ANAHEIM : High School Opens in Former Mansion

Fairmont High School is probably one of the only high schools in the county with a working fireplace in its library.

Executive director David Jackson is even more amused by the walk-in vault in the new school’s administrative wing.

“I’ve been kidding students that I found the perfect detention room for them,” Jackson said, pointing to the shelf-lined chamber with the heavy metal door.

The fireplace, vault and various other unusual features that include a courtyard with fountain greeted students who started the fall semester Friday at the school, which opened at the 66-year-old Stanton estate.

The hacienda-style house was built in 1929 by Col. Philip A. Stanton and had 9,500 square feet. An additional 15,000 square feet were added in the 1980s.

Fairmont Private Schools, which operates four other preschool through junior high schools in Anaheim, bought the property for $900,000 at an auction last January.

“We were planning to expand one of our other sites to add a high school, but then this property became available,” Jackson said.

Jackson found the Stanton estate appealing because it reminds him of East Coast prep schools.

“Our aim is to prepare students for the top universities in the nation,” Jackson said. “This setting adds to that feeling that this is a special place, that the students here are unique.”

Founded by Jackson’s stepfather in 1943, the chain of private schools has focused mainly on preschool through junior high school education. But Jackson, whose own children have attended the schools, said he was bothered by the lack of a high school.

“It was as if we were saying we would raise these children right for 13 years, then tell them, ‘You’re on your own’ when they hit high school,” he said. “I wanted to see them all the way through.”

Jackson plunged into the more complex and expensive high school arena and ignored the advice of other private high school administrators, his wife and his stepfather.

“But just looking around at this beautiful building, seeing the high-quality instructors we hired, I know it was the right thing to do,” he said.

Ron Woerner, head of the new high school, said the arched doorways, graceful courtyard and brick walkways add up to the learning environment.

“It eliminates some of the sterility and coldness that you see in many schools,” he said. “I think it will add to the seriousness of the students. It has the look and feel of a place where people come to do serious studying.”