Early years The principal investment for St. Albans was
bequeathed by
Harriet Lane Johnston, the niece and
first lady of President
James Buchanan and prominent Washington
socialite. A devout
Episcopalian throughout her life, Lane Johnston added a
codicil to her will in 1899 directing the establishment of a boys school on the grounds of the Washington National Cathedral “in loving memory of [her] sons.” A subsequent codicil four years later raised the endowment to $300,000 (nearly $11 million in 2025 dollars), and stipulated that half of the funds should be used for the building’s construction, and the other half for the education of the
boy choristers at the Washington National Cathedral. Soon after her death in 1903, a site was chosen for the Lane-Johnston Building, and the foundation stone was laid in June 1905. By 1907, construction was virtually complete on the new building, which housed everything—classrooms, the dining hall, the headmaster’s study, and a 40-bed
dormitory—but the chapel: the
Bishop of Washington repurposed an adjacent repository for cathedral furnishings into the Little Sanctuary, adding a bell tower and an archway. St. Albans was largely unaffected by the
Great Depression due to its location in the nation’s capital. Some parents struggled to pay tuition, but the government domination of the city spared many of its residents from the economic slump of the next decade. In fact, faculty and student enrollment grew during this period, both doubling in size by the start of the
Second World War. Lucas also managed to find funding for the Activities Building—designed by
Waldron Faulkner—which housed a basketball court, a
newsroom, carpentry shops, and a library upon its completion at the end of the decade.{{cite book An era of intense political upheaval, the decade also yielded the establishment of the Government Club in 1934, among the oldest continuously operating clubs at the school. Divided into Liberal and Conservative parties, the club regularly debates prominent political issues and hosts speakers of national relevance. Notable members include Vice President
Al Gore ’65, Senator
Michael Bennet ’83, and Representative
Harold Ford Jr. '88, all presidents emeriti of the Liberal party.{{cite news St. Albans, like most institutions, drastically evolved in the wake of the attacks on
Pearl Harbor. By September 1942, 10 faculty members (out of roughly 30) and 125 alumni were already in service, and the school offered new courses in auto mechanics and model aircraft construction. Many students took summer school classes to accelerate their education and attend college early. In the end, 14 alumni died during the war. Although the remainder of the Lucas years were dominated by the necessity of rebuilding the faculty after the war, the headmaster managed to gain substantial financial independence for St. Albans from the Protestant Episcopal Cathedral Foundation (PECF), establishing an independent
board of governors in 1946. Despite the historically hands-off nature of the PECF concerning St. Albans, Lucas sought to avoid future conflict regarding the autonomy of the school to make its own financial decisions. The PECF still retains ultimate decision-making ability—as it does for all institutions on the Close—but it has since very rarely strayed from the verdict of the board.{{cite book Lucas retired in 1949, and asked Charles Martin to succeed him as headmaster. Martin, who taught with Lucas at Episcopal Academy, had left academia a few years earlier to become the rector at an Episcopal church in
Burlington, Vermont, but was persuaded to accept the position at the urging of Lucas and many St. Albans faculty members. The new headmaster was known for his
bulldogs, which replaced the saints as the school’s new mascot over the course of his tenure. Martin immediately set out to expand the school’s facilities. With 375 students crammed into accommodations built for 250, Martin developed plans for a five-story addition to the southeast end of the building housing the Lower School, set to contain science laboratories, new classrooms, an art studio, and an expanded refectory. Although funding and post-war supply shortages resulted in two stages of construction over the course of the 1950s, the addition rounded out today’s True-Lucas Building.{{cite book St. Albans was by no means isolated from the worldly events of the 1950s. The names of several students, in relation to their fathers, were implicated in the
investigations by Senator
Joseph McCarthy. One student, the son of Army Secretary
Robert Stevens, ended up in a fist fight with several of his classmates. Upon the outbreak of the
Korean War, St. Albans also developed contingency plans in the event of a
nuclear attack. Among them was the
crypt of the Cathedral, which was subsequently stocked with emergency supplies.{{cite book
Modernizing St. Albans In 1952, the PECF passed a unanimous resolution calling on the three schools under its jurisdiction to admit “children of all races.” With the exception of a few
