The Linsly School: 200 Years of Tradition

By Stacey Creely and Hayden Wright

(L-R) Reno DiOrio, The Linsly School’s president of External Affairs, Linsly students and Headmaster Chad Barnett.

Founded nearly 200 years ago in the year 1814, The Linsly School is one of the few surviving institutions in West Virginia that predates its statehood. Nestled in the Northern Panhandle, The Linsly School today is an independent college preparatory day and boarding school for boys and girls in grades five through 12 committed to academic excellence and character development.

For almost two centuries, Linsly has witnessed great changes and progress in the State of West Virginia, including the completion of National Road in 1818, the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad entering Wheeling in 1853 and West Virginia’s admission to the Union in 1863. It was at this time in West Virginia’s history that the first state capitol occupied Linsly’s school building until it was moved to Charleston in 1870.
In these and so many other ways, Linsly’s history is inextricably linked to the history of the state it has called home.

As West Virginia celebrated its 150th anniversary in June, Linsly, which is a member of the National Association of Independent Schools and is accredited by the Independent Schools Association of the Central States, kicked off its bicentennial celebration at the start of this academic year. To put that milestone into perspective, Linsly is among 1,500 member schools of the National Association of Independent Schools. Of them, fewer than 50 were founded in 1814 or earlier. Remarkably, Linsly is the only school among that distinguished group located outside New England and the eastern seaboard.

The Early Days

The school’s founder, Connecticut-born Noah Linsly, moved to Wheeling in 1799 to practice law, making a provision in his will for the establishment of a coeducational school. Chartered by the Commonwealth of Virginia in 1814 as the Lancastrian Academy, Linsly’s methodology was based on a system in which more advanced students taught those less advanced. Evidence of this tradition exists today in Linsly’s prefect system, where outstanding juniors and seniors serve in various leadership positions, including mentoring newly enrolled students through their first year.

In 1861, at the start of the Civil War, the makeup of the student body shifted when Linsly became an all-boys school. This was largely due to competing enrollment in the recently established Wheeling Female Academy. Two years later, when West Virginia was officially admitted to the Union, the building to which Linsly had moved, located on 15th and Eoff streets in Wheeling, was loaned to the new State of West Virginia as a temporary state house, pending completion of the state capitol in Charleston.

The Military Era 

By 1876, the school was in transition again. Principal John Birch revived the previously disbanded cadet battalion, and Linsly became a military school, a change that would define Linsly’s identity for 102 years. A military dress code was adopted, and much of student life became structured around a hierarchy of rank. Under Birch’s leadership, the curriculum shifted from basic academic instruction to a rigorous program of college preparation and character development.

At the centennial celebration in 1914, cadets marched across the Wheeling Suspension Bridge to St. Luke’s Church on Wheeling Island. To mark this anniversary, trustees dedicated $40,000 to upgrade furnishings and instructional spaces. In 2013, that amount would approach the value of $1 million.

During the military era, Linsly established two new, important bases. The first was the site of Old Main, constructed in time for the 1925-1926 school year. At that time, the school acquired its now-iconic statue, the Aviator, which was constructed by Augustus Lukeman in memory of Lt. Louis Bennett, Jr. Charles Lindbergh paid the newly erected statue a visit in 1927, placing a wreath at its base in memory of fallen aviators of World War I.

The arrival of Basil Lockhart in 1939 commenced the beginning of a time that historian Robert Schramm, author of “The Linsly School” of The Campus History Series, called “The Age of Building.” In Lockhart’s 33 years as headmaster, much of the campus Linsly occupies today was acquired and renovated or built. In 1964, Sophie Banes, the school’s greatest benefactress, donated a $1 million challenge grant to construct a new school building in her name. Today, construction on Banes Hall is underway as part of Linsly’s 200th Anniversary Capital Campaign, wherein state-of-the-art instructional technology, a 21st century library and a new academic wing will propel the school into its third century.

Coming Full Circle

The second half of the 20th century was a time of significant expansion and great cultural change for Linsly. In 1978, the board of trustees resolved to discontinue the military program in favor of a traditional coat-and-tie boys’ college preparatory school. This decision was made under the leadership of Dr. Donald Hofreuter, longtime chairman of the board and current chairman of the 200th Anniversary Capital Campaign. It was also during this time of change that Linsly hired a young headmaster, Reno DiOrio, a transplant from the Kiski School in Saltsburg, PA, to lead the transition in the 1979-1980 school year. In 1988, DiOrio oversaw the decision to return to a coeducational student body after 128 years as a boys’ school. He and his wife, Karen, occupied the headmaster’s residence for 30 years, leading Linsly into the new millennium. Today, DiOrio continues to serve the school in a development role as president for External Affairs.

“When one considers everything that has happened to our country and to our local community in the time period of 200 years—the Civil War, two world wars, the Great Depression, major floods in the valley, the Civil Rights Movement—we are proud that Linsly has been able to adapt with the times, to persevere and overcome challenges and to remain committed to its founding principles,” says DiOrio.

Today, Chad Barnett carries on the legacy of Birch, Lockhart and DiOrio as Linsly’s headmaster. Under the leadership of Barnett and Linsly’s chairman of the board of trustees, Robert Nutting, Linsly is well positioned for the 21st century, opening its 200th academic year with a full school and welcoming students from 15 states and 12 foreign countries. In celebration of The Linsly School’s bicentennial anniversary, the school launched “Forward & No Retreat: The 200th Anniversary Campaign,” a $10 million capital campaign, which is the largest in the school’s history.

“This occasion marks an unmatched opportunity to recall the principles and people that have made Linsly an excellent school during each of its incarnations,” says Barnett. “Founded under the motto ‘Forward and No Retreat,’ Linsly has always emphasized that the greatest accomplishment is not in never falling, but in rising again after you fall. We believe students should be challenged and pressed without facing the possibility that they will quit. Linsly today stands as a premier traditional school preparing college-bound students for 21st century success. We have an opportunity to contextualize our best practices for contemporary times and to extend our inimitable history.”