;; duchesne

The Duchesne School is housed in the former Flood Mansion on Madison Avenue and Ninety-first Street, on prep-school row, across from Dalton and next to Sacred Heart. It was the former home of Rose Elizabeth Flood, widow of Captain Armstrong Flood, who had founded Floor Oil Company. Marguerite Duchesne, a Belgian governess, educated the Floods' daughters. When the three girls died, Rose bequeathed her home to Marguerite and returned to the Midwest in her grief. Marguerite Duchesne then turned it into her dream institution.

Photographs of each graduating class lines the hallway of the library. The girls still graduated in white tea dresses and gloves, and were presented with garlands of twined ivy on their heads as well as a bouquet of red roses and their diplomas. The boys wore proper morning suits, complete with pearl-tipped pins on their gray ascots.

The school is an odd mix of luxury and penury- a state-of-the-art theater in the basement, complete with auditorium seating for 200, but no locker rooms. This resulted in students changing in the hallway. (But it's okay because they've all known each other since Kindergarten and camaraderie prevails)