“Arcadia”, Queen’s Hill School, Mt. Hermon School

When Mt. Hermon School was first founded by an American missionary, Miss Emma Knowles, in Darjeeling in 1895 it was known as “Arcadia”. Three years after its founding a devastating landslide in 1898 not only killed many of its students but destroyed the school building.

“Arcadia” was supposed to have been located on the Lebong side of Darjeeling’s Chowrasta. The old photo of the area of 1880 shows a similar cottage (zoomed) on this side of the hill. Take a look at this cottage and the one taken by our Founder-Principal, Miss CJ Stahl after the tragic incident.

In 1978 I edited the school’s annual ‘Hermonite’ magazine and Hermonite Ved Agarwal (‘71 batch) and I traced the school history of this era with articles and photographs on Queen’s Hill School, located above the main road near the railway station. However, we could not locate the exact spot of the old school – Arcadia.

In the 1920s the school (QHS) was expanding and needed more space and the present school area was purchased the school was renamed Mt. Hermon School in 1929.

Folks, we must all try to locate the exact spot of “Arcadia”.