Our History
At a time when opportunities for high school education were rare in the rural South, the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia established St. Margaret's School in Tappahannock. Its primary purpose was to "meet the need in Tidewater of a standard school, at the least possible cost, for girls of character and ability."
Back then, students often arrived by steamboat, as there was no bridge linking Tappahannock with the Northern Neck, and there was no government road to Richmond or easy way to reach a central metropolitan area like Washington, DC.
“St. Margaret’s instilled into us that there was a right and a wrong, and all our lives, we would have to make that choice, and our characters were built by the choices we made.”
- Nancy Berry '23, St. Margaret's first graduate.
Follow the timeline below to see how far we've come since 1921.
-
-
Update Required To play the media you will need to either update your browser to a recent version or update your Flash plugin.
Excerpt of The Daily Thistle
-
-
1921 | St. Margaret's opens for business with 14 girls and 3 boys in grades K-11. Classes were held in a room above the People's Drug Store in Tappahannock -
1923 | St. Margaret's graduates its first student, Nancy Berry -
1931 | Enrollment has grown to 20 day students and 70 boarders. Thirteen girls graduate in the class of 1931. -
1936 | School is accredited by the State Board of Education. -
Mid-1940s | St. Margaret's Hall gets an addition; first yearbook is published; Anderton House is purchased for use as dormitory. -
1948 | St. Margaret's installs its eighth headmistress, Viola Hubbard Woolfolk. She would be the nation's youngest headmistress. -
1966 | New gym is dedicated; silver charms with school seal are given to graduating seniors, beginning a new tradition. -
1975 | Chapel extended and renovated. Notice the central posts, those were an earlier gift from the Class of 1961 -
1989 | Margaret R. Broad becomes the tenth Head of School. -
1990 | Ground breaking for library/classroom building to be named after Miss Woolfolk. Board announces $1.5 million campaign. -
1991 | St. Margaret’s is one of the first boarding schools in the southeast to establish comprehensive program for international students. -
1994 | Peer leadership program established, library card catalog is computerized; three faculty apartments added to Latané Hall. -
1999 | $3.8 million Community/Technology Center opens to house riverfront dining room, computer center and math and science classrooms. -
2002 | Latané Hall is given a major renovation and makeover. -
2005 | The McCuan House dorm project, started in October 2004, is ready for dedication and opening in September 2005. It houses 24 students and 3 faculty apartments in state of the art accommodations. -
2007 | St. Margaret’s dedicates a new Athletic Complex, a 42 acre property located a mile away from the main campus. It houses two playing fields, two softball diamonds, a cross-country track, and a faculty residence -
2011 | St. Margaret’s celebrates its 90th anniversary.
1
/
17
Episcopal girls' school for boarding and day, grades 8-PG, on the banks of the Rappahannock River in Virginia.
