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For its first half century the school was simply The Kingsley
School. It had been established in the Back Bay in 1938 by Edith
Kingsley and her friend, Helen Loud. The two friends established
a small school specializing in "remedial reading," the
first of its kind in the United States. Edith was the Director
of the school for its first decade, and turned over the reins
to her son, Lowell, in 1948.
Edith's husband, Howard, a Boston University professor, provided
special expertise in the psychology of learning. Their children,
Howard, Elaine, and Lowell (after completing his graduate studies)
joined the faculty, as did Charlotte, Lowell's wife. The school
was almost a "family school" in its early days.
The elementary and junior high program was "ungraded"
and team-teaching was a feature, so that teachers could adapt
learning tasks to the developmental and personal needs of individual
children. The faculty was paying attention to Montessori methods
at least two decades before the school became "Kingsley Montessori.”
The school had three homes before moving to its present sites,
two on Marlborough and one on Beacon Street. It was at 397 Marlborough
Street for almost three decades. Its students tended to be commuters
from the suburbs of Boston. In the mid-seventies, Lowell Kingsley
and teacher/development officer, Ted Scott, raised $100,000 in
a capital campaign and purchased the "Saltonstall home"
at 30 Fairfield Street.
In the mid-eighties the Back Bay Montessori Preschool was housed
in the building on Dartmouth Street owned by the Thom Clinic for
Children. It needed more space. Linda Roach, its Director, and
Renee DuChainey-Farkes, then Chairperson of the Board of Trustees,
found that Kingsley School had some room in its "new"
building, and brought the children to 30 Fairfield Street, where
they provided a preschool base for the school's elementary enrollment.
Linda's enthusiastic parents and bright, happy children soon established
themselves as the "cutting edge" of the newly combined
student bodies. A Mission Committee was set up, with parents,
teachers and trustees contributing, and the decision to go "all-out
Montessori" quickly followed.
Lowell Kingsley retired as Head in the mid-eighties and as Chair
of the Board in the late eighties. He was succeeded as Board Chair
by Renee DuChainey-Farkes, who as a parent at the Back Bay Montessori
had been instrumental in relocating the school. She served as
Board Chair for a decade before she became the Head of School.
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