The Cathedral School of St. John the Divine is a co-educational Episcopal school for children in New York City. Founded in 1901, the school is located on the premises of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in Morningside Heights in New York City.
The Cathedral School of St. John the Divine is an independent, Episcopal, K-8 day school for girls and boys of all faiths. The School is committed to a rigorous academic program that integrates the arts, athletics, and leadership development. Located on New York City’s Upper West Side on the 13-acre (53,000 m2) Close of the Cathedral, the School offers a unique setting for the celebration of the many traditions shared by its families. The School prides itself in being a diverse community in partnership with families who take an active role in their children’s intellectual, ethical, social, and emotional growth. The Cathedral School offers a stimulating environment in which each child can become an articulate, confident, and responsible citizen of the world. Continuing a century-old relationship, the School draws upon the Cathedral’s vast resources and provides its children’s choir.
The Cathedral School celebrated its centennial year in 2001, and is proud of its long history. The school has grown from its roots as boarding school for boys who sang in the Cathedral’s choir into the present day coeducational Episcopal school for children of all faiths. Through the many changes, the school has stood by its tradition of fostering a diverse community for the pursuit of academic excellence, and continues to provide choristers for The Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine.
The Choir School of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine was founded by Bishop Henry Codman Potter in 1901, and was originally located in the Guild Hall (known now as Synod Hall). The present School Building, erected in 1913, provided accommodations for forty-five resident choristers, with musical training under the direction of the Master of Choristers, and general education supervised by the Headmaster.
Until the beginning of World War II, substantial endowments met all school costs, in return for which the choristers sang two services each Sunday, and four to five evensongs during the week. This situation was maintained until 1964 when the Dean of the Cathedral declared that the school would become a day school, admitting non-singing boys, an idea that had been in discussion since 1928. Through this transition, at a time when school integration was being challenged, The Cathedral School became one of the most substantially integrated independent schools in the country.
In the fall of 1974, under the leadership of Bishop Paul Moore and Headmaster Canon Harold R. Landon, the first girls were admitted to The Cathedral School. In 1976, the final all-boy class graduated, and The School entered its modern incarnation.
Thirty years later, in January 2004, Marsha K. Nelson was installed as the 18th Head of School, the first woman to hold that position in a regular capacity.
The Cathedral School, although contemporary in its rigorous instructional program, retains a sense of tradition in its curriculum, its celebrations, and its heritage of providing the children’s choir for the largest gothic cathedral in the world.