Rowland Hall (formerly Rowland Hall-St. Mark's, RHSM) is an independent private school in Salt Lake City, Utah, founded in 1867 and with about 1,000 students between two campuses. Rowland Hall is promoted as the oldest school in Utah, and has students from preschool through high school. Originally a religious school affiliated with the Episcopal Church denomination, Rowland Hall became independent in the 1930s.
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History
Rowland Hall traces its roots to St. Mark's School, which was founded in Salt Lake City by Episcopal Bishop Daniel Sylvester Tuttle in 1867. In support of newly established public schools in the Utah Territory, St. Mark's School was closed in the early 1890s. However its sister school, Rowland Hall, remained open.
Rowland Hall has operated as a school continuously since St. Marks was founded by Bishop Tuttle in 1867. Rowland Hall opened in 1880 as a boarding school for girls from ranches in neighboring states; the school opened on the First Avenue campus in Salt Lake City. The historic building was originally a home built by George D. Watt in about 1862. Rowland Hall is the oldest school in continuous operation in Utah, predating the establishment of public schools in the Utah territory. During the Great Depression of the 1930s, when the Episcopal Diocese of Utah could no longer afford to support the school, graduates and parents assumed financial responsibility and reorganized Rowland Hall as an independent school.
In 1956, St. Mark's re-opened as an independent day school for boys in two historic houses and a so-called tin shed that were located next door to Rowland Hall, sharing the same city block. St. Mark's merged with Rowland Hall in 1964 to become Rowland Hall-St. Mark's, an independent coeducational school.
The Middle and Upper Schools moved to the Lincoln Street Campus in 1984. The Lower and Beginning Schools moved to the McCarthey Campus on Guardsman Way in 2002. The historic campus on First Avenue was sold to the Madeleine Choir School. In 2024, construction began on the Steiner Campus on Sunnyside Avenue, which will unite the school in the fall of 2026.
Campus
Rowland Hall is currently housed on two campuses in Salt Lake City. The Beginning School and Lower School are on the McCarthey Campus, located at 720 Guardsman Way in Salt Lake City, a few blocks from the University of Utah. The Middle School and Upper School are located just over a mile away in a renovated public school building on Lincoln Street.
In 2013, Rowland Hall broke ground on a new campus that will house all divisions: the Richard R. Steiner Campus. Soccer fields on the new campus were finished in the spring of 2014. The 13.2-acre property that will house the new campus for the Middle School, Upper School, performing arts center, and athletics complex is immediately adjacent to the western edge of the existing McCarthey Campus. The Steiner campus is set to open in the fall of 2026.
Sports
The Rowmark Ski Academy was founded in 1982 as part of Rowland Hall's Upper School. It offers a combination of academics and complete year-round competitive ski racing program for its student-athletes, who train at Utah Olympic Park. Nineteen Rowmark athletes have been named to the U.S. Ski Team including Picabo Street, Breezy Johnson, Hilary Lindh, Alice McKennis, Andy Phillips, Erik Fisher, Keely Kelleher and Robert Saunders.
Rowland Hall offers 16 sports in the Upper School and six sports in the Middle School. Rowland Hall’s Upper School is classified as a Division 2A school in Region 17 of the Utah High School Activities Association (UHSAA) with some sports competing in 3A. Middle School student-athletes compete in the Wasatch Athletic Conference.
Notable people
Alumni
James Bauer '86, astronomer
Maggie Behle '99, para-alpine skier
Nancy Borgenicht '60, actress
Katharine Coles '77, poet and educator
Ovidio García '86, alpine skier
Caroline Gleich '03, skier, mountaineer, environmental activist, United States Senate candidate
Breezy Johnson '13, alpine skier
Keely Kelleher '03, alpine skier
Levi Leipheimer '92, cyclist
Hilary Lindh '87, alpine skier
Missy Marlowe '89, gymnast
Gota Miura '88, freestyle skier
Chirine Njeim '03, alpine skier and long-distance runner
Matthew Prince '92, business executive, co-founder and CEO of Cloudflare
Picabo Street, alpine skier
Kristi Terzian '85, alpine skier
Katie Vesterstein '17, alpine skier
Alex Wubbels '94, nurse and former Olympian
Faculty
E. Otis Charles, 8th Bishop of Utah
Daniel S. Tuttle, 13th Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church