MICDS (Mary Institute and Saint Louis Country Day School) history

A sister school for girls, Mary Institute, was founded in 1859 and was named for Eliot's late daughter Mary Rhodes Eliot, who had died at the young age of 17.

Mary Institute alumna Sarah Glasgow Wilson (1876) donates $500,000 and 22 acres of land at the corner of Warson and Ladue Roads to build a country day school campus.

In 1879, it is given the name “Smith Academy” after one of its principal benefactors.

Eliot is named the third Chancellor of Washington University, a post he holds until his death in 1887.

Mary Institute’s first permanent female Principal, Grace Heron (1901), retires.

An amphitheater is constructed with funds donated by one-time Alumnae Association President Margaret Culver Rodemyer (1914).

Smith Academy closed in June 1917, in part due to the proliferation of private elementary schools and public secondary schools in the area.

The School purchases the property in 1918.

In 1928, an alumna donated 22 acres, Washington University added 18 more, and Mary Institute soon had a new campus in the country at Ladue and Warson Roads.

Harriett Bland Green (1933) wins Gold during the Summer Olympics in Berlin, Germany, for the 4×100 meter women’s relay.

Mary Institute alumna and Hollywood box office queen Betty Grable (1934) poses for an iconic “bathing beauty” photograph that becomes the favorite of American GIs serving abroad in World War II. Life Magazine later calls it one of “100 Photos That Changed the World.”

Kindergarten classes are offered at Mary Institute; the first 13-year attendees graduate in 1939.

Country Day’s Musical-Dramatics Club formally adopts the name “Troubadours.” One year later, the “Masque” debuts, specializing in musical comedies and revues; younger boys play all female roles until 1952 when Mary Institute girls take over those responsibilities.

Country Day, teaching grades 5-12, occupied a 55-acre campus in north St Louis County, near the municipal airport, until late 1957, when airport expansion prompted relocation to a large parcel of land adjacent to Mary Institute.

St Louis Country Day School relocated to a new campus next to Mary Institute in Ladue in 1958, and eventually sold its old campus to the airport.

Eliot's grandson, Nobel laureate T. S. Eliot, who attended Mary Institute's kindergarten and Smith Academy, spoke at Mary Institute's centennial in 1959.

“Codasco” plays its first varsity football game against Milwaukee Country Day in what will become an enduring rivalry that continues until 1984.