The Madeira School | |
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Address | |
8328 Georgetown Pike , 22102 United States | |
Coordinates | 38°57′55″N77°14′6″W / 38.96528°N 77.23500°W |
Information | |
Other names |
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Type | Private, day and boarding college-preparatory school |
Motto | Latin: Festina lente (Make haste slowly) |
Established | 1906 |
Founder | Lucy Madeira Wing |
NCES School ID | 02063874 [1] |
Head of school | Christina Kyong |
Teaching staff | 50.3 (on an FTE basis) [1] |
Grades | 9–12 |
Gender | Girls |
Enrollment | 321 (2017–2018) [1] |
Student to teacher ratio | 6.4 [1] |
Campus size | 376 acres (1.52 km2) |
Campus type | Fringe rural [1] |
Color(s) | Red and White |
Nickname | Snails |
Website | www |
The Madeira School (simply referred to as Madeira School or Madeira) is an elite, [2] private, day and boarding college-preparatory school for girls from grades 9-12 in McLean, Virginia, United States. The school has 336 students. [3]
It was established in 1906 by Lucy Madeira Wing.
Founded by Lucy Madeira Wing (1873–1961) in 1906, the school was originally located on 19th Street near Dupont Circle in Washington, D.C. In 1931, it was moved some 12 miles west to the Northern Virginia suburb of McLean. [4]
Buildings on the 1931 campus included Main, the dining hall, Schoolhouse, East, West, and North South Dorms, The Land, the Annex (infirmary), and the two gatehouses at the entrance to the Oval. Buildings added later include the Chapel/Auditorium, the indoor riding ring and Gaines Hall, the science building, a renovated and expanded dining hall, Hurd Sports Center, and Huffington Library. [5]
In 1973, the body of 14-year-old student Natalia Semler was found bound and beaten on the school grounds. [6] [7] John Gilreath, who had been convicted of a sexual assault at the school two years earlier, was convicted of her murder. [8]
In 1980, then-headmistress Jean Harris was convicted of the murder of Herman Tarnower. [9] [10] [11]
The demographic breakdown of the 310 girls enrolled in 2013–2014 was: [12]
The campus is on 376 acres (1.52 km2) overlooking the Potomac River (McLean, Virginia) and consists of 34 separate buildings.
The Madeira school has had many disputes over the use of its land. In 1966, Fairfax County proposed to turn 208 of Madeira's 376 acres (1.52 km2) into public parkland. [13] In 1991, Madeira gave a trail easement along Georgetown Pike and $89,000 for construction so that hikers could walk the Potomac Heritage Route without entering the main area of the campus. [14] However, this trail was never completed by the park officials. In 2008, the Fairfax County government attempted to obtain from Madeira an easement near the Potomac River to permit the completion of a 100-mile (160 km) loop of walking trails as a condition of approval for the school's proposed expansion plans. This one-mile (1.6 km)-long trail section through Madeira's property would connect the county's Scott's Run Park to Great Falls National Park. The Madeira School declined this easement, citing concerns about safety and environmental impacts. [15] [16]
Fairfax County, officially the County of Fairfax, is a county in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It is part of Northern Virginia and borders both the city of Alexandria and Arlington County and forms part of the suburban ring of Washington, D.C., the nation's capital. The county is predominantly suburban in character with some urban and rural pockets.
Great Falls is a census-designated place in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States. The population as of the 2010 census was 15,427, an increase of 80.5% from the 2000 census.
McLean is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States. McLean is home to many diplomats, military, members of Congress, and high-ranking government officials partially due to its proximity to Washington, D.C., the Pentagon and the Central Intelligence Agency. It is the location of Hickory Hill, the former home of Ethel Kennedy, the widow of Robert F. Kennedy. It is also the location of Salona, the former home of Light-Horse Harry Lee, the Revolutionary War hero.
Tysons, also known as Tysons Corner, is a census-designated place (CDP) in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States, spanning from the corner of SR 123 and SR 7 (Leesburg Pike. It is part of the Washington metropolitan area and located in Northern Virginia between McLean and Vienna along the I-495.
Paw Paw is a town in Morgan County, West Virginia, United States. The population was 410 at the 2020 census. The town is known for the nearby Paw Paw Tunnel. Paw Paw was incorporated by the Circuit Court of Morgan County on April 8, 1891, and named after pawpaw, a wild fruit that grows in abundance throughout this region. Paw Paw is the westernmost incorporated community in Morgan County, and the Hagerstown-Martinsburg, MD-WV Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Northern Virginia, locally referred to as NOVA or NoVA, comprises several counties and independent cities in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. The region radiates westward and southward from Washington, D.C. With 3,238,706 people according to 2022 Census estimates, it is the most populous region of Virginia and the Washington metropolitan area.
