The Cathedral School of St. John the Divine is an independent,

Episcopal Episcopal may refer to: *Of or relating to a bishop, an overseer in the Christian church *Episcopate, the see of a bishop – a diocese *Episcopal Church (disambiguation), any church with "Episcopal" in its name ** Episcopal Church (United State ...

, K-8 day school for girls and boys of all faiths located in

Morningside Heights Morningside Heights is a neighborhood on the West Side of Upper Manhattan in New York City. It is bounded by Morningside Drive to the east, 125th Street to the north, 110th Street to the south, and Riverside Drive to the west. Morningside ...

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. Founded in 1901, it is located on the 13-acre campus of the

Cathedral of St. John the Divine The Cathedral of St. John the Divine (sometimes referred to as St. John's and also nicknamed St. John the Unfinished) is the cathedral of the Episcopal Diocese of New York. It is at 1047 Amsterdam Avenue in the Morningside Heights neighborhood ...

and has an enrollment of 300 students. The School is divided into a Lower School (Grades K-4) and an Upper School (Grades 5–8).

Facts and figures

* 300 students * 6:1 student to teacher ratio * 78% of faculty members have advanced degrees * 13 acres of academic buildings, gardens, and green space * 2 on-campus playgrounds * 2 on-campus gyms * 33 Upper School Electives, Clubs and Affinity Groups * 18 interscholastic sports teams

History

The choir school building, now the Cathedral School of St. John the Divine, is located on the eastern border of the cathedral close of St. John the Divine. The building is in the

Collegiate Gothic Collegiate Gothic is an architectural style subgenre of Gothic Revival architecture, popular in the late-19th and early-20th centuries for college and high school buildings in the United States and Canada, and to a certain extent Europ ...

style and is stories tall. The exterior contains gray schist cladding and limestone trim, with architectural features such as a gabled roof,

dormer A dormer is a roofed structure, often containing a window, that projects vertically beyond the plane of a pitched roof. A dormer window (also called ''dormer'') is a form of roof window. Dormers are commonly used to increase the usable space ...

s protruding from the roof, and Tudor-style arched openings. Inside, the building contained classrooms; gathering space for reception, dining; music rooms; a library; a gymnasium; a dormitory; and masters’ and service rooms. The choir school was created in 1901 within the Ithiel Town Building. A separate structure was first proposed in Walter Cook & Winthrop A. Welch's 1906 plan for the cathedral close. In January 1910, Mary Eliza Blodgett (also known as Mrs. J. Jarrett Blodgett) donated $25,000 toward the new school building's projected $150,000 cost, as a gift to honor her father John H. Sherwood. Blodgett later covered the rest of the choir school building's cost after no one else donated, while former choirboy

Frederick G. Bourne Frederick may refer to: People * Frederick (given name), the name Nobility Anhalt-Harzgerode *Frederick, Prince of Anhalt-Harzgerode Frederick of Anhalt-Harzgerode (16 November 1613, Ensdorf, Bavaria – 30 June 1670, Plötzkau), was a ...

provided a $500,000 endowment in 1914. Cathedral architect

Ralph Adams Cram Ralph Adams Cram (December 16, 1863 – September 22, 1942) was a prolific and influential American architect of collegiate and ecclesiastical buildings, often in the Gothic Revival style. Cram & Ferguson and Cram, Goodhue & Ferguson are partner ...

approved Cook & Welch's plan in January 1912 and filed construction plans that July, with work beginning that October. The school building was finished in September 1913. The choir school consisted of day school for 20 adult men and a boarding school for 40 choirboys who paid no tuition. It was turned into a boys' day school in 1964 and a coeducational day school for grades K-8 in 1972.

