Hutchison School, Memphis

In 1902 Mary Grimes Hutchison established a place of learning that today is known as Hutchison School. The Old Love Place on Union Avenue was the site of Miss Hutchison's School for Girls from 1916 until 1925, when increased enrollment encouraged the board of directors to build a new school at 1925 Union Avenue. After Miss Hutchison's retirement in 1947, Dr. and Mrs. William R. Atkinson became the owners of the school. A new library and gymnasium were built, and the school became a nonprofit foundation under the direction of a board of trustees. The demands by parents for excellence in education and the high standards of Hutchison School have increased enrollment from a dozen children to 820 students today. Dr. Robert D. Lynn, headmaster from 1959 to 1979, oversaw the purchase of the fifty-acre campus at 1740 Ridgeway Road and initiated the expansion program of four buildings. Jack B. Stanford, school head from 1979 to 1995, presided over the opening of the Wiener Theater and the Buxton Fine Arts Center. An Early Childhood Center, housing a new program for three-year-olds, was dedicated in 1990. In 1995 Linda MacMurray Gibbs was appointed the fifth head of school in Hutchison's uninterrupted ninety-five-year history. In July 2000 Annette C. Smith became the head of school.

Hutchison is a leading college preparatory school for young women in Memphis and the Mid-South. Its rigorous academic program, its variety of extracurricular activities, its dedication to honor and integrity, and its promotion of the love of learning have given the school its state and national prominence.