Mystery Millionairess Keeps Town's Dryness Deep Secret

The main reason why the town of Wellesley features neither bars nor movie houses is securely hidden from public criticism in the small, white head of one of the most unusual women ever to be connected with Wellesley College. She is Helen Temple Cooke, founder of Wellesley's junior sister college, Pine Mauor, and uncrowned queen of the town.

Miss Cooke came to Wellesley when she was 16--sent by the parents of a young girl in her home town in Vermont to look after their ward while she went to school. Enrolling as a special student in Wellesley College, Miss Cooke was suddenly offered a chance to buy Dana Hall, a prep school attached to Pine Manor, before Dana folded and left her charge without an education.

Partners in Education

In partnership with Ernest M. Wheeler, who put up the money, she left Wellesley to take over Dana Hall, and has since expanded that institution to include Pine Manor and Tenacre, a school for children from 5 to 17.

But, because she never got around to finishing Wellesley for a degree, Ellis Cooke will insist that she is the most as educated woman ever to make a fornate No one knows the exact position this dignified woman holds in the town; but at one time it was believed she owned has its property. Now she owns nothing but a big shingled house which overlooks the surrounding country. Here she keeps her art treasures from all over the world and continues to preach the ideals which she has been following since 1899, when she bought Dana Hall.

Religion and Money

She welcomes all visitors and will take for hours on her favorite subject--religion. But the secret of Wellesley's dry iless is something no one knows. Many have guessed that both colleges decided such things were not suitable for young ladies. Others merely attribute it to centricism centricism normally allowed anyone what has gone through some odd millies in one lifetime.