History & local legend
John Meigs, the Hill School's headmaster, died in 1911 and was buried beneath the cloister floor at Alumni Chapel in Pottstown. His family had planned a grave beside his two children, but a letter to his widow proposed the chapel porch, where he might symbolically continue watching students arrive for worship. She agreed.
In a near-contemporary biography, his widow recalled asking aloud after his death whether she should speak to the boys. She felt she could almost hear his reply.
Later campus folklore described a chapel light swinging at night and Latin voices heard in the tower stairwell.
Sources
- Walter Russell Bowie, The Master of The Hill (1917), pp. 357–65, accounts of his death, his widow’s conversation, the letter and the chapel burial
- StrangeUSA, Hill School Chapel folklore and recollections by members of the school community
- The Hill School, 2024 archivist interview describing the Alumni Chapel and its historic fixturesUnavailable ·
- The Hill School, official campus map, Alumni Chapel marked as building 6
- OpenStreetMap, chapel footprint matched to the school map beside the chapel tennis courts
