This public high school one hour south of Boston resembles a 20th-century castle more than it does a place where students will take third-period math classes. Fairhaven High School, nicknamed “The Castle on a Hill,” and established in 1906, features a striking Elizabethan-style building designed by architect Charles Brigham, a prominent Boston architect who worked on everything from the Museum of Fine Arts to the Massachusetts State House.
Commissioned fully by Fairhaven native Massachusetts millionaire, Henry Huttleston Rogers, Rogers insisted that the building serve as a place for education but “inspire.” Rogers was close friends with Mark Twain and regarded as one of the wealthiest people of the Gilded Age. At the time of his death, Rogers’ fortune was estimated between $100-150 million, equivalent to over $40 billion in today’s currency.
According to Architectural Digest who selected the high school as the “most beautiful public high school in Massachusetts,” various architectural craftspeople worked on the building:
This extraordinarily ornate high school was paid for in full by local millionaire Henry Huttleston Rogers, who then donated it to the town. He brought in Italian stonemasons and German woodcarvers to work on the architectural details.
The high school features ornate details such as marble floors, oak paneling, stained glass windows, and a beautiful auditorium with a beamed ceiling and hand-carved wooden gargoyles. The beauty of the school even caught the attention of Hollywood Director, Alexander Payne. The five Oscar-nominated 2023 movie, The Holdovers, used Fairhaven High School as one of its filming locations.