The Episcopal Academy, founded in 1785, is a private, co-educational school for grades Pre-K through 12 based in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania. Prior to 2008, the main campus was located in Merion Station and the satellite campus was located in Devon. The Newtown Square facility is on a campus. Episcopal Academy has been consistently ranked as a top private school in the nation by various media outlets, including The Wall Street Journal. The Academy is affiliated with the Episcopal Church in the United States of America. History Early years The Episcopal Academy was founded in 1785 by the Rt. Rev. William White at Old Christ Church in Philadelphia as an all-boys school, focusing on classical education in Greek, Latin, religion, mathematics, and business. It was also a pre-missionary school. Trustees included two signers of the Declaration of Independence, as well as bankers, merchants, and ministers. It was founded two years after American Revolutionary War ended. The faculty was composed of notable figures such as Noah Webster Jr., who developed the Webster Dictionaries. Its first campus was located on the east side of Fourth Street and was directed by Rev. John Andrews, D.D., the Academy's first headmaster. When Dr. Andrews and several of faculty members left in 1798 to teach at the University of Pennsylvania, The Episcopal Academy was reconstituted as a free school. In 1816 it became a Second Classical Academy, and a free school again in 1828. During some years, the Academy did not operate as an educational entity. In 1846 the school was reconstituted, this time as a Third Classical Academy; it has operated continuously since. In 1850, the school moved to a building at Juniper and Locust streets. It operated there until 1921, when it moved to a new campus in suburban Merion, Pennsylvania, on the Main Line of the commuter railroad. Female students Female students attended the Academy between 1789 and 1818. It was not until 1974 that the academy implemented a gradual plan for permanent co-education at the school. In 1974, girls were admitted to kindergarten, and then to one higher grade each year thereafter. The class of 1984 was the first co-educational class to graduate from the Academy. New campuses Episcopal Academy was located in Merion, Pennsylvania, from 1921 until 2008, when it moved to Newtown Square, Pennsylvania. In June 1998, the Episcopal Academy Board of Trustees directed the "active pursuit of a large tract