Episcopal High School (Episcopal or EHS) is a boarding school in Alexandria, Virginia. Established in 1839 by the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia, it was the first high school in Virginia. Episcopal is a 100-percent boarding school located approximately seven miles from Washington, D.C. Originally an all-boys school, Episcopal transitioned to coeducation in 1991.

The campus houses 440 students from 27 countries, 32 states, and the District of Columbia. The school closed temporarily during the American Civil War, and was used by the Union Army as a military hospital. Today, the hilltop campus has seven academic buildings, ten dormitories, performing arts buildings, faculty housing and athletic facilities, as well as a forested area. As of June 2025, the school has an endowment of $382 million.

Episcopal emphasizes experiential and co-curricular learning through the Washington Program, using the school's proximity to Washington, D.C., to offer more than 650 educational experiences during flex blocks each year. The McCain–Ravenel Center for Intellectual and Moral Courage (MRC) focuses on global programs, leadership, service learning, visiting speakers, and senior externships.

Episcopal competes against Woodberry Forest School in the longest-running consecutive high school football rivalry in the South, played annually since 1901. Episcopal's athletics facilities have frequently been used by international soccer teams, most recently during the 2026 FIFA World Cup. It is a founding member of the Mid-Atlantic Boarding School Group. Its notable alumni include U.S. senators and representatives, governors, cabinet officials, a former head of state, business executives, physicians, writers, and professional athletes.

History Origins

Episcopal High School was founded in 1839 as the first high school in Virginia by the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia. The neighboring Virginia Theological Seminary purchased of land in the Seminary Hill neighborhood of Alexandria for $5000.

The Rev. William N. Pendleton was appointed the first principal and the boarding facility opened on October 15 of that year. Pendleton, along with three assistant heads, taught 35 boys in the first year. In 1840, Episcopal's student body tripled in size to accommodate more than 100 boys.

The school was interchangeably known as the Howard School, from its location at the site of an earlier school that ran from 1831 until 1834. Episcopal became affectionately known throughout the South as "The High School" as it was the only high school around for another 30 years. The central administration building, Hoxton House (first known as Mt. Washington) dates to around 1805 and was built by Martha Washington's eldest granddaughter, Elizabeth Parke Custis Law. The Reade-Latham House, right next to the Hoxton House, was built in 1832.

Episcopal instituted an Honor Code by 1857, making it one of the earlier secondary schools in the United States to adopt such a system. A committee of students and faculty members administers the code and handles violations.

Civil War and late 19th century Episcopal continued to grow until the Civil War, when it closed immediately after Union Army forces occupied Alexandria in 1861. For the next five years, school buildings were used as part of a Union military hospital complex. Poet Walt Whitman served as a nurse there. The school reopened in 1866 under Principal William Fowler Gardner.

Some 500 students and alumni served in the war, many for the Confederacy; 14 alumni served the Union. The school's first principal, Rev. William N. Pendleton, became a Confederate brigadier general. Episcopal was among the Southern denominational schools that retained a strong Southern establishment identity into the twentieth century. Pendleton Hall contains a plaque memorializing the 68 students and alumni who died in the war.

Under the direction of Launcelot Minor Blackford (first layman appointed as a principal, 1870–1913), the school initiated a modern academic curriculum and pioneered interscholastic team sports in the South, including football, baseball, and track. Episcopal played its first official football game in 1881, beating "Kendall" by a score of –0.

In 1888, Episcopal adopted black and blue as school colors, but after losing a few games and hearing an opponent claim that "EHS had been beaten black and blue", the school changed colors to maroon and black.

Beginning in the 1890s, Episcopal undertook a building program that helped shape the present-day campus. In 1891, Baltimore-based architect James Crawford Neilson was commissioned to design Liggett Hall and other campus improvements.

In 1892, Episcopal enrolled its first international students from China. Among them was Yan Huiqing, who in the 1920s became Premier and later President of the Republic of China.

20th century

The school's physical expansion continued in the early twentieth century. In the 1910s, Episcopal commissioned architect Frederick H. Brooke to renovate the main hall and design additional buildings.

During World War I, 461 Episcopal alumni served in the war. Among them were Newton D. Baker, the United States Secretary of War, and Quentin Roosevelt, who was killed in action in 1918. In 1920, the school dedicated a memorial to 22 alumni who died in the war.

Prior to the opening of the Joseph Bryan library in 1927, the students had access to magazines and book collections through the various literary societies on campus, which included the Pithonian (1839–1861), the Fairfax (1870), the Blackford (1874), and the Wilmer (1911).

At the time of its centennial in 1938, Time profiled Episcopal as a long-established Southern preparatory school, describing its traditions, curriculum, athletics, and prominent alumni.

In his 1958 book Philadelphia Gentlemen, sociologist E. Digby Baltzell included Episcopal among a core group of sixteen socially elite Eastern boarding schools. Later scholars referred to the schools on Baltzell's list as the "Select 16". A 2009 scholarly study by Rubén A. Gaztambide-Fernández included Episcopal among a group of 28 elite boarding schools.

