Schools of Berwyn Heights

Pine Grove Academy was the first public school to serve the area, opening in 1889 about a year after the first homes were built in Charlton Heights, later incorporated as the Town of Berwyn Heights. The one-room school, made mostly from pine logs, stood on the property where the Friends Community School now stands, had no running water, and was heated only by a pot-bellied stove, while teacher Benjamin Pritchard taught all subjects to all grade levels. By 1920 it was too small for Berwyn Heights' growing population, and after parents petitioned the Prince George's County school system for a new school, resident John J. Kleiner II sold land to the school system for only $400 to make construction possible. A new two-room school opened on Keleher Avenue, now 5814 Ruaton Street, in 1922, with Principal Mary Culberton and teacher Kathryn Stein teaching grades 1 through 3 in one room and grades 4 through 7 in the other. In the early 1950s, as the postwar baby boom swelled enrollment, grades 4 through 7 were moved to nearby Branchville School, and Berwyn Heights parents again pressed for a new elementary school, with the PTA and the Berwyn Heights Civic Association carrying out a door-to-door census of resident children to prove the need. Their effort succeeded when the school system bought the former St. Ann's Orphanage property at the top of Pontiac Street and opened a state-of-the-art six-room school with an auditorium there in 1958. As Prince George's County Public Schools enrollment declined during the 1970s, Berwyn Heights Elementary School was closed in 1981 despite vigorous protests from Berwyn Heights parents and Town Council, and after the county declared the building surplus, the State of Maryland bought it for $1.00. From 1987 to 2001 the facility housed the Maryland Fire & Rescue Institute of the University of Maryland. By the early 1990s, as the children of baby boomers were flooding back into schools, Berwyn Heights resident Ann Harris Davidson led a successful campaign to reopen the town's elementary school, organizing families with young children, winning the support of elected officials, and heading the Town Council's Berwyn Heights Education Advisory Committee. Over six years the committee helped bring about the school's return, again using a door-to-door census that found 360 school-age children living in Berwyn Heights were attending 61 different schools or were home-schooled. A modernized and enlarged Berwyn Heights Elementary School reopened in August 2002 to community cheers, attracted families, revitalized the town, and later honored Davidson with the Ann Harris Davidson Community Service Award, given each year to an outstanding student volunteer.

Berwyn Heights, Maryland · United States