr. Cosgrove, Coach Dennehy, Mr. Einhaus, Mr. Giblin, Mr. Heath, Mr. Kim, Mr. Lewis, Mr. Matlack, Mr. Pierce, Mr. Sneeden, and Dr. Thiam. Mr. Matlack served for many years as the dorm head and was famous for his alter ego, Blue Robe. Only seen late at night, Blue Robe was the enforcer of lights out and the investigator of noise disturbances. He would call out "brush and flush, brush and flush" as he walked the halls before lights out.

Traditions

As the oldest dorm on campus, Abbot Hall has a rich and unique set of traditions associated with it.

Members of Abbot refer to themselves as "Abboteers" and frequently greet each other with the "A-clap," formed by making a triangle (an 'A') with one's hands and then clapping the other Abboteer's 'A'.
Abbot Hall initiation was traditionally held early in the fall semester of each academic year. Preferably on the first Saturday night of the school year, the new Preps would be summoned into the third-floor common room. There, the Preps would be asked to "Jump the Glutton." The Glutton was a flat-topped, industrial-sized trashcan which resided in the common room. One by one the Preps would attempt to vault the Glutton. Proper form required the Prep to race up to the Glutton, leapfrog up over the front lip, bounce upon the top of Glutton and land cleanly on the other side without knocking the trashcan over. Those who completed the act satisfactorily were considered initiated, while those who failed were "sacrificed to the Glutton." To be sacrificed was to be stuffed into the Glutton along with the other Preps who failed in their attempt. The Glutton was then pushed down a flight of stairs.

Prior to the fall of 1996, the only telephones in the dorm were the phone booth outside the common room and a shared telephone in the common room. Preps were responsible for answering the telephone, locating the desired party and taking all messages. The advent of private in-room telephones largely ended this tradition. Shortly after the Academy installed phones into student rooms, the Deans' Office sponsored a competition across campus to determine which dormitory spent the least amount of time on the phones. Without great surprise, Academy records showed that Abboteers spent the least amount of time on the phone. It is alleged that Abbot won the competition only because members of Peabody were calling each other to give updates as to their progress on computer games such as "World of Warcraft" and "Where in the World is Carmen San Diego".

Before the most recent landscaping, Abbot Circle was located just outside the dorm. The Circle was a roundabout connecting Front Street to Williams Court. During the middle 1970's, Abbot Circle was the home of the Abbot Hall Benchwarming Society. This society of young men solved the problems of the world while they passed the time of day watching the fairer sex who had just arrived on campus and broken the all male tradition of the school. Abbot Circle was the site of the infamous Abbot 500, a bicycle and scooter race that tested endurance, passion and dedication. The race was discontinued after the most recent landscaping renovations destroyed Abbot Circle.

Each spring, members of the dorm gather in the common room to throw water balloons at foolish passers-by. The Abboteers spare only members of the dorm, girlfriends of Abboteers, and faculty over sixty. While this is frowned upon by the administration, and frequent warnings are given every year, the tradition has continued, shakily, throughout the years. Recently, in the Spring of 2007, a stray water balloon came dangerously close to hitting Mama Inna (Sysevich) and a student's computer. Mama Inna then threatened to put the entire dormitory on "Sevens," where the normal curfews of 8:00 for Preps and Lowers, 9:00 for Uppers, and 10:00 for Seniors are moved to 7:00. The students saw this as an overreaction and the water balloon tradition carried on, though more discreetly. Also, certain Abboteers keep snow in the freezer during the wintertime as a kind of pre-season, throwing snowballs from the common room window until the warmness of spring.

