Our Founder, Mary Robbins Hillard
Westover was founded by Mary Robbins Hillard, who had been the headmistress of St. Margaret’s School in nearby Waterbury.
She convinced the school’s board to support her in establishing a school a few miles away on the south side of the Middlebury Green — “west and over the hills” from St. Margaret’s. Miss Hillard enlisted the help of one of her former students, Theodate Pope Riddle, one of the first American women architects, to design the new School. Westover opened in April 1909 with the boarding students who had been at St. Margaret’s, along with a number of its faculty members, including two who would remain key advisors for Miss Hillard — Lucy Pratt and Helen LaMonte.
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Be Boldly You
Westover School admits students of any race, color, religious affiliation, sexual orientation, national and ethnic origin, or disability to all the rights, privileges, programs, and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the School. As a gender-diverse girls school, Westover welcomes applicants and students who are assigned female at birth and/or identify as girls. The School does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religious affiliation, sexual orientation, national and ethnic origin, disability, or any other status protected by applicable law in the administration of its educational policies, admissions and financial aid policies, and athletic or other school-administered programs.