Fredonia Allen

(July 27, 1859 – Apr. 27, 1927). Fredonia Allen was the founder and principal of Indianapolis’s Tudor Hall (see Park Tudor School), a nationally recognized college preparatory school for girls. As a businesswoman, Allen served as an early local example of a female real-estate developer by conceptualizing two apartment complexes in the 1910s and 1920s. 

Fredonia Allen was born in Indianapolis to Henry and Ann Tudor Allen. She was of direct English descent, tracing her lineage to the Lumley family, one of the oldest and most prominent families in the north of England. Allen attended Indianapolis Public Schools, attended the University of Chicago for one quarter in 1897, and graduated from Cornell University in 1900 with an undergraduate degree (Bachelor of Philosophy) in Arts.  

As an educator, Allen taught in Paris and then in Indianapolis. Allen was an instructor at the former Indianapolis High School (see Shortridge High School) before becoming headmistress at the Girls’ Classical School, where noted reformer and suffragist May Wright Sewall was the principal. There, Allen developed a desire to establish and lead a girls’ school of her own; this ambition eventually spurred her to leave her position in order to found the Tudor Hall in 1902. The school remained racially segregated, serving an all-white student body for its first six decades. 

Naming the school with her mother’s maiden name of Tudor, Allen aimed to bring East Coast traditions of girls’ education, moral pedagogy, and cultural development to the Midwest. To accomplish her goal, she recruited educators from the nation’s most prestigious eastern universities, urging them to develop rigorous coursework. She instilled the value of physical fitness, which was reflected in the school’s recreational amenities such as its swimming pool, tennis courts, and outdoor courtyard. She also established residence quarters to attract top students from across the country. Allen’s ambition was to prepare young women for the social, cultural, and moral dimensions of life. Though the school began modestly with four boarding students and ten day students, by the time of Allen’s death the school had grown to an enrollment of 250 resident and day students, ranging from kindergarten to grade 12.   

Outside of her Tudor Hall work, Allen was a member of the Woodstock Country Club (see Country Clubs), the Contemporary Club of Indianapolis and an early member of the Fortnightly Literary Club.  

She was also a sharp real estate developer, building and owning a three-story apartment building, the Allen Apartments at 17th and Pennsylvania streets, in 1913; and a 24-unit apartment complex, Lumley Apartment Building at 16th and Meridian streets, in 1922. The Lumley Building was razed to make way for a parking lot in January 1976. The Indianapolis Historic Preservation Commission in 1986 helped preserve the Allen Apartments building by designating it a significant historic example of Craftsman-style architecture. 

In February 1925, Allen underwent eye surgery that left her physically weak. She intended to spend the rest of the year recuperating at her sister’s home in California. Before her planned departure date, she made additions to the Tudor Hall faculty, incorporated the institution, and appointed a board of advisory trustees to operate the school until her return. Unexpectedly, Allen died before leaving for California.  

In addition to the succession plan for Tudor Hall’s continued operation, Allen sought to ensure that the school would be perpetually operated for the culture and education of young girls and women. To do this she left the bulk of her estate to Tudor Hall. A year after her death, the school’s trustees established the Fredonia Allen Memorial Scholarship to fund the first year of college for a graduating Tudor Hall woman.  

Even with Allen’s funding, the school suffered financial and enrollment difficulties. In 1936, the trustees incorporated it into a nonprofit. After World War II, enrollment rebounded and the school moved to a larger facility on Cold Spring Road. When Tudor Hall eliminated lower grades in 1964, Park School, the all-boys institution adjacent to Tudor Hall, began admitting girls through grade six. In 1966, Josiah K. Lilly Sr. donated land at 71st Street and College Avenue for the relocation and expansion of Park School. In 1969, Tudor Hall graduated its first African American student, Rita Threadford Offett. A year later, Tudor Hall merged with Park School and moved its student population to the latter institution’s facilities. As of 2025, the school Allen established endures as Park Tudor School and the scholarship in Allen’s name continues to be awarded.

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