Marlborough School

History

Mary S. Caswell, a young teacher from Maine, founded Marlborough in 1889 as "St. Margaret's School for Girls".

One year later, in 1890, the school moved from Pasadena to the city of Los Angeles. On October 1, 1890, the school opened at the corner of 23rd and Scarff Streets in the West Adams district. Occupying the empty Marlborough Hotel, the school adopted the name of its new location and was renamed the "Marlborough School for Girls".

In 1916, Mrs. Caswell purchased land in the newly opened La Brea tract at a cost of $70,000. After 26 years in the West Adams district, the Marlborough School moved to Hancock Park and opened at its current site on the corner of Third Street and Rossmore Avenue.

Caswell led the school until 1924, when Ada Blake (recruited from Louisville Collegiate School) assumed its leadership. Blake expanded the curriculum substantially and the School gained a reputation for providing young women with an uncommonly rigorous education.

By the 1960s, the School was supported by a foundation and a board of trustees, who hired William Pereira and Associates to design new buildings. Several people within the Los Angeles business community supported the school in the latter half of the 20th century, with local businessmen, including Robert H. Ahmanson and Charlie Munger donating.

In 2014, a sexual misconduct investigation resulted in the imprisonment of a former teacher.

In 2015, Dr. Priscilla Sands was named head of school. Sands came to Marlborough after a career at the Agnes Irwin School and the Springside Chestnut Hill Academy, both independent schools in the Philadelphia area. In 2022, Jennifer Ciccarelli became the head of school after serving in the same role at the Columbus School for Girls in Columbus, Ohio.

Academics

The student-to-teacher ratio at Marlborough School is approximately 8:1, lower than the national high school average of 11:1 and the public school average of 16:1. Over 80% of faculty members have more than ten years of teaching experience and almost 90% have advanced degrees. In recent years, several Marlborough graduates have attended college at elite institutions .

Marlborough ranked sixth in the nation among high schools with the highest standardized test scores according to Business Insider in 2014.

Recent guest speakers at Marlborough include Queen Rania of Jordan, former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, historian Edward L. Ayers, Nobel Prize Laureate Leymah Gbowee, and producer/actor Mindy Kaling.

Notable alumnae

Anne Archer – film and television actress

Carolin Babcock – tennis player

Katherine Bashford – landscape architect

Camilla Belle – film and television actress

Betsy Bloomingdale – philanthropist and fashion icon

Cornelia Butler – museum curator (currently Chief Curator at the Hammer Museum)

Joan Riddell Cook – newspaper journalist and editor, trade union leader, and a founding director of JAWS (Journalism and Women Symposium)

Jacqueline Emerson – actress and singer

Sabaah Folayan – award-winning documentary filmmaker

Olivia Jade Giannulli and Bella Giannulli (transferred after 9th and 10th grade)

Suzanne Goin – chef and restaurateur

Kate Grace – Olympic finalist in the women's 800m

Dolly Green – philanthropist and thoroughbred owner

Sophie Hall-Mochkatel – producer, editor and production designer.

Leila Holterhoff – singer, linguist, psychoanalyst

Marian Osgood Hooker – physician and photographer

Caroline Howard Hume – art collector and philanthropist

Notable faculty and staff

Josh Deu – musician and songwriter, co-founding member of indie rock band Arcade Fire

Gertrude Gogin – former YWCA national secretary for girls' programs, joined the Marlborough faculty in 1938

George Toley – tennis coach (later at University of Southern California)

Pop culture mentions

Marlborough has been mentioned in the shows Ray Donovan and Red Band Society.