Worthy of
This Place
Dr. Austin has called the dining hall Deerfield’s greatest classroom, and it is easy to understand why. Something extraordinary happens when an entire community gathers around tables, across every age, interest, and perspective. But the dining hall is only the beginning. In classrooms designed for dialogue, in dormitories that ask students to navigate the challenges and joy of shared life, and in cocurricular programs that demand collaboration and reward teamwork, Deerfield offers what few schools can: a continuous, fully-inhabited laboratory for leadership across every dimension of school life. Our traditions are not incidental; they are the architecture of belonging, forged in a setting of rare and particular beauty—a living village whose own history asks something of everyone who passes through it.
The Main School Building: Reimagined for its Centennial
$60 Million
The centerpiece of the Academy’s first capital campaign, the Main School Building, known as the MSB, opened its doors in 1931 and quickly became the pride of campus. For nearly a century, it has stood at the center of Deerfield life, serving as the intellectual and academic heart of the school and the first touch point for prospective students and families. This campaign creates an opportunity to renew and rededicate the Main School Building to its original purpose as the Academy’s academic core, ensuring that a foundational vision for Deerfield continues to inspire all who teach and learn here. The restoration, planned for the MSB’s 100th anniversary in 2031, will expand classroom spaces and create a home for the Student Life Office, while ensconcing the History and Social Science Department on the upper floors for programmatic coherence. The building will be returned fully to the purposes for which it was built, with the Head of School’s Office remaining as its anchor.
Residential Life: Toward a Full-Boarding Model
$40 Million
The power of a Deerfield education is inseparable from the power of living it together. With the creation of the West Campus Dorm, Deerfield will embrace a fully-residential boarding school model, strengthening our priorities of community, connection, shared responsibilities, and a deep sense of belonging. As the first girls dormitory to be built in more than two decades, the West Campus Dorm—located beside Barton—will complete Deerfield’s “twins and quads” model, which pairs girls and boys dorms around common spaces. The project will create thirty- eight student rooms and four faculty residences, bringing teachers closer to the campus core. This is a defining moment in the Academy’s history, and it will deepen the shared experiences, lasting friendships, and collective commitments that shape our students’ lives.
The Brick: Deerfield’s Dining Hall
$58 Million
Seven times a week, the entire community gathers at tables of nine students and a faculty member, drawn together across every grade and nationality. Each meal opens with words every student and teacher knows by heart: “For food, for friendship, and for the blessings of the day, we give thanks,” and Sunday evenings end with the entire school singing the Evensong together. The revitalized Brick honors this tradition with a stunning, light-filled hall and state-of-the-art culinary facilities, designed to ensure that this most defining of Deerfield rituals endures for the generations ahead.
