Ashley Hall is a
private school for girls located in downtown
Charleston, South Carolina
Charleston is the largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina, the county seat of Charleston County, and the principal city in the Charleston–North Charleston metropolitan area. The city lies just south of the geographical midpoint ...
, United States for students in pre-kindergarten-grade 12. It was founded in 1909 by Mary Vardrine McBee, who headed the institution for many years. It is the only all-girls' independent
private school in South Carolina.
Ashley Hall enrolls girls 2 years to grade 12 with a coeducational preschool. For the 2019-2020 school year, Ashley Hall enrolled 640 students. The school motto is ''Possunt Quae Volunt'', or "Girls who have the will have the ability."
Ashley Hall's campus features three historic properties:
James Nicholson House (McBee House), 172 Rutledge Avenue (c.1816-1820), Warren Street House, 89 Warren Street (c.1823), The Elizabeth Rivers Lewine ’54 House for Global Studies, 79 Rutledge Avenue (c.1876)
History
In the spring of 1909, Mary Vardrine McBee bought the
James Nicholson House at 172 Rutledge Avenue to found an independent
college preparatory
A college-preparatory school (usually shortened to preparatory school or prep school) is a type of secondary school. The term refers to public, private independent or parochial schools primarily designed to prepare students for higher educatio ...
school for girls. She named the school Ashley Hall. During her forty-year tenure, the school grew from just 46 students in grades 10–12 to a much larger student body in Lower, Middle and Upper schools.
McBee set the tone for the school – holding it to the highest academic standards, establishing the Alumnae Association, instilling many of the traditions that still exist today, and acquiring facilities that would serve as the foundation for the institution for years to come. Her school included the McBee House (now so named) and surrounding grounds, an indoor swimming pool, the "Old Gym" (Burges auditorium), kitchen and dining room, the Headmistress House and faculty apartments across the street from Ashley Hall.
In 1948, in order for the school to continue to operate as a non-profit institution under a Board of Trustees, the Ashley Hall Foundation was established. The Foundation purchased Ashley Hall from McBee in 1949, the year of her retirement. The Foundation's first move was to appoint William Piper as Head of School. He served as Head from 1949 to 1954. He was an acknowledged fiscal expert and helped put the school in good economic standing.
Caroline Pardue joined Ashley Hall in 1950 as the Academic Head of the Upper School and teacher of history. She was appointed Headmistress in 1954 and continued to serve in that capacity for the next 25 years until 1978. Her many accomplishments include the establishment of Pardue, Lane and Jenkins Halls to officially house Lower, Middle and Upper school classrooms, the construction of Davies Auditorium, and the incorporation of a kindergarten for boys and girls. It was also during her leadership that the school shifted its student base, eliminating boarding opportunities to focus on providing local students with a superior education. In 1976 the school graduated its first African-American student. Upon Pardue's retirement, Marian Bell Leland assumed the role of Headmistress from 1979 to 1984. Leland was instrumental in and created the Capital Campaign, the Ashley Hall Fund, which funded the construction of the school's gymnasium.
Margaret C. MacDonald led Ashley Hall from 1985 to 2004. She is credited for elevating the school's academic standards, expanding programs, and educating both her faculty and the community on the value of an education that addressed the specific learning needs of girls and young women. She established financial aid programs and additional scholarships, initiated the school's first campus master plan, developed teaching excellence awards, the aquatics and admissions departments, and added to the physical property of the school. MacDonald, along with the school's Board of Trustees, also helped create the 2003–2008 Strategic Plan. This comprehensive blueprint outlines the future goals of the school as they relate to academics, student and faculty recruitment and facilities enhancements.
School publications
Student publications
* ''Spiral'' – school yearbook
* ''Acanthus'' – Upper School literary magazine
Development publications
* ''Perspectives'' – official school magazine, distributed to all alumni, families, students and faculty
Athletics
Ashley Hall participates in the
South Carolina Independent School Association The South Carolina Independent School Association (SCISA) is a school accrediting organization. It was founded in South Carolina in 1965 to legitimize segregation academies.https://getd.libs.uga.edu/pdfs/blair_monica_k_201505_ma.pdf
History
SCISA ...
(SCISA).
The school is famed for its excellent varsity volleyball and tennis teams.
It has rivalries with
Porter-Gaud School and
Bishop England High School
Bishop England High School is a diocesan Roman Catholic four-year high school in Charleston, South Carolina, United States. It was located on Calhoun Street in downtown Charleston until it moved to a newly constructed 40-acre campus located on Dan ...
.
