Partner Alice Howland

Queer Places:
Bryn Mawr College, 101 N Merion Ave, Bryn Mawr, PA 19010, United States
Barnard College (Seven Sisters), 3009 Broadway, New York, NY 10027, United States
The Shipley School, 814 Yarrow St, Bryn Mawr, PA 19010, United States
Brownell House, 801 Yarrow St, Bryn Mawr, PA 19010, United States
Howland House, 1029 Wyndon Ave, Bryn Mawr, PA 19010, USA
185 Brownell Howland Road, Santa Fe, NM 87501
Fairview Cemetery, 1134 Cerrillos Rd, Santa Fe, NM 87505

Eleanor Olivia Brownell (January 25, 1876 - August 15, 1968) was an American educator and administrator, best known for her long-standing co-leadership of The Shipley School in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. Alongside her life partner and professional collaborator, Alice Howland, she played a monumental role in shaping early-20th-century independent schooling for girls.
Eleanor Olivia Brownell was the daughter of Silas B Brownell and Sarah Stoddard Sheffield Brownell.
She attended Beverly School, NY. She received a citation for distinguished service in 1960, at the 75th anniversary convocation of Bryn Mawr College, from which she was graduated in 1897. She graduated from Columbia University in 1897-98.
She was also a graduate of the Brearley School.
Brownell was on the board of directors of the Philadelphia School of Occupational Therapy, now part of the University of Pennsylvania.
From 1904 to 1907, she was state secretary of the New York/New Jersey Young Women's Christian Association and from 1908 to 1911 she was principal of the New School in Utica, N. Y.
Brownell was co-principal of Shipley School, a private day and boarding school for girls, from 1911 to 1942.
In 1916 Alice Howland and Eleanor Brownell purchase The Shipley School and become co-heads. Alice was the niece of Shipley founders Hannah, Elizabeth, and Katherine Shipley. She and Eleanor purchased the school in 1916 and lived together at Gladwyn Farm, on the campus grounds, for many years. The couple worked as co-head mistresses of Shipley until 1932, when they retired, sold the school, and headed to Santa Fe full-time. “The Hownells,” as they were known, guided Shipley through wars, epidemics, and economic depression, building a national reputation for the School. They hired strong and highly regarded teachers, a large number of whom stayed for many years. In 1932, they oversaw Shipley’s incorporation as a non-profit with a Board of Directors.
In 1940 the addition to the main campus was the Clarke house and carriage house at the corner of Morris Avenue and Yarrow Street, purchased in 1940. In 1943, it was renamed Brownell House for Eleanor Brownell on her retirement after 30 years’ directing the school along with Alice Howland. A preschool was housed in the sunroom and there was an apartment upstairs for then Principals, Mildred and Russell Lynes and their children. Later, boarders lived in dormitory rooms on the top two floors. The original drawing room of the house served as a music room. In 1972, as part of an effort to make Shipley more attractive to boarders, the ground floor of Brownell was redesigned as a student center. A ping pong table replaced the piano in the music room. Newly coeducational, the school allowed visiting boys stay for a night in the upper floors. Ultimately, efforts to sustain the boarding department failed and in 1983, Brownell was once again rearranged to house the school’s development offices.


Miss Alice Howland and Miss Eleanor Brownell, Laura Gilpin (1891-1979), Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, Texas, Gift of the artist

In 1942 disagreements on who was responsible for repairs had begun to make the Lower School tenancy in Arnecliffe difficult. Shipley needed an alternative space for its younger students. They rented the McVitty House at the corner of Wyndon Avenue at Roberts Road in 1942. A year later, the school bought the building and renamed it for retired Principal Alice Howland, who had a particular interest in younger students. Announcing the purchase, then head, Russell Lynes, remarked on the ample grounds, sunny rooms, and porches on three sides, a facility well suited for children. Howland House accommodated Kindergarten through grade seven, some 80 to 90 students. Over the years, as the Lower Campus was expanded and new buildings built, Howland House has been used for various configurations of grades and, at times, apartments on the upper floors. Currently, it houses music classrooms and the after school program.
On her retirement from the Shipley School, Brownell moved to Santa Fe to live with her co principal, Alice Howland, a niece of the Shipley sisters who founded the school.
In 1930, Alice Howland and Eleanor Brownell, known colloquially as the “Hownells”, commissioned local architect John Gaw Meem to design their second home in Santa Fe, NM. In 1937, architect Meem designed another house for the couple in Tesuque, NM on the outskirts of Santa Fe. The Alice Howland and Eleanor Brownell Residence is located at 185 Brownell Howland Road, Santa Fe, NM 87501. The area in Tesuque was named after them. They lived in this home with their two adopted daughters, Sylvia Anne and Mary Sheffield Shipley. Unable to marry at that time, Alice and Eleanor gave their daughters the name Shipley, as a surname. In Santa Fe, the two women had many friends in the local art colony and were active in community affairs, including activism for Native American rights and the development of the Santa Fe Opera.
Eleanor Brownell died on August 15, 1968, in Santa Fe, N. M., at the age of 92 and is buried at Fairview Cemetery, Santa Fe (Plot C, 42W, 3). Brownell is survived by two adopted daughters, Mrs. Mary Sheffield Guy (1924-2007) and Mrs. Sylvia Ann Abeyta.

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