History & Traditions

Prominent citizens meet at the Green Tree Inn on December 6 to found “the Union School,” for the male pupils of the small bilingual village of Germantown. The new school features German and English classes. Hilarius Becker is selected to lead the German School and, in 1761, David James Dove is selected as the English principal. The school secures land on what is later called “Schoolhouse Lane” and builds a stone schoolhouse with its iconic belfry.

British soldiers occupy Germantown during the American Revolution. The Battle of Germantown is fought on the front lawn of GA parent Benjamin Chew’s estate, Cliveden. The schoolhouse is used as a British hospital and soldiers use the weathervane for target practice. Legend tells that the first game of cricket in America was played on the school’s lawn during the occupation.

President George Washington and the first family flee the Yellow Fever epidemic in Philadelphia and briefly live on campus. The president’s step-grandson, George Washington Parke Custis, attends the Academy and the trustees offer the schoolhouse to host Congress. Washington plants a chestnut tree on campus to thank GA for its hospitality.

GA alumni sign up and fight with the Union Army throughout the Civil War. Shortly after President Lincoln’s assassination in 1865, GA changes its colors from red, white, and blue to red, blue, and black to honor the fallen leader. Alternate legend suggests that the school colors were changed because the white stripes on GA’s cricket caps turned yellow in the sun, causing spectators to confuse students with members of the Philadelphia Cricket Club (whose colors are red, black, and yellow). 

Dr. William Kershaw is appointed headmaster. During his tenure, GA becomes one of Philadelphia’s leading schools, graduating U.S. Supreme Court Justice Owen J. Roberts 1891 and Thomas Sovereign Gates, Sr., 1889, president of the University of Pennsylvania. The Patriots football team meets the boys of William Penn Charter School for the first time on the gridiron in 1887, which led to the formation of the Inter-Academic Athletic League by GA math teacher and later athletic director George Hartley Deacon. GA triumphs that year over Charter, 20-6, and the tradition develops into today’s GA/PC Day, the oldest high school football rivalry in the nation. The Belfry Club, now the nation’s oldest, continuous high school drama club, is founded in 1894.

Dr. Kershaw retires after 38 years. Dr. Samuel E. Osbourn is appointed Headmaster and leads GA through the Depression, two world wars, and multiple renovations of the Germantown campus. He is revered by “his boys” and he is affectionately called “the Doc.” Under his leadership, the Academy began investing in its endowment. Organizations like the Academy Club, founded in 1924, are created to keep alumni involved. 

Dwindling enrollment leads GA Headmaster Donald H. Miller to meet with Morris Wister Wood to discuss an available 26-acre parcel in Fort Washington owned by newspaper publisher Robert McLean. The Academy’s trustees resolve to move GA from Germantown to Fort Washington and McLean increases his gift to include 160 acres, but as a condition of accepting the land, GA must become a coeducational school that accepts girl students, with the first class beginning in 1961. GA completes the move to Fort Washington in 1965, thanks to the generosity of many, including Edwin Lavino 1903, Robert McLean, W.F. Harold Braun 1905, William DeKraaft 1895, Donald and Fernanda Wanamaker Leas, Robert McNeil 1932, and Richard S. Cross.

In a year of firsts, GA graduates its first class with girls and its first African American student, Larry Gregory ’68. Gregory’s arrival on campus closes a nearly 150-year gap in students of color on campus. 

Edward R. “Bud” Kast is appointed Headmaster. Under his tenure, GA officially establishes the Middle School in 1976, increases student diversity, oversees the construction of the Lavino Arts Center (built in 1982), and hires a cadre of legendary faculty members that will serve generations of GA students until the next century. 

Jim Connor is appointed Head of School. Under his tenure, GA establishes the Community Partnership School in North Philadelphia in 2006, an Upper School House System modeled after the British public school tradition, and begins plans to rebuild the Fort Washington campus. Thanks to the generosity of the late Robert L. McNeil 1932, the Alter Family, the Korman Family, the Honickman Family, and other dedicated GA families and friends, the Preserve and outdoor athletics facilities open in 2009 and the new Upper and Middle Schools open in 2010. 

Rich Schellhas is appointed Head of School. A German scholar, he introduces the language back into GA’s curriculum, builds international partnerships, oversees the construction of a new Health & Wellness Center and athletic facilities, as well as the new Sapling Center for Early Learning, and grows the student body to its current size of more than 1,220.