* Fall sports:
**Cross country (SCISA Class AAA State Champions 2010, 2015, 2016, and 2020)
**Golf
**Swimming
**Tennis (SCISA Class AAA State Champions 2016, 2018, 2019, and 2020)
**Volleyball (SCISA Class AAA State Champions 2007, 2008, 2009, 2018)
* Winter sports:
**Basketball
* Spring sports:
**Archery
**Sailing
**Soccer
**Lacrosse
**Equestrian
**Track (SCISA Class AAA State Champions 2013, 2014)
Notable alumnae
*
Madeleine L'Engle
Madeleine L'Engle DStJ (; November 29, 1918 – September 6, 2007) was an American writer of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and young adult fiction, including ''A Wrinkle in Time'' and its sequels: '' A Wind in the Door'', '' A Swiftly Tilting Pla ...
(Class of 1936), author
*
Barbara Bush
Barbara Pierce Bush (June 8, 1925 – April 17, 2018) was First Lady of the United States from 1989 to 1993, as the wife of President George H. W. Bush, and the founder of the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy. She previously w ...
(Class of 1943, née Pierce), former
First Lady
*
Nancy Stevenson (Class of 1945, née Backer),
Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina
The lieutenant governor of South Carolina is the second-in-command to the governor of South Carolina. Beyond overseeing the Office on Aging and the responsibility to act or serve as governor in the event of the office's vacancy, the duties of the ...
*
Nancy Friday
Nancy Colbert Friday (August 27, 1933 – November 5, 2017) was an American author who wrote on the topics of female sexuality and liberation. Her writings argue that women have often been reared under an ideal of womanhood, which was outdated an ...
(Class of 1951), author
*
Alexandra Ripley
Alexandra Ripley ( Braid; January 8, 1934 – January 10, 2004) was an American writer best known as the author of '' Scarlett'' (1991), written as a sequel to '' Gone with the Wind''. Her first novel was ''Who's the Lady in the President's Bed ...
(Class of 1951, née Braid), author
*
Harriet McDougal Rigney (Class of 1956, née Popham), editor
*
Josephine Humphreys (Class of 1963), author
*
D'Anna Fortunato
D'Anna Fortunato (born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on February 21, 1945) is an American mezzo-soprano.
She has long been an admired favorite on the American orchestral-concert scene, while establishing herself as a respected operatic artist as we ...
(Class of 1963), mezzo-soprano
*
Martha Rivers Ingram
Martha Robinson Rivers Ingram (born August 20, 1935) is an American billionaire businesswoman and philanthropist. In 1995, Ingram succeeded her late husband as chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of Ingram Industries, one of America's large ...
, business leader, philanthropist
*
Mena Suvari
Mena Alexandra Suvari (; born February 13, 1979) is an American actress, producer, fashion designer and model. After beginning her career as a model and guest-starring on several television shows, she made her film debut in the 1997 drama '' Now ...
, actress
*
Lisa Sanders
Lisa Sanders (born July 24, 1956) is an American physician, medical author and journalist, and associate professor of internal medicine and education at Yale School of Medicine. In 2002, she began writing a column for ''The New York Times'' called ...
(Class of 1973), physician, medical author, and journalist
*
Frederica Mathewes-Green
Frederica Mathewes-Green (born ) is an American author and speaker, chiefly on topics related to Eastern Orthodox belief and practice.
Mathewes-Green earned a MTS degree from Virginia Theological Seminary in 1977 and received an honorary Doct ...
, Orthodox Christian author
Legends
Charleston legend has it that
George Trenholm
George Alfred Trenholm (February 25, 1807 – December 9, 1876) was a South Carolina businessman, financier, politician, and slaveholding planter who owned several plantations and strongly supported the Confederate States of America. He was a ...
, a resident of the McBee House, the mansion on the school property, was the man on whom
Margaret Mitchell
Margaret Munnerlyn Mitchell (November 8, 1900 – August 16, 1949) was an American novelist and journalist. Mitchell wrote only one novel, published during her lifetime, the American Civil War-era novel '' Gone with the Wind'', for which she wo ...
based the character
Rhett Butler
Rhett Butler (Born in 1828) is a fictional character in the 1936 novel '' Gone with the Wind'' by Margaret Mitchell and in the 1939 film adaptation of the same name. It is one of Clark Gable's most recognizable and significant roles.
Role
Rh ...
in her novel, ''
Gone with the Wind
Gone with the Wind most often refers to:
* ''Gone with the Wind'' (novel), a 1936 novel by Margaret Mitchell
* ''Gone with the Wind'' (film), the 1939 adaptation of the novel
Gone with the Wind may also refer to:
Music
* ''Gone with the Wind'' ...
''.
References
External links
Ashley Hall websiteAshley Hall Summer Camp Registrationfrom ''
The State
A state is a centralized political organization that imposes and enforces rules over a population within a territory. There is no undisputed definition of a state. One widely used definition comes from the German sociologist Max Weber: a "sta ...
''
{{authority control
Private elementary schools in South Carolina
Private high schools in South Carolina
Private middle schools in South Carolina
Educational institutions established in 1909
Schools in Charleston County, South Carolina
Education in Charleston, South Carolina
Preparatory schools in South Carolina
1909 establishments in South Carolina