Passion and vision for an independent educational experience were the seeds of our humble beginnings as Evansville Preschool Inc., located in St. Paul’s Episcopal Church on Southeast First Street in 1946. Esther Baumgart, a young educator, and several of her colleagues committed themselves to a unique relationship between student and teacher. Mrs. Baumgart, our first and longest-serving teacher, spent her career teaching our students until her retirement at age 70. Mrs. Baumgart’s name is now memorialized in one of our four houses.

Evansville Preschool Inc. moved into the Austin B. Igleheart house on Sunset Avenue in 1958 and reincorporated as Evansville Day School. Along with the move, the school added primary grades to the preschool curriculum and hired J.B. Davis as the first headmaster.

Over the next years, the Day School grew in program and reputation. Before long, faculty, trustees, and school administrators added high school to the curriculum and, in 1965, the first senior class graduated from Evansville Day School.

With enrollment growing, Evansville Day School set its sight on a new location on the northern outskirts of town. By 1968, the Day School moved to its current location on North Green River Road with a 4,000 square foot classroom space, science labs, library, and expansive wooded space for outside learning.

While the facilities and locations have undergone many transitions, the mission and core values remain constant. We are committed to a student-centered education, developed around each student’s needs in the context of a learning community. We embrace a set of core values that are incorporated into our curriculum on a daily basis. We are proud to say, if the original founders were able to walk into our building today, they would feel the same sense of passion and vision they had in 1946.

Significant Events in the History of EDS