Glenelg Country School is a nonsectarian, co-educational independent day school in Howard County, Maryland, adjacent to Columbia, Maryland and between Baltimore and Washington, D.C. The School offers a continuous college-preparatory program from age 2 through grade 12. GCS was founded in 1954, enrolling 35 students in grades one through seven. In the fall of 1985, the new Upper School division opened with 10 students. The first class graduated in June 1989. Today, Glenelg Country School enrolls over 750 students.
The Glenelg Manor was built on a part of land patented as "Dorsey's Grove" in 1721.[2] It also included land patented by John Dorsey named "Dorseys Luck" renamed to "Howard's Resolution".[3] Glenelg Manor houses the Glenelg Country School elementary division. The original structure of the house dates from circa 1740 to the second half of the 18th century, and may have been built by Ephraim Howard.[4][5][6]
General Joseph Tyson built the Tudor expansion in the 1800s[3] The estate passed to Tyson's son Henry H. Tyson, followed by the Knox family in 1900. William Bladen Lowndes, son of Maryland governor Lloyd Lowndes, Jr., purchased the estate in 1915 and added amenities such as outdoor projectors, golf course, and diesel generators. After Lowndes died in 1941, the property was sold to Rowland D. and George R. Zaiser of Wilton Farm Dairy for farming. In 1956 the estate was subdivided into a smaller parcel to be leased out as a school.[7]
The original building was rented in 1954 when the Glenelg Country School was founded by Kingdon Gould, Jr. and his wife Mary Thorne Gould, along with Mr. and Mrs. John T. Mason, Jr., Judge James Macgill and Mr. and Mrs. William Shippen. Marjorie Dunn was the first Headmistress for Glenelg Country School, serving 1954–1956. Subsequent Headmasters/Headmistresses: Beatrice Pfefferkorn (1956–1959); Edward L. Jones (1959–1964); Peter T. Terry (1964–1966); Thomas J. Barlow (interim head in 1966 for Peter Terry); Frederic W. Rhinelander (1966–1977); Charles H. Miller, Jr. (1977–1990); Ryland O. Chapman III (1990–2007); Gregory J. Ventre (2007–2021); and Matthew J. Walsh (2021–present).
In 2014, County Executive Ken Ulman proposed CR-121-2014 in his last weeks of pre-election activities. The bill would finance eight million dollars of an expansion and revitalization of the athletic facilities, a two–story press box, grandstands and restoration of existing tennis courts and athletic center floors. It included the renovation and restoration of buildings and the Historic Manor House.[8]
111 faculty members, 11 assistant teachers; 65% of faculty hold advanced degrees
Student/Faculty Ratio: 6:1
Average Class Size: 15
18 Advanced Placement courses offered
College Placement: 2 full-time college counselors; Class of 2015 SAT average score of 1846; 100% of seniors are accepted to four-year colleges or universities; the class of 2015 was awarded over $5.8 million in merit scholarships
Music and art classes begin at age 2 and continue through twelfth grade. Music classes include: chorus; recorder ensembles; bell choirs; bands; a jazz ensemble; a woodwind trio; a string quartet; Lower, Upper School plays; Middle and Upper School musicals, with 50% of Upper School students participating in the performing arts. There are music rooms in each division and a 350-seat Mulitz Theater with a scenery shop and dressing rooms.
Art classes include: painting, drawing, film and digital photography, ceramics, wood-working, metals, and other specialized classes. Each division has a studio space. The Upper School has separate 2-D and 3-D facilities and a black/white photography lab.
Gallery
Glenelg Manor House, Front View
Glenelg Manor, Rear View, January 2011 showing the original house on the left and the Tudor style addition on the right
Glenelg Manor, Tower, January 2011
Upper School, Glenelg Country School
The Gould Observatory, Glenelg Country School. It houses an EDF Refractor Telescope.
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