white-passing children of foreign diplomats, the student body at St. Albans had been historically all-white; no records indicated that there had ever even been a non-white applicant. Yet, following the Cathedral’s suggestion, St. Albans implemented a gradual schedule of integration in 1954, becoming one of the first independent schools in the region to desegregate. The school’s first black student, Frank Snowden, entered sixth grade in 1957. Although some were concerned about parental backlash regarding integration, St. Albans continued to attract the children of prominent Washington business and political families. At one point, the children of four senators and nine representatives simultaneously attended the school. A few of these influential parents even sat on the board. The school’s track record for college matriculation also boosted its national reputation; thirty-six percent of graduating seniors were accepted to
Harvard University in 1957.{{cite book The school added a new library, theater, and renovated playing fields in the 1960s, accommodating its gradually increasing enrollment. Efforts to expand financial aid also opened the school’s doors to more students of diverse backgrounds. An increasing number of students had divorced parents or lacked ties to the church. In 1970, St. Albans implemented a program called “Risk” to bring in students from underrepresented neighborhoods in the city, now known as the Skip Grant Program. Students were undoubtedly influenced by the social trends of the era, with more willingness to rebuke teachers regarding dress code and academic standards. For a few years, students replaced the traditional prefects with a more democratic student council. Some students and teachers even considered eliminating grades. Student responses to the
Vietnam War, by contrast, were relatively muted because draft eligibility could be postponed by student deferments.{{cite book As the 1970s progressed, St. Albans modernized its curriculum. It offered new courses in
ecology, African history, economics, comparative literature, and more. The school also lowered the number of religious courses required to graduate and offered fewer compulsory chapel services each week. Traditional language, religion, and history courses still remained popular, however, despite the new electives.{{cite book In 1971, NCS proposed to St. Albans that the schools consolidate their administrative structures into “one coeducational school environment … on the Cathedral Close,” citing the benefit of shared resources and increasing competition from well-funded public schools. Martin, wary about the large size of a merged school and wage differences between St. Albans and NCS faculty, expressed reservations. Others on the board were more concerned about losing the character of an all-boys school. Evidently, the two schools never merged, but they expanded their coordinate academic and athletic offerings throughout the decade, building upon the already co-ed chorus and theater programs.{{cite book Martin retired in 1977, with a new gymnasium and academic building—called the Steuart Building—under construction.{{cite book Throughout the 1990s, Mullin managed to significantly raise faculty salaries to the highest median among independent schools in the region, competing with the wages given to local public school teachers. He also renovated the aging Lane-Johnston and True-Lucas buildings. Yet, with donations lethargic and expenditures high, St. Albans entered 1997 with substantial financial difficulties. Combined with other strategic disagreements, the Board of Governors forced Mullin to resign in June of that year. The decision was highly controversial; many faculty members threatened to resign.{{cite book John McCune, longtime history teacher and Upper School head at St. Albans, emerged from retirement to serve as the school’s headmaster between 1997 and 1999. McCune was widely seen as a unifying force, helping to bridge the deep divisions that emerged during the previous few years. He rebuilt the Board of Governors (all members resigned after the Mullin resignation), increased fundraising levels, and restored normality at the student and faculty level.{{cite book Zebulon Vance Wilson was selected in 1999 as the seventh headmaster of St. Albans. In his first few years, Wilson developed a teaching mentorship program for faculty, established the School of Public Service, and expanded elective course offerings. He also spearheaded the school’s two largest
capital campaigns, each of which raised tens of millions of dollars for the school.{{cite book
Recent Years In 2010, St. Albans opened its new Upper School building, Marriott Hall, to celebrate the school’s
centennial. The firm
Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill designed the building, which received considerable media attention.{{cite news In the wake of the confirmation hearings of Supreme Court Justice
Brett Kavanaugh, St. Albans received criticism for sexist slurs in the 2015 edition of
The Albanian, its yearbook. The school has since made efforts to increase accountability.{{cite news In 2018, St. Albans, along with seven other area private schools, announced it was phasing out
Advanced Placement courses from its curriculum by 2022.{{cite news Jason Robinson was appointed headmaster in 2018.{{cite web ==Finances==