In the official dorm photo, Preps are required to wear the light fixtures from the fourth floor upon their heads, reminiscent of Vietnamese conical hats.
In the past, Abboteers crowned a King Prep at the culmination of each spring term, recognizing the prep that was least annoying and whiny during the previous three terms. After being selected by the previous King Preps, the new King Prep was presented with a Burger King Crown and the stuffed Abbot Armadillo, which he keeps in trust for the future winners of the extremely prestigious award. Over the years, the stuffed Abbot Armadillo was replaced with a ceramic sculpture with a missing tail. While the Armadillo was passed down the line without interruption for many a year, a few anomalies have occurred, upsetting this tradition. These mostly stem from the Class of 2007's prep year, where frequent feuding and pettiness upset the brotherhood that marks members of Abbot Hall. That year's senior class, the Class of 2004, decided that because of this, no prep would be crowned King Prep and the Armadillo remained with the Class of 2006's King Prep. Due to in-class tensions during the Class of 2007's prep year, the dorm did not receive any new preps the next year (for the Class of 2008), as all of the space created by the departure of the senior class was used to find new Lowers, as too many of the original members of the Class of 2007 did not wish to room with one-another. As such, there could be no King Prep for the Class of 2008. In 2009, the Class of 2006, with whom the Armadillo had been entrusted for the past three years, could not decide the most worthy prep. They instead decided to split the Armadillo between three preps, one for each missing year plus 2009's King Prep. A list of King Preps is inscribed in a secret location, known only to members of Abbot Hall and select others. Unfortunately, no new King Prep seems to have been crowned in 2010, and the tradition has been, perhaps only temporarily, lost.

In its social activities, Abbot Hall is unrivaled among the PEA dorms. Abbot Tea, an event held in November each year, is known across campus as a classy and enjoyable evening, and invitations are a rare and sought-after privilege among the ladies of the academy. Although other dorms also hold Teas, Abbot's is the oldest and remains the most legitimate event. In addition, the dorm organizes a casino night for the Academy in the winter. Abbot holds the event on a Saturday evening in the Grainger Auditorium. The dormitory prints money with images of its seniors' faces on the bills which can be redeemed for chips at the door. Academy students wishing to gamble spend the evening playing craps, blackjack, poker and roulette, with the members of the dorm acting as the dealers. Until recently, chips could be traded in at the end of the evening for raffle tickets, but this has been discontinued.

For the last night of each term, Abboteers spend the evening at the Love Gymnasium playing sports. Abbot takes no prisoners and consistently wins basketball games against other dormitories. On the walk to the gym, Abboteers serenade Peabody with the Abbot Hall song.

One of the most noted advantages to Abbot life is the ease at which "illegal Vs" are achieved. Illegal Vs, or illegal visitations, are the unauthorized visitation of members of the opposite sex to the room of a student. Under the school's rules, all visitors must be presented to the faculty on duty before they can visit the resident's room. These visitations can only occur during certain hours and must adhere to a strict code of conduct, which includes, but is not limited to: shoe in the door, three feet on the floor and lights on. However, because Abbot Hall's common room, which is open to all visitors with only a few restrictions, is located on the third floor, it is very easy to get away with illegal Vs.

Notable members

The dorm has been home to several alumni who have become successful musicians, including Win Butler

Win Butler

Win Butler is the lead vocalist and songwriter of the Montreal-based indie rock band Arcade Fire. His wife Régine Chassagne and his brother William Butler are both members of the band.-Life and career:...

 (The Arcade Fire

The Arcade Fire

Arcade Fire is an indie rock band based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It consists of the husband and wife duo of Win Butler and Régine Chassagne, along with Will Butler, Richard Reed Parry, Tim Kingsbury, Jeremy Gara, and Sarah Neufeld. William Butler and Régine Chassagne attended McGill University,...

), Hrishikesh Hirway (The One AM Radio), Ketch Secor (Old Crow Medicine Show

Old Crow Medicine Show

Old Crow Medicine Show is an old-time string band based in Nashville, Tennessee. Their music has been called bluegrass, Americana, and alt-country, in addition to old-time. Along with original songs, the band performs many pre-World War II blues and folk songs...

) and Jordan Alexander (Wild Light

Wild Light

Wild Light is a four-piece band from New Hampshire composed of multi-instrumentalists/vocalists Tim Kyle and Seth Pitman, guitarist/vocalist Jordan Alexander, and drummer Seth Kasper...

).