RE Log Spring 2023

SPRING 2023 Ransom Everglades LOG 23 of REuniting “It was a beautiful place, physically beautiful. The Dell was the soul home of everybody, this enchanting place where all our plays were performed.” – Katherine “Kaki” Swenson Kahan ’61 girls. Our mothers wanted an alternative to boarding schools for us. They were inspired to create a counterpart to Ransom, to which many of our brothers went – I had three who attended Ransom – so they decided, with the help of the Swensons in particular, to start Everglades School for Girls. My father and mother were involved in the zoning issues because this was a residential area in Coconut Grove and they needed to be allowed to put the school there, which was not easy. All the parents contributed a great deal and a lot of these women who are here in Asheville today had parents who were part of making the school happen.” Kaki: “From 1955-1961 there were so few of us. We were 24 students in grades 7-12, with four teachers and four classrooms and Gertrude Peirce as Head Mistress. My parents, Ed and Marie Swenson, and my brother and I had moved to Miami from Greenwich, Conn., Courtesy of RE Archives