Our History
 The Eliot Montessori School was founded by
Trudy Hackett. Ms. Hackett grew up in
Holland where she attended Montessori schools
through high school. Ms. Hackett wanted to start
a Montessori school of her own. She was
approached by Maria Montessori's son who asked
if she would be interested in setting up
Montessori schools in the U.S. She agreed and
moved to America soon after.
Ms. Hackett began in California, where she
set up a few schools. When her husband was
transferred to Boston for work, she set up The
Pincushion Hill School Montessori school in
Ashland. She ran the school alone with the help
of a few parents. It started with sixteen
children in grades one through three. One of the
first parents was a woman named Betsy Kluchman.
After three years Pincushion started growing.
The next addition to the staff was a woman named
Ada Woolston. She and Ms. Hackett taught at
Pincushion Hill by themselves, until a few years
later when Ms. Moore joined them. It was then
that Ms. Kluchman started getting much more
involved and became Co-Administrator and Head of
School with Trudy Hackett. Pincushion Hill
expanded and they moved from Ashland to a house
in South Natick. Pincushion Hill then took on
the name Montessori Children's House.
In 1971 Ms. Hackett, Ms. Kluchman, Ms. Moore
and Ms. Woolston moved the school to Auburn St.
in South Natick to start a school for older
students in the John Eliot School Building. They
named it The Eliot Montessori School for that
reason. The younger students stayed in the
Childrens House which became its own pre-school.
Ms. Hackett worked for Eliot for 25 years and is
now retired and living happily in Holliston.
Eliot sadly lost Ms. Kluchman to breast cancer
in 1995. Outside Eliot there is a memorial
garden in her name to thank her for all the hard
work she put into Eliot.
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