History

The Grier School was founded in 1853 by the local Presbyterian Church. At the time, the small village of Birmingham, location of the school, was a thriving commercial center for the region’s iron furnaces and mills. After running the school for only three years, the church sold the building and grounds to Lemuel Grier, an educator who had been working as a teacher in a school near Belleville, Pennsylvania.

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 school. A self-perpetuating Board of Trustees was created, which has governed the school ever since.

Today, the fifth generation of the Grier family, Geoffrey Grier, holds the position of Director and plays an active role in administration and admissions. Grier School has retained many traditional aspects of its early boarding school years, while introducing new facilities along the way and evolving to meet the needs of today’s students.