Marlborough House From Royal Residence to Commonwealth Headquarters

Table Of Content

• Share this Property
• About the Commonwealth
• – Mrs. Helen Mitchell becomes Principal, focuses on preparing Marlborough graduates for college.
• Search This Blog
• – Miss Ada Blake is succeeded as Principal by Georgia Caswell Overton, daughter of Mary Caswell.
• Afternoon Tea at Marlborough House
• Community-Based Partnerships
• Abigail Masham: political rival

Today's student body is representative of the talent and diversity of greater Los Angeles, academic and athletic programs have expanded, college matriculation is highly competitive and distinguished, and campus facilities have kept pace with the educational innovation taking place inside the classroom. The usual afternoon tea service used at Marlborough House is one that was a present from Queen Victoria to Queen Alexandra when Her Majesty became engaged to King Edward. It is an old Georgian service that was once in the possession of Queen Charlotte, and is probably the most valuable of the many tea services in the plate room at Marlborough House. Among the most frequent guests at afternoon tea at Marlborough House are the Marquis D’Hautpool and Lady Dalkeith, who are both old friends of Queen Alexandra. The Princess Mary is a very constant guest at afternoon tea; the Princess is generally escorted to and from Buckingham Palace by her governess, but occasionally comes with one of her elder brothers.

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Later they moved to Buckingham Palace following the death of Queen Victoria in 1901. It was built for a royal favourite, Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough, in 1711. Following her death, it passed to the hands of successive Dukes of Marlborough. After Queen Mary's death in 1953, Marlborough House continued to be used by various members of the royal family as a London residence before Queen Elizabeth II leased it to the Commonwealth Secretariat in 1965, an arrangement which continues today. As we embarked upon this important search process last fall, the Search Committee solicited and received valuable input from the Marlborough community in identifying the key characteristics and capabilities we would seek in our next Head of School. We sought a leader and educator dedicated to excellence in education with a focus on girls’ learning, a demonstrated commitment to equity and inclusion, impactful organizational leadership and management skills, and a belief in the power and importance of collaboration, community dialogue, and intellectual inquiry.

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About the Commonwealth

This project completes the current Master Plan for the School and doubles the size of the original campus. This season Queen Alexandra has revived this form of entertainments, though naturally Her Majesty’s guests are strictly limited in number and are confined to members of the Royal family or those honored with Queen Alexandra’s most intimate friendship. Woe betide anyone who broke this last rule by causing a scene when and if they discovered their spouse’s extramarital affair.

– Mrs. Helen Mitchell becomes Principal, focuses on preparing Marlborough graduates for college.

Marlborough is a college preparatory,  private middle and upper school for girls located in the heart of Los Angeles. Our independent school prides itself on inspiring middle and high school-aged students to discover who they are, engage deeply in their studies, embrace their communities and lead lives of purpose. Marlborough is a college preparatory, private middle and upper school for girls located in the heart of Los Angeles. By the early 1920s and with her health declining, Mrs. Caswell realizes that she needs to prepare for the day when she can no longer lead the School.

With the intention of one day building new School facilities, Mrs. Mitchell and her husband purchase Marlborough from the Overtons. Over the next decade, city building inspections became frequent, and new electrical equipment was way overdue. "The day I knew we had to have a new building was the day I blew a fuse three times in one morning!" said Mrs. Mitchell.

After the reclaim, the House became the residence of Princess Charlotte of Wales and her husband, Prince Leopold. The Marlborough House was built as a gift for Sarah Churchill, the Duchess of Marlborough. Currently, the mansion houses the Commonwealth Secretariat and is the headquarters of the Commonwealth of Nations.

Afternoon Tea at Marlborough House

Marlborough does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national and ethnic origin, sexual orientation, or religion in the administration of its educational policies, admissions policies, scholarship and loan programs, and athletic and other school-administered programs. The Marlborough Alumnae Association’s awards celebrate the confident, talented, and passionate members of our alumnae community. A native of Michigan, Ms. Wagner comes to Marlborough School in the fall of 1989 as the Director of Upper School, and in 1990 she accepts the position of Head of School.

Community-Based Partnerships

The guests, of course, all rise at the entrance of their Royal hostess and Queen Alexandra shakes hands with each. The Duchess died, in the words of Tobias Smollett, "immensely rich and very little regretted, either by her own family or the world in general",[83] but her efforts to continue the Marlborough legacy cannot be ignored. Because of her influence, the Duchess managed to marry off members of her family to England's greatest aristocratic dynasties. The plan was laid as per the Duchess’s requirements by architect Sir Christopher Wren and his son. The house is built of red Dutch bricks that were carried as ballast on the return journeys of vessels that had trans­ported soldiers to Holland to fight under the Duke of Marl­bor­ough.

It is one of the spacious reception rooms on the first floor, and Queen Alexandra particularly interested herself in its furnishing when Marlborough House was being rearranged for Her Majesty after King Edward’s death. On a large table near the fireplace there is a book of sketches done by various royalties which always interests Her Majesty’s guests. Many of the sketches are portraits; a particularly interesting and clever one is a sketch of the present King and Queen done by the Dowager Empress of Russia. Other royal sketches are by the Duchess of Fife, the German Empress, and Queen Victoria. War stole everything from Morven Williams–her husband, her friends, her livelihood, and her home.

The original construction began in 1708 when the then Duke of Marlborough was leased the land by Queen Anne. The house passed through several hands before the crown again took ownership in 1817 in order for Princess Charlotte to take up residence there. Several other royals lived there in the next 30 years before it became the first site of the Museum of Manufactures. However, the museum was only located at Marlborough House from May to September of 1952. Afterward, it moved up the street to Somerset House before moving again to its current location in South Kensington. Please use and/or share my information with a Coldwell Banker agent to contact me about my real estate needs.

Most shocking was his embrace of the wealthy Anglo-Jewish families who had never before been welcomed into “Gentile” homes. Although it was built on Crown land, Marlborough House wasn’t originally intended to be a royal residence. It was built in the early 1700s for Sarah Churchill, The Duchess of Marlborough and close confidante of Queen Anne of the United Kingdom. The land was then part of the grounds of St. James’s Palace, facing Pall Mall, and backing up onto The Mall. The noted architect Christopher Wren and his son designed the house to the specifications of the Duchess.

The money she inherited from the Marlborough trust left her one of the richest women in Europe.[2][4] She died in 1744, aged 84. It served as a base for the predecessor of the Royal College of Art, the "National Art Training School". It continued as a royal residence, and was last used by Queen Mary until 1953. After her death, her granddaughter, Queen Elizabeth II, gave the house to the Commonwealth Secretariat, which continues to use it today. In 1888, a young teacher from Maine, newly widowed and accompanied by her young daughter and niece, traveled across the country to relocate to California and start a new life. Within two months of her arrival in Los Angeles, Mary Caswell founded what would soon become Marlborough School, now the oldest independent girls' school in Southern California.Over the century that followed, the school has grown and changed in many important ways.