The Grier School was founded in 1853 by of local investors. The first headmaster was the minister of the Birmingham Presbyterian Church. At the time, the small village of Birmingham where the school is located was a thriving commercial center for the region's iron furnaces and mills. In 1856, Lemuel Grier, an educator who had been working as a teacher in a school near Belleville, PA, purchased the school and began operating it with his wife, Sarah, and a fellow teacher, Nancy Jane Davis.

The 1857 graduation was the first under the direction of the Grier family. For the next 100 years, the school operated as a proprietary school owned by the Griers. In 1957, Thomas Grier and his wife Solveig established a non-profit foundation named the Grier Foundation to operate the private school.

The past decade has seen tremendous growth and physical improvements on the Grier campus. The current enrollment of 213 students, represents a 50% increase over the numbers in the mid-1980's. Two large new academic buildings have been completed since January of 2002, a Fine Arts Center and a Science Building.

The Fine Arts Center houses the music program on the first floor. There are three private practice rooms, a band room, a choir room, instrument storage space and a computer-based music composition area. The second floor houses art studio space for four different art faculty, offering classes in jewelry, printmaking, costume design, painting, drawing, design, weaving, watercolor and sculpture.

Maria checks out information about the TOEFL test.

The Science Center houses a classroom used for health and psychology classes. In addition, there are three large lab-style classrooms used by Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Earth Science and Astronomy classes. There is a live animal room adjoining the biology classroom so that animals can be cared for by the students and teachers.

In the spring of 2004, the Rexroad Student Center was opened in a home on the edge of campus that had been donated to the school by Jennifer and Barbara Rexroad, graduates of the Class of 1985. The Rexroad Student Center contains a living room, diningroom, two bedrooms, a study, two bathrooms, a hot tub and in-ground swimming pool.

June, 2006, was the opening month for Grier's lovely new Performing Arts Center. This facility houses a large performance space with theatre seating for 220 people in the audience. For rehearsals, the room can be divided with a moving partition which permits two separate dance or drama classes to be in progress at the same time.

Grier's newest construction is a large Indoor Equestrian Center which covers 22,500 square feet of land at the upper part of the campus. This space provides riders with a fine facility for practicing as well as hosting home equestrian events.

Grier's rural setting provides a lovely backdrop for members of the school community to enjoy nature. Grier's extensive acreage includes numerous fields and mountain trails. There is even a renowned trout fishing stream, the Little Juniata, that flows beside the campus. Whether students plan an outdoor activity or just stop to sit on an outdoor bench, they cannot help but notice that their surroundings are peaceful and beautiful.

The life in a boarding school could be termed a life of voluntary simplicity. If a girl has a riding class, she walks down the hill to the stable. If she has a dance class, she walks over to the dance building. If she is hungry, she walks downstairs from her dorm room to the dining room. In Grier, one has the feeling that she is in a large house, surrounded by a big family.

A self-perpetuating Board of Trustees governs the school. The fourth generation of the Grier family, Douglas Grier Ph.D., currently holds the position as Director of the school. He is still very active in the administration and admissions. Dr. Grier is joined on the administrative team for The Grier School and Grier Summer by Andrew Wilson(Headmaster), Gina Borst (Headmistress) and Marlene Halbedl (Business Manager). Together, the four members of the administration have 92 years of experience working at Grier!

The Grier School celebrated its sesquicentennial in June of 2003. Over 200 alumnae, former faculty and friends of the school took part in the celebration.

The view of the Colonnade from one of the dorm rooms on second floor Main.

Sophia and her father on Parents Weekend.

Here is the rest of our Administrative Staff

The Grier School is accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools and recognized by the Pennsylvania Department of Education. Grier is a member of the National Association of Independent Schools, the Secondary School Admission Test Board, the National Coalition of Girls' Schools and the Pennsylvania Association of Independent Schools.

The Grier School does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion or national origin.

The Grier School is active in the following national and regional organizations:
NAIS - National Association of Independent Schools
NCGS - National Coalition of Girls Schools
TABS - The Association of Boarding Schools
SMABS - Six Middle Atlantic Boarding Schools

The Grier School is located approximately 2 miles south of Tyrone, Pennsylvania, on Route 453. (See Map) The school campus includes more than 300 acres of land on a hillside overlooking the Little Juniata River. The university town of State College, home to Penn State University, is located 25 miles north of the school. To the south, the thriving city of Altoona is just 20 miles away. Click for Travel Information.

Tyrone is a community with about 6,000 residents, located just off Interstate 99. The Grier School adjoins the small Borough of Birmingham, a one square block historic village. Faculty at The Grier School live in houses both on the school campus as well as in the village of Birmingham. In the minds of the students, the entire village of Birmingham is considered "on campus." It is a very safe and quiet setting for the school. The enrollment of 203 students include girls from 14 foreign countries and from 22 states of the USA. A generous financial aid program helps to ensure socio-economic diversity as well. Grier is a friendly place where all members feel at home.