Five things to know about Palm Beach's now-closed Graham-Eckes School
The Graham-Eckes School was a Palm Beach staple for decades. The school, which opened in Palm Beach during World War II after its earlier start elsewhere, was a one-of-a-kind institution in its heyday. Impeccably uniformed kids on the school’s North End campus broke from class for afternoon tea. When they weren’t learning Latin or social graces, they took fencing and archery lessons and their proms were held at the Everglades Club. Here are five things to know about the school which closed in 1989.
Where did the school start?
The Graham-Eckes School was founded in 1926 in a former hotel in Daytona Beach. The building was repurposed to suit the needs of the school’s genteel educator-founders, Inez Graham and her half-sister Evelyn Eckes. The original school became so successful, the sisters moved the school to Palm Beach.
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Campus was former estate designed by Palm Beach architect
When Graham-Eckes first opened in Palm Beach in 1941, the campus covered the entire former 3.5-acre ocean-to-lake estate of financier and philanthropist Otto Kahn. That didn’t just include land, but elegant structures repurposed for dorms, classrooms and more. The estate, designed in 1930 by famed Palm Beach architect Maurice Fatio, included an Italian Renaissance-style main house with 23 rooms; a tiled pavilion and loggia flanking a large salt-water pool; a separate building with a three-car garage, 12 servants’ rooms and several bathrooms; and a lakeside dock and boathouse.
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Finger bowls accompanied meals
During the early years of Graham-Eckes’ tenure as a boarding school — before day-student enrollment was added in the 1960s — students were served meals with finger bowls. This has been recalled by various alumni over the years, including Nancy Maury Miller, class of 1950, who wrote in a 2011 essay for the Palm Beach Daily News: “I will never forget how regal and imposing Inez Graham looked, impeccably dressed, leading the nightly procession into the dining room, where inspired dinner conversation was accompanied by good food on proper dinnerware, complete with finger bowls.”
How students signaled principal's presence
As with all schools, students at Graham-Eckes enjoyed breaking the rules now and then. During the years headmistress Graham governed the school, students discovered there was a way to be alerted to her approach: listen carefully and you’ll hear the jingle of her charm bracelet. Graham, educated at Northwestern Conservatory of Music and Columbia University, died at age 74 in 1963.
Gourmet meals served, except for this dish
For nearly all of its 48 years, Graham-Eckes maintained a staff chef who was assisted by two or three cooks and a dining room staff. The chef and his team prepared three meals a day, which were considered gourmet. Over the years, the school's chefs were given one piece of advice they heeded: never serve liver.