The Four Houses:

Resting on our heritage of classical education and patriotism, it became quickly evident that the houses should be named after the four U.S. Presidents depicted on Mount Rushmore:

• George Washington
• Thomas Jefferson
• Abraham Lincoln
• Theodore Roosevelt

Each house has a unique color and crest.

The Crests:

Developing unique crests that fit within the PCCA brand and also complemented our Patriot Athletic brand was our challenge. We needed to have houses “fit” within the overall story, be strong and independent, yet also reinforce our virtues and values.

So we started with fasces.

Fasces (FAS-eez) are symbols of power and tools of leadership used in ancient Rome; they were bundles of rods, held together with leather thongs and often included a protruding blade.

In 1914, when Henry Bacon finished designing the Lincoln Memorial and started its construction, he intentionally included fasces into the carvings. When approaching the monument, visitors will often miss this design feature, but, if they look beside the main stairs, a fasces is carved showing thirteen rods. This represents the thirteen original colonies that achieved independence from Britain.

Fasces are also used in Lincoln’s chair, as symbols of the states and the American motto: “E Pluribus Unum” or, “Out of Many, One”. The rods bound together suggest the union of the states and their bond through the Constitution. Each state is weak individually but together, they are strong.

Weaving this strong, patriotic motif into our house crest designs became important.

Each crest’s letter (W, J, L, R) has one part of it depicted as 3 rods. With 4 houses and 3 rods each, the houses together hold 12 of the 13 rods. The 13th rod is the handle of our patriot’s spontoon (spear).