Porter-Gaud was formed in July 1964 from the merger of three schools: The Porter Military Academy (founded 1867), the Gaud School for Boys (founded 1908), and the Watt School (founded 1931). The legal name of the institution remains The Porter Academy.
The Porter Military Academy was formed in 1867 by the Reverend Dr. Anthony Toomer Porter, an Episcopal priest, to educate boys orphaned during the Civil War. Established on the scholastic philosophy of William Augustus Muhlenberg (1796–1877) as the Holy Communion Church Institute in 1867, the school was later known as Porter Academy and eventually Porter Military Academy. Porter hired John Gadsden as the academic principal. Gadsden was prepared in Dr. Muhlenberg's famous school on Long Island and brought "The Doctor's" successful principles to the new school in his home-town of Charleston. [2]
William Steen Gaud established the Gaud School in 1908. In 1948, Berkeley Grimball purchased the school from Gaud and over the course of 16 years increased the enrollment to nearly 150 as the Gaud School attained a position of eminence among Southern preparatory schools. Ann Carson Elliott, Berkeley Grimball's mother, founded the Watt School in 1931, a coeducational primary school, which served as a feeder school for the Gaud School.
In 1964, the original Porter Military Academy campus in downtown Charleston was sold to the Medical University of South Carolina, and the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad (now CSX) donated the current 88-acre (360,000 m2) campus on Albemarle Point. In July 1964, the three schools merged and dropped the military program. The new entity, Porter-Gaud School, opened its doors to 435 male students in grades 1–12. As modern school facilities began taking shape across the Ashley River on the property donated by the railroad, classes met at the old Porter campus.
Porter-Gaud opened its new campus in September 1965 with an enrollment of 469 day students. In the following year it became one of the first schools in the South to adopt an open admissions policy. In 1972, the school admitted female students into the first three grades. By the fall of 1975 the program had been accelerated to include girls at all levels of the school, although Porter-Gaud has retained close ties to its sister school, Ashley Hall.[3]
In May 2008, Porter-Gaud acquired The O'Quinn Schools, a local preschool that dates back to the early 1970s, with the intention of maintaining the names of the schools, faculties, programs, and tuition policies.[4]
Porter-Gaud School graduates an average class size of 100 per year.
On October 25, 1867, while in Magnolia Cemetery, mourning the death of one of his sons, Anthony Toomer Porter, rector of Holy Communion Church, became convinced that he should start a school. Many of his son's friends could no longer attend school, as their families had been impoverished by the war. By December of that year, Porter had founded the Holy Communion Church Institute, using church facilities.
In 1879 the old Federal Arsenal on Ashley Avenue, a block from the church, was put up for sale. Porter went to Washington and secured the help of President Hayes and Gen. Sherman (Porter had saved the life of an Officer in Sherman's army during the war) to convince Congress to lease the property to the school for $1.00 a year.
Adapting the military buildings to school use, it was fitting that the school became known as Porter Military Academy. Both boarding school and day school, students came from towns and farms throughout the Low Country, and eventually from upper South Carolina, other states, and even other countries. From its beginning, the school accepted students from all faiths. It was and is affiliated with the Episcopal Church, but is owned by its Board of Trustees, with the Bishop as an ex officio member. One of the primary goals of the school was, and is, character development, summarized in the motto on the PMA crest: WATCH: Words, Actions, Thoughts, Character, and Habits.
Porter developed a broad curriculum, ranging from Greek to woodworking to athletics. The school day began with bugle call, breakfast, and chapel. Facilities ranged from a dormitory, an infirmary, library, classroom buildings, rifle range, tennis courts, a parade ground, and the notorious "bull ring" where detention students were made to march. Porter Military Academy boasted a naval program, including several surplus Navy vessels. The "Porter Navy" was discontinued, however, after a fire destroyed the ships. Porter also claimed one of the first high school football teams, one of which in a 1913 scrimmage held the Citadel to a 0 to 0 score.[5]
The Gaud School for Boys
Gaud, born in Canada, had a master's degree from the University of Chicago, and had been headmaster of Lawrence Academy in Groton, Massachusetts. After marrying a Charleston woman, he founded the Gaud School in 1908 with 34 students. In 1912 he turned the school over to others in order to teach at Phillips Exeter and then to serve during World War I. He returned to Charleston in 1919 and again took over his school.