The Potomac Heritage Trail, also known as the Potomac Heritage National Scenic Trail or the PHT, is a designated National Scenic Trail corridor spanning parts of the mid-Atlantic region of the United States that will connect various trails and historic sites in Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and the District of Columbia. The trail network includes 710 miles (1,140 km) of existing and planned sections, tracing the natural, historical, and cultural features of the Potomac River corridor, the upper Ohio River watershed in Pennsylvania and western Maryland, and a portion of the Rappahannock River watershed in Virginia. The trail is managed by the National Park Service and is one of three National Trails that are official NPS units.
The Spence School is an American all-girls private school in New York City, founded in 1892 by Clara B. Spence.
The George Washington Memorial Parkway, colloquially the G.W. Parkway, is a 25-mile-long (40 km) parkway that runs along the south bank of the Potomac River from Mount Vernon, Virginia, northwest to McLean, Virginia, and is maintained by the National Park Service (NPS). It is located almost entirely within Virginia, except for a short portion of the parkway northwest of the Arlington Memorial Bridge that passes over Columbia Island within the District of Columbia.
The Brearley School is an all-girls private school in New York City, located on the Upper East Side neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan. The school is divided into lower, middle and upper schools, with approximately 50 to 60 students per grade.
State Route 193 is a primary state highway in the U.S. state of Virginia. Known as Georgetown Pike, the state highway runs 11.79 mi (18.97 km) from SR 7 in Dranesville east to SR 123 in Langley. SR 193 passes through Great Falls and meets Interstate 495 (I-495) in McLean. The state highway was designated the first Virginia Byway for its scenic value in 1974.
The Potomac School is a coeducational, college-preparatory independent day school located on a wooded 90-acre campus in McLean, Virginia, United States, three miles (5 km) from Washington, D.C. Average class size is 15-17 students. For the 2021-22 school year, Potomac enrolled 1,066 students in grades K-12. The school has four divisions – Lower School, Middle School (4-6), Intermediate School (7-8), and Upper School (9-12) – each providing a balanced educational experience.
Jean Struven Harris was the headmistress of The Madeira School for girls in McLean, Virginia, who made national news in the early 1980s when she was tried and convicted of the murder of her ex-lover, Herman Tarnower, a well-known cardiologist and author of the best-selling book The Complete Scarsdale Medical Diet. The case is featured on the TV show Murder Made Me Famous.
Ascham School is an independent, non-denominational, day and boarding school for girls, located in Edgecliff, an Eastern Suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
Difficult Run is a 15.9-mile-long (25.6 km) tributary stream of the Potomac River in Northern Virginia in the United States. The area has had many historical uses dating back to the early 1800s. Today, the area is used recreationally by visitors interested in the watershed's variety of options including hiking, biking, fishing, boating, climbing, and bird watching. The wildlife at Difficult Run is vast as 163 different species can be seen depending on the season. There are 41 different soil types found on the trail and alongside the stream. The stream is part of the greater 57.7- square-mile Drainage basin, or watershed, located in the north-central portion of Fairfax County and drains directly to the Potomac River.
Leesylvania State Park is located in the southeastern part of Prince William County, Virginia. The land was donated in 1978 by philanthropist Daniel K. Ludwig, and the park was dedicated in 1985 and opened full-time in 1992.
Herman Tarnower was an American cardiologist and co-author of the bestselling diet book The Complete Scarsdale Medical Diet (1978), which promoted a high-protein low-carbohydrate fad diet known as the Scarsdale diet. On March 10, 1980, just eight days before his 70th birthday, Tarnower was shot dead by Jean Harris. Harris was convicted of his murder at trial in White Plains, New York, in 1981.
Alexandria is an independent city in the northern region of the Commonwealth of Virginia, United States. It lies on the western bank of the Potomac River approximately 7 miles (11 km) south of downtown Washington, D.C. Alexandria is the third largest "principal city" of the Washington metropolitan area which is part of the larger Washington-Baltimore combined statistical area.
Julia Evans Reed was a Mississippi Delta born author, journalist, columnist, speaker, and socialite. Reed wrote several books on cooking, entertaining, and affluent southern lifestyle and culture.
The following is a timeline of the history of the unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) of McLean, Virginia, USA.