McKenzie Memorial

This imposing granite and bronze memorial to Dr. John Heyward McKenzie was given by the Howe School™ Alumni after his 1920 death. He became Rector in 1895; under his guidance Howe became a topflight military prep school. St. James Memorial Chapel's National Register listing document, containing several pages of detailed architectural information about the building, is here (To bring the additional pages up, after you click on the link below, click on "download the .pdf" link at the bottom of the application blank's first page):
https://npgallery.nps.gov/AssetDetail/NRIS/01000989 authored by COL Thomas S. Merritt, who listed the McKenzie Memorial in the St. James application as a "Contributing Object" to St. James, although Dr. McKenzie's bronze bust is incorrectly described as "marble" and "1920" is also incorrect as the date. Bishop White's last official act at HMS was to receive the Alumni Gift of Dr. McKenzie's Memorial on Founders' Day, 1924. Bp. White died the following March (1925) and is buried in the crypt below the Mothers' Chapel with Dr. McKenzie and Bp Gray. The Choir photo in the 1924 Tatler, page 126, on the south side of the Chapel, does not show the McKenzie Memorial. Founders' Day was traditionally the first weekend of October. Thus Alumni Weekend 2024 is the Centennial of this Memorial.

The bronze bust of Dr. McKenzie was cast from a 1912 sculpture by Frederic Turner Loy of Boston.  This bronze bust, and a similar bust of Dr. Clarence Blake, M.D., were given to the School by Mrs.Blake at Commencement 1913, as recorded on page 20 of the 1913 Howe Annual.  Mr. Loy married Sarah Lucy Houghton 21 December 1898, in Meriden, New Haven, Connecticut.  On the 1920 Federal Census for New York, Sarah is living with her sister Hannah. They applied for visas to go to France. She states on her application that Frederic is living in Chicago.  Both Sarah and Hannah are named on the bronze Blake family plaque in the crypt, but Frederic is not. .