Clarke Schools for Hearing and Speech

By Emma John

A photograph showing a campus lined with historic brick buildings and lush greenery. On the left, a multi-story red brick building features classic architectural elements, including a Mansard roof with dormer windows, prominent chimneys, and white-trimmed arched entryways. A paved walkway leads up a gentle, grassy slope toward its entrance, flanked by mature deciduous trees and a small pink-blossomed tree near the road.A paved, two-lane street curves through the center of the scene, separated from the campus by a well-manicured green lawn. A black lamppost stands near the road's edge, and a small, white rectangular sign is posted nearby on the grass. In the background, additional vehicles are parked along the street, partially obscured by thin, leafy trees. On the far right, another large red brick structure with prominent window frames dominates the foreground, fronted by dense, rounded green shrubs and a decorative stone planter.
Campus of Clarke School. Photograph courtesy of Oralism and the Deaf Community Website.
A black and white photograph of a large, multi-story school building with distinctive and ornate cresting along the top edges of the roof. The building features an asymmetrical layout, with several prominent towers or pavilions topped by steep roofs and dormer windows, plus a central recessed entrance with a small porch. A gravel driveway curves across the foreground lawn, leading toward the front entrance.
Clarke School for the Deaf, Northampton, c. 1877-1885. Historic Northampton (ID no. 1974.53.9).

Clarke School for the Deaf (today Clarke Schools for Hearing and Speech) opened in 1867 as the Clarke Institution for Deaf Mutes. It was founded by Gardiner Greene Hubbard (1822–1897) after his daughter Mabel, became deaf after having scarlet fever.

The school’s namesake is local philanthropist John Clarke, who provided the initial funding of $50,000. It was the first school in the U.S. to teach oralism, an educational philosophy in which deaf students were instructed in lip reading and speech, rather than sign language. The first principal was Harriet B. Rogers, who had taught deaf children in Chelmsford, Massachusetts, using European methods of lip reading and speech. 

Alexander Graham Bell was an early and ardent supporter of oralism, and the school achieved national renown partially because of him. Future First Lady Grace Coolidge worked and lived at the Clarke School in 1902. 

A black-and-white photograph shows a classroom setting where John F. Kennedy, dressed in a dark suit, sits on a small wooden chair while holding a hearing-aid device to his ear. He faces four young children who are seated in a row on small chairs to his left, two of whom are wearing hearing aid devices. A woman sits on the floor to the right, looking toward the group. Behind Kennedy stands a tall, vertical flip chart displaying rows of simple illustrations and text. The classroom is spacious, featuring large windows with blinds, a student desk and chair set in the foreground, and additional small tables and chairs arranged in the background.
John F. Kennedy visiting the Clarke School, 1955. Photograph courtesy of the Clarke Schools for Hearing and Speech.

Clarke was a leader in training teachers to work with deaf students. In 1899, Caroline A. Yale began a formal teaching program to prepare teachers to instruct students in the oral method. From 1962 until 2015, Clarke collaborated with Smith College to offer a master’s in deaf education (M.ED). 

The Clarke School is part of Northampton’s long legacy as a center of education. Clarke School and Smith College were founded within a decade of one another. The Clarke School’s various Northampton locations reflect the city’s educational history. The first location of the Clarke School was on Gothic Street, in the former Gothic Street Seminary. By 1870, enrollment had outgrown the space and the school moved into the former Round Hill School for Boys, which had been founded by historian George Bancroft in the 1820s. The campus had living quarters for students as well as instructional buildings. 

After the sale of the campus in 2011, Northampton citizens petitioned to have the area added to the nearby Elm Street historic district. The school was also added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2022. 

Excerpt from interview with Janice Gatty, educator at Clarke Schools for Hearing and Speech, 2026.
Clarke School alumnus Rodney Kunath speaking on the history of Clarke School in 2005. The video was made for a series of practice videos for oral transliteration.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

The school is still in operation in four states. You can visit their website here.

Historic Northampton has archival materials related to the Clarke Schools. Browse our catalog, or contact us to schedule a research appointment.

Recent acquisitions include:

The Clarke School records are held in Special Collections at the University of Massachusetts.

“Oral schools form on the principle of ‘pure oralism’,” National Deaf Life Museum, Gallaudet University (part of the “History Through Deaf Eyes” exhibit).

Douglas C. Baynton, Jack R. Gannon, and Jean Lindquist Bergey. Through Deaf Eyes: A Photographic History of an American Community. Gallaudent University Press, 2007. See especially Chapter 4: “The Struggle over Sign Language.” There is also a related PBS documentary titled “Through Deaf Eyes.”