Webster, Marjorie, Junior College Historic District

About this property

Lowell School is an independent, diverse, co-educational preschool through 8th grade school located in the Colonial Village neighborhood near Shepherd Park Washington, D.C. The school was founded by Judith Grant and Susan Semple in 1965 during the Civil Rights Movement on the educational philosophies of Haim Ginott, Jean Piaget, Maria Montessori, John Dewey, and Friedrich Fröbel. Lowell began as nursery school in the basement of Cleveland Park Congregational Church at 34th and Lowell Streets, N.W. The annual tuition was $325. Gail Shandler joined the staff in 1966 and went on to become the school's director in 1967. In 1975 the school added a kindergarten. Growing enrollment caused the school to move in 1978 to the Sixth Presbyterian Church on 16th and Kennedy Streets, N.W., making it one of the first independent schools to be located on the east side of Rock Creek Park. In 1983, 1st grade was added. In 1984, in addition to adding 2nd grade, the Parents Association was formed and renamed the Lowell Parent Community in 1984. In 1985 Annual Giving was instituted to fund financial aid to improve financial accessibility. Lowell Primary School library opened in 1986 with 400 volumes, and today it holds 10,000 volumes. In 1987, Lowell expanded to 3rd grade. A year later, Abigail Wiebenson, formerly the head of the lower school at Georgetown Day School, became the third head of school. In 1989 Lowell purchased the Himmelfarb mansion at 16th and Decatur Streets, N.W. and moved into its own building in October of that year. Lowell was accredited by the Association of Independent Maryland Schools in the 90s, and moved to its present campus on Kalmia and 16th Street NW and expanded to 5th grade. In 2001, the first 6th grade class was added. In 2007 Lowell appointed its fourth head of school, Debbie Gibbs, who had been the assistant head at Marin Country Day School in California. During Gibbs' tenure, Lowell expanded to include a middle school, adding 7th grade in 2011 and 8th grade in 2012. The Parkside Building renovation was complete in the fall of 2014, and currently houses the Middle School. In 2019, Donna Lindner, former lower school head at The Agnes Irwin School, joined Lowell as its fifth head of school. Lowell School occupies a historic campus with three buildings, three playgrounds, two outdoor classrooms, an athletic field, a garden, a green roof, and Kalmia Creek. The Main Building contains Primary School classrooms, the Pre-Primary School rooms, a makerspace, rooftop science lab, the Primary School library and Pre-Primary Book Nook, a gym, a heated swimming pool, two art studios, and a dance studio.

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Categories

Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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