• Shield Logo

About

History

Founding

St. Albans opened its doors to 34 students in the fall of 1909. A bequest of Harriet Lane Johnston (1830-1903), the niece of President James Buchanan who also served as his first lady given his bachelor status, had provided for the establishment of an all-boys school and for a scholarship fund for choristers at the future Washington National Cathedral.
 
The campus of the National Cathedral School for boys, as the school was first known, consisted of the Lane-Johnston Building, which housed everything: a 40-bed dorm, classrooms, the refectory, and the headmaster’s study and apartment. On October 6, 1909, the bishop deemed that the Little Sanctuary, then a repository for furnishings for the future Cathedral as well as a worship space, should serve as the school’s chapel.

The Founder

Born in Mercersburg, Pa., in 1830 and orphaned at the age of eleven, Harriet Lane was raised by her bachelor uncle James Buchanan (she called him “Nunc”). When Buchanan became secretary of state, she attended Georgetown Visitation Convent; when he served as minister to Great Britain, she traveled abroad with him; and when he became the 15th president of the United States in 1857, she became his first lady.
 
Harriet Lane Johnston died on July 6, 1903, at the Cassatt cottage at Narragansett Pier, Rhode Island. Her will of 1895, as modified by two codicils, one of 1899 and the other dated only a few months before her death, left $300,000 to the Protestant Episcopal Cathedral Foundation of the District of Columbia to establish a school for boys—“in loving memory of our sons.” Half the money was to be used for the school building, to be “begun” within six months after the Cathedral Foundation received the bequest and to be known as the Lane-Johnston Building. The other half was to be invested for the maintenance of the school. The will added, “It is my wish that the said school shall be conducted and the said fund applied to provide specially for the free maintenance, education and training of choirboys, primarily for those in the service of the Cathedral.”

Headmasters of St. Albans

  • Earl Lamont Gregg

    St. Albans’ first headmaster, Earl Lamont Gregg, served from 1909 to 1915.
     
    Born outside Dayton, Ohio, on May 6, 1878, Mr. Gregg graduated from the University of Michigan in 1900 and began teaching at Racine College, in Wisconsin, before becoming head of the grammar school affiliated with that Episcopal college.
    Read More

  • William Howell Church

    William Howell Church, St. Albans’ headmaster from 1915-1929, descended on St. Albans “like a tiger,” according to the school’s history book. He instituted college board exams and abandoned athletic scholarships. He hired, and he fired.
    Read More

  • Rev. Albert Hawley Lucas

    The Rev. Albert Hawley Lucas (familiarly known as “Chief”), served in the Marines during World War I before becoming vice principal of Philadelphia’s Episcopal Academy and, in 1929, headmaster of St. Albans.
    Read More

  • Rev. Charles S. Martin

    St. Albans thrived under the Rev. Charles S. Martin, headmaster from 1949 to 1977. The 1950s and 1960s were especially fertile years. Although Martin insisted the school was preparing boys “for the kingdom of heaven, not the kingdom of Harvard,” a high percentage of students headed to the Ivy League.
    Read More

  • Mark Hill Mullin

    From 1977 to 1997, Mark Hill Mullin sustained the excellent quality of education at St. Albans. He also strived to prepare students for a rapidly changing world. To accomplish this, the school began offering Russian and Japanese classes. Student exchange programs and travel fellowships gave students opportunities to study abroad.
    Read More

  • John Foster “Jack” McCune

    Born in Pittsburgh (and ever a Pirates fan), John Foster “Jack” McCune  graduated from Princeton University in 1952 and then served in the Army’s Counter Intelligence Corps. After briefly attending law school, he decided teaching was his calling. He taught at Choate, and, in 1966, after receiving a master’s degree in liberal studies from Wesleyan University, he came to St. Albans as a history teacher. 
    Read More

  • Vance Wilson

    Vance Wilson served as the seventh headmaster of St. Albans School from 1999 to 2018.
     
    Born in North Carolina and raised in Tampa, Fla., he attended Berkeley Preparatory School and earned his B.A. in English from Yale University, where he was a student-athlete and was nominated for a Rhodes Scholarship. 
    Read More
1/7
Located in Washington D.C., St. Albans School is a private, all boys day and boarding school. For more than a century, St. Albans has offered a distinctive educational experience for young men in grades 4 through 12. While our students reach exceptional academic goals and exhibit first-rate athletic and artistic achievements, as an Episcopal school we place equal emphasis upon moral and spiritual education.