The school was first located in a building behind his home at 25 3/4 Legare Street, but in 1920 it relocated to 77 Church Street. From 1928 until 1941 and again from 1957 to 1961, the school was located at 90–92 East Bay Street on the corner of Adger's Wharf. In 1949-50 there were some 20-25 students in three grades in a 1-room school on East Bay Street. The school was also located for a time at 77 Church Street and at 79–81 East Bay Street.
Upon Gaud's return to Charleston in 1919, his school essentially became a place to prepare Charleston boys for successful entry into New England boarding schools. Its high academic standards meant that Gaud often had a waiting list of applicants. The number of his students ranged from ten to eighteen, and these were divided into two grade levels in his one schoolroom, one class studying while the other recited. After Watt's school began in 1931, it was customary for boys to attend her school through the third grade, and then fit into Gaud's school, which went through the eighth grade. Gaud let his students take a break in the school day and go to the nearby playground, where one of the games was called "Gaud ball" – rather like baseball without a bat.
In 1948 Gaud retired at age 82 and his equity in the school was purchased by Berkeley Grimball for $125.00. Grimball began to build his school, a grade at a time, until he had about 180 students. The building on East Bay Street became too small for the growing school. In 1961 Grimball bought the Rutledge mansion on Broad Street, where the students had classes until 1964. Grimball continued Gaud's high academic standards, at first teaching many of the subjects himself. As the school grew, he added teachers such as Maurice McLaughlin, who taught Latin and Spanish; history teacher Rear Admiral (Ret.) R. Bentham Simmons, a survivor of the attack on Pearl Harbor; French teacher Charles Winter, a refugee from Hungary; and Admiral Florence, who taught math. Grimball was a particularly fine teacher of literature and history. The school lacked athletic facilities, but Grimball at first used the East Bay Street playground, especially for touch football and for softball, at recess and for voluntary extra sports on Monday and Thursday afternoons, and later took boys out to practice on his tennis courts on James Island; soccer was also added to the activities.[3]
The Watt School
Mrs. Watt was Grimball's mother, so running a school came naturally for him. After her husband died, she began her school in 1931 in the depth of the Great Depression. Her first classes were held in the dining room of her Broad Street home, but she had a small classroom building constructed at the rear of her property. The reputation of her school grew among her neighbors and among those living south of Broad Street. Many of her graduates went on to the Gaud School, particularly after Grimball became headmaster there. Most of the children walked to school and then walked home for the traditional 2:00 p.m. dinner. It was a homey and welcoming school and very "Charlestonian."[3]
The O'Quinn Schools
Founded in the early 1970s by Linda O'Quinn and her daughter Anna, the pre-school quickly became known for its personality and southern charm. The school quickly rose to prominence as the regions major feeder for many private schools and expanded to a second campus. Today the O'Quinn School is an important part of Porter-Gaud, maintaining two campuses on James Island and in Mt. Pleasant.[6]
Hervey Allen – author from Pennsylvania; works include: Anthony Adverse, Israfel,Action at Aquila, and The Forest and the Fort
DuBose Heyward – author best known for his 1924 novel Porgy; co-author of the non-musical play adapted from the novel, which became the foundation of George Gershwin's opera Porgy and Bess
Benjamin Hutto – music director and choirmaster at the school during the 70s through the 90s, during which time the Porter-Gaud Choir recorded several albums
From 1972 to the early 1980s, physical science teacher and athletic advisor Eddie Fischer sexually abused at least twenty students at Porter-Gaud and nineteen at other Charleston, SC schools. In 1982, in response to complaints about Fischer's sexual behavior, the administration of Porter-Gaud asked Fischer to resign. Both Principal James Bishop Alexander and Headmaster Berkeley Grimball then helped Fischer to get a job at another private school, where he continued to abuse. In April 1999, Fischer was sentenced to twenty years in prison for thirteen sexual-abuse charges.
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In October 2000, following Fischer's incarceration, a court determined that former Principal James Bishop Alexander and Headmaster Berkeley Grimball knew of the ongoing abuse by Fischer.[9] The jury deemed both negligent in stopping the abuse. Neither Principal Alexander nor Headmaster Grimball were ultimately convicted, as each died prior to the court concluding.[9] However, the court awarded the plaintiffs $105 million.
The scandal was the subject of a 2018 documentary, What Haunts Us. The film suggests the suicides of six graduates of the 1979 class were due to the mental impact of being sexually abused by Fischer.[9] The colluding culture of the school with board members ignoring persistent pleas to be heard by one victim, who wrote to all the board members who never responded or discussed it, revealed that these young victims were trapped within a culture where the surface of respectability had to be maintained at all costs.[9] Porter-Gaud school did make a public apology but not to the victims themselves.[10]
