Calvert School

Calvert School, founded in 1897, is an independent, non-sectarian, co-educational lower and middle school located in Baltimore, Maryland. Calvert School is a member of the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) as well as the Association of Independent Maryland and DC Schools (AIMS). History Established in 1896 when four Baltimore families hired German school teacher Fraulein Martha Auguste Schurmann to conduct traditional kindergarten classes for their children, Calvert School continues to build upon the foundation laid by Fraulein Schurmann. The first children were taught above Croft and Conlin's drug store. In 1899, Calvert School hired its first Headmaster, Virgil M. Hillyer, a Harvard graduate. Calvert School's current Lower School on Tuscany Road was designed by Hillyer along with Laurence Hall Fowler. Hillyer insisted on larger windows so that rooms would be pleasant to children and let in light and air. His design included details such as having the ends of benches in the assembly hall carved with animal, based on figures used on buildings in the Middle Ages to ward off evil spirits. The lockers were decorated with a pear or jug or a cup and saucer, each to illustrate one of Hillyer's favorite lessons. Many of the details that Hillyer influenced are still present. Timeline of history 1896 – Issac Dixon and his wife start a German kindergarten for four children in the Dixon home on Park Avenue;