Academics

The Cathedral School's Lower School includes kindergarten through 4th grade, with two homeroom classes in each grade level. Kindergarten through 2nd grade classes have two homeroom teachers, a head teacher and an associate teacher. Homeroom teachers develop and implement Language Arts, Mathematics, and Social Studies curricula and are responsible for their homeroom class throughout the day. Specialists in each area teach science, art, music, library, and physical education. Students in kindergarten through 3rd grade study Spanish. Students in the 4th grade take one semester of French and one semester of Spanish, and then choose one language to study in Upper School. Cathedral School Upper School students take classes in English, math, science, social studies, world languages (Spanish or French), art, music and physical education. Latin is mandatory beginning in the sixth grade. Students also learn coding, digital citizenship and online research skills through the dedicated technology curriculum. Across all grades and disciplines, STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math) is an organic part of the daily academic curriculum at The Cathedral School. Using the National Science Standards as a guide, Lower School students develop STEAM skills through collaborative learning. In the Upper School, they use those skills as a framework to explore increasingly complex, high-level projects.

Athletics

The Cathedral School offers many sports through the fall, winter, and spring. Interscholastic sports include volleyball, soccer, cross country, basketball, track and field, tennis, softball, and baseball. More than 90% of Upper School students participate in at least one interscholastic sport per school year.

Campus

Three

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s, which were first donated by the

Bronx Zoo The Bronx Zoo (also historically the Bronx Zoological Park and the Bronx Zoological Gardens) is a zoo within Bronx Park in the Bronx, New York. It is one of the largest zoos in the United States by area and is the largest metropolitan zoo in ...

in the 1980s, live on the grounds of The Cathedral School. The school hosts an annual Spring Fair that welcomes the greater New York City community.

Notable alumni

Jon Abbott Jonathan C. Abbott is an American media executive who is the president and CEO of WGBH Educational Foundation, the largest provider of programming to PBS. Biography Abbott grew up in New York City, where his father, Forrest Abbott, was the tre ...

, CEO of WGBH Educational Foundation * Burgess Meredith, actor * Ben Stiller, actor * Emma Straub, American novelist *

Isabel Leonard Isabel Leonard (born February 18, 1982) is an American mezzo-soprano opera singer based in New York City. She is of Argentine ancestry on her mother's side. Education Leonard was born in New York City. For five years she sang with the Manhattan S ...

, Grammy award winner and American mezzo-soprano *

Bethany Donaphin Bethany Donaphin (born 1980 in New York City, New York, United States), is Head of League Operations at the Women's National Basketball Association and has been recognized for her professional achievements in sports. She is 6'2''. She is a former ...

, former WNBA star and current WNBA Head of League Operations *

John Gary John Gary (born John Gary Strader; November 29, 1932 – January 4, 1998) was an American singer, recording artist, television host, and performer on the musical stage. Early life From Watertown, New York, Gary started singing at the age of 5. ...

, actor, famous for his rendition of ''

Danny Boy "Danny Boy" is a ballad, written by English songwriter Frederic Weatherly in 1913, and set to the traditional Irish melody of "Londonderry Air". History In 1910, in Bath, Somerset, the English lawyer and lyricist Frederic Weatherly initial ...

'', 1930s * Alex Westerman, award-winning creative director based in Los Angeles. *

Wiki A wiki ( ) is an online hypertext publication collaboratively edited and managed by its own audience, using a web browser. A typical wiki contains multiple pages for the subjects or scope of the project, and could be either open to the pu ...

, record producer and rapper in

Ratking A rat king is a collection of rats whose tails are intertwined and bound together in some way. This may be a result of an entangling material like hair, a sticky substance such as sap or gum, or the tails being tied together. Historically, this ...

Affiliated organizations

National Association of Independent Schools The National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) is a U.S.-based membership organization for private, nonprofit, K-12 schools. Founded in 1962, NAIS represents independent schools and associations in the United States, including day, boar ...

* New York State Association of Independent Schools

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cathedral School, New York Educational institutions established in 1901 Private elementary schools in Manhattan Episcopal schools in the United States Private middle schools in Manhattan Morningside Heights, Manhattan 1901 establishments in New York City Schools in Harlem