Porter-Gaud School

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Porter-Gaud School
Address
300 Albemarle Rd Charleston , South Carolina 29407 United States
Coordinates	32°46′27″N 79°57′51″W / 32.77417°N 79.96417°W / 32.77417; -79.96417
Information
Type	Private
Motto	Fides, Honor, Scientia (Faith, Honor, Knowledge)
Religious affiliation(s)	Episcopal
Founded	1867
Headmaster	DuBose Egleston
Faculty	120
Grades	K2–12
Number of students	1,050
Student to teacher ratio	12:1
Campus	88 acres (360,000 m2)
Color(s)	Garnet and gray
Athletics conference	SCISA - 4A
Mascot	Cyclones
Rival	Bishop England High School
Yearbook	Polygon
Endowment	$25.6m
Affiliation	Episcopal Church
Website	www.portergaud.edu

The Porter-Gaud School is an independent coeducational college preparatory day school in Charleston, in the U.S. state of South Carolina. Porter-Gaud has an enrollment of some 1100 students, comprising a lower school, middle school, and high school, and is located on the banks of the Ashley River. The school has historic ties to the Episcopal Church.^[1]

Porter-Gaud was formed in July 1964 from the merger of three schools: The Porter Military Academy (founded 1867), the Gaud School for Boys (founded 1908), and the Watt School (founded 1931). The legal name of the institution remains The Porter Academy.

The Porter Military Academy was formed in 1867 by the Reverend Dr. Anthony Toomer Porter, an Episcopal priest, to educate boys orphaned during the Civil War. Established on the scholastic philosophy of William Augustus Muhlenberg (1796-1877) as the Holy Communion Church Institute in 1867, the school was later known as Porter Academy and eventually Porter Military Academy. Porter hired John Gadsden as the academic principal. Gadsden was prepared in Dr. Muhlenberg's famous school on Long Island and brought "The Doctor's" successful principles to the new school in his home-town of Charleston. ^[2]

William Steen Gaud established the Gaud School in 1908. In 1948, Berkeley Grimball purchased the school from Gaud and over the course of 16 years increased the enrollment to nearly 150 as the Gaud School attained a position of eminence among Southern preparatory schools. Ann Carson Elliott, Berkeley Grimball's mother, founded the Watt School in 1931, a coeducational primary school, which served as a feeder school for the Gaud School.

In 1964, the original Porter Military Academy campus in downtown Charleston was sold to the Medical University of South Carolina, and the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad (now CSX) donated the current 88-acre (360,000 m²) campus on Albemarle Point. In July 1964, the three schools merged and dropped the military program. The new entity, Porter-Gaud School, opened its doors to 435 male students in grades 1–12. As modern school facilities began taking shape across the Ashley River on the property donated by the railroad, classes met at the old Porter campus.

Porter-Gaud opened its new campus in September 1965 with an enrollment of 469 day students. In the following year it became one of the first schools in the South to adopt an open admissions policy. In 1972, the school admitted female students into the first three grades. By the fall of 1975 the program had been accelerated to include girls at all levels of the school, although Porter-Gaud has retained close ties to its sister school, Ashley Hall.^[3]

In May 2008, Porter-Gaud acquired The O'Quinn Schools, a local preschool that dates back to the early 1970s, with the intention of maintaining the names of the schools, faculties, programs, and tuition policies.^[4]

Porter-Gaud School graduates an average class size of 100 per year.

Porter-Gaud School is a member of the South Carolina Independent School Association, and Porter-Gaud offers over 38 varsity and junior varsity sports. The school mascot is the Cyclone.