Beginning in the 1960s, Episcopal undertook a modernization of its campus, adding new academic and athletic facilities and improving faculty housing.

Integration and co-education In September 1968, Episcopal began admitting African-American students under the presidency of Archibald R. Hoxton Jr. The school's first two African-American students, Regi Burns '72 and Sam Paschall '72, enrolled with support from the Stouffer Foundation, which recruited and placed African-American students at preparatory schools across the South. Their enrollment followed a 1965 board resolution stating: "Any and all applicants for admission shall be considered on an equal basis after giving due regard to their scholastic preparedness and their ability and desire to meet the standards of the school."

By its 150th anniversary in 1989, Episcopal had undergone substantial institutional changes. That year, students came from about 25 states and five foreign countries, and minority students constituted 17 percent of enrollment.

In 1991, Episcopal began a transition to coeducation by enrolling its first 48 girls, a group now referred to as "The First 48". The decision to admit girls for the first time in its 152-year history was based on philosophical reasoning as well as the economic need to increase enrollment. The decision came during what Education Week described as a second wave of coeducation among leading boys' boarding schools. The first coeducational class graduated in 1993.

More recent history During the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, Episcopal opted not to receive loans under the Paycheck Protection Program, stating that it "should not seek this kind of support when others need it more."

Organization and administration From the beginning, Episcopal and the neighboring Virginia Theological Seminary were governed by the same board of trustees, appointed by the Diocese. The organizations were permitted to be incorporated in 1854 as the "Protestant Episcopal Theological Seminary and High School in Virginia." In 1923, the school separated its governance from the diocese and has been overseen by an independent board of trustees since then.

Episcopal is a founding member of the Mid-Atlantic Boarding School Group (MABS).

Finances Tuition and financial aid The comprehensive fee for the 2026–27 school year is $77,700 and includes tuition, room and board, basic health-center expenses, and most school-sponsored academic, athletic, and recreational activities. Approximately 35% of students receive financial assistance; Episcopal awards about $8.3 million in aid annually, with an average need-based grant of $56,143. The school has more than 100 endowed scholarship funds.

Endowment , Episcopal had an endowment of $382.5 million. Episcopal is one of the beneficiaries of a restricted fund established under the will of Lettie Pate Whitehead Evans. The fund, administered by the independent Lettie Pate Evans Foundation, distributes five percent of its net income to Episcopal each year in perpetuity.

For the fiscal year ending in 2025, Episcopal reported total assets of $656.0 million and net assets of $578.2 million in its Internal Revenue Service filing. Episcopal also reported $43.6 million in program service expenses and $8.8 million in grants (primarily student financial aid).

In 2025, Episcopal completed Courage: The Campaign for Episcopal, a seven-year fundraising campaign launched in 2018 that raised $157 million.

Campus

Episcopal occupies a hilltop campus in the Seminary Hill neighborhood of Alexandria with academic buildings, ten dormitories, performing arts facilities, faculty housing, athletic facilities and fields. About 41 acres comprise a wooded area known as Laird Acres.

Beginning in the late 1990s, Episcopal undertook a major campus redevelopment program that included both renovations and new construction. This $60 million physical plant redevelopment was managed by Trammell Crow Company. Architect Allan Greenberg was commissioned to renovate Penick Hall. Several campus facilities are named in memory of Fred Hummel Jr., an alumnus and fighter pilot killed in a jet crash at Nellis Air Force Base, including the Hummel Learning Center, Hummel Bowl, and Hummel Dormitory.

In 2018, Episcopal began a new campus master plan with DLR Group focused on student housing, wellness, and athletics. The plan led to construction of the deButts Health and Wellness Center, North and West dormitories, and a new residential quad. This project replaced the Hoxton Field and the outdated running track with a new regulation 400-meter outdoor track with a bermuda grass soccer pitch near the Coxe Field.

Academic facilities Baker Science Center (opened 2005) is a science building designed by Graham Gund Architects. The $11 million, LEED-certified facility includes a two-story glass rotunda and received the Northern Virginia NAIOP Best Institutional Facility Award. Ainslie Arts Center (opened 2003) is a performing arts facility containing the 540-seat William N. Pendleton auditorium, a 100-seat black box theater, and recording, rehearsal, dance, photography, and ceramics spaces. The $7.5 million project renovated and expanded the existing auditorium complex. The center is named for former headmaster Lee Sanford Ainslie '56.

Libraries David H. March Library (opened 1990) is the school's main library and is located in the Hummel Learning Center. Joseph Bryan Library (opened 1927, renovated 2007) was Episcopal's first purpose-built library. It was constructed with a $35,000 gift from John Stewart Bryan in memory of his father, Joseph Bryan. Designed during the early years of the Colonial Williamsburg restoration, the building reflects the Georgian Revival style. It now houses the school archives and functions as a small meeting space.

Student life facilities