Grace-St. Luke's Episcopal School

Grace-St. Luke's Episcopal School is a co-ed, private school for prekindergarten through 8th grade students in Midtown Memphis.

History

Located in Midtown's Central Gardens, Grace-St. Luke's (or GSL) was founded in 1947, though the school's early origins date back to 1919, when Bartow B. Ramage, then rector of St. Luke's Church, first established a parochial school for the neighborhood. This early school stayed open until 1924. In 1940, St. Luke's Church merged with another venerable Memphis parish, Grace Church, forming Grace-St. Luke's Church and holding its first joint service on Thanksgiving Day, 1940.[1][2]

In 1947, Memphis educator Mrs. S. Griffin Walker, who had taught kindergarten at St. Mary's School, asked Grace-St. Luke's rector Rev. Charles Stuart Hale, for space to open a kindergarten. He agreed, and thus began a kindergarten in the basement of the parish house. By 1959, they had built it into a Kindergarten through 6th grade school, and broke ground for a new day school building on Nov. 30, 1959.[1]

After being issued a charter, Grace-St. Luke’s Episcopal Day School began to grow, eventually becoming a K–12 school by the mid-1970s. However, economics and space limitations led its Board to eventually end the high school program, and by the early 1980s the school settled into a Kindergarten through Middle School structure (grades PK–8) to better focus on educational and leadership opportunities for Lower and Middle School students. GSL acquired additional properties (Snowden Field in 1984 and Miss Lee Preschool in 1987) to enrich the school's offerings for the families who wanted to become part of our community. In the early 1990s, Grace-St. Luke's opened the Evans Building that links the church and school administrative offices to the Middle School and gymnasium.

In 2010, the school completed its first major new construction in 20 years, opening the Anchor Center, a multipurpose building designed to ensure the school’s sustainability and allow capacity for future growth.[3]

Today, Grace-St. Luke’s School serves more than 500 students in prekindergarten through eighth grade. The school’s mission is to prepare boys and girls to become creative problem solvers, confident lifelong learners, and responsible citizens in their communities and the world.[2]

Notable alumni

Notable alumni include Cary Fowler (59), Executive Director of the Global Crop Diversity Trust, Shiva Rea (81), creator of Prana Flow yoga, and Mike McCarley (88), President, NBC’s Golf Channel.

References

  1. 1 2 Viser, Barbara M. (1990). Grace-St. Luke’s, The First Fifty Years. Published by Grace-St. Luke’s Episcopal Church. Library of Congress Catalog Number 90-083968
  2. 1 2 Grace-St. Luke's Episcopal School website
  3. ↑ Commercial Appeal, Tuesday, April 13, 2010, B1: "Oh My Gosh: New 43,000 Square-Foot Addition Wows Students"

Coordinates: 35°07′58″N 90°00′18″W / 35.1329°N 90.0049°W / 35.1329; -90.0049

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