Ex Libris

In 1914, the William H. Loomis Dining Hall and the two dorms flanking it were the only buildings on the quadrangle. Wood recalled walking “down the path to the dining hall which was then [also] the headmaster’s office and girls school.” His bookplate references this early Island landscape.

First Loomis Tractor

Wood plowed the Plymouth Meadows with Loomis’ first tractor.  By 1915, students were the principle farmers of about 100 acres of the school’s land.  Loomis boys raised potatoes, corn, and other vegetables during the summers of 1917 and 1918 to meet the school’s entire produce needs for those wartime years. 

Model T Truck

The school’s first truck was a Model T. Wood remembered Headmaster Batchelder and his wife Gwendolen driving the baseball team to an away game in the truck and he captioned this photo, “First car I ever drove.”

Plymouth Rocks

One of Wood’s classmates is photographed with a pair of Plymouth Rock hens he raised as a project in his agriculture course. This photograph was taken at the Loomis farm, south of the main quadrangle.

On the Quad

Wood came to Loomis from New Jersey, enrolled in the agricultural curriculum, and raised poultry, vegetables and other crops at Loomis. He is pictured here near Founders Hall.