Berkshire Country Day School - History

History

BCD was founded in 1946 by a group of local parents who wanted to give their children a certain style of education which they felt was not available in the area. It began with 12 students in one building on the campus of the Lenox School for Boys, an Episcopal all-boys boarding school. Initially, the school covered only grades 1-6 and tuition ranged from only $150 to $310, depending on the grade. In 1957, the school expanded to include a seventh and eighth grade and kindergarten and preschool, and moved into two new buildings. The school's main building, housing the pre-k through sixth grade, was moved to the Starks' former family home on Walker Street in Lenox. The seventh and eighth grade, on the other hand, were housed in Bassett Hall, a building close by, which is now Kemble Inn. BCD's enrollment soared from 58 students in 1958 to 183 in 1963.

Then, in 1963, the school purchased its current campus, the Brook Farm Campus. Initially, the campus was only used by the younger students for classes, while the older students continued using the Walker Street Building, but frequenting the new campus for sports and co-curricular activities. However, this arrangement lasted for only a year, as the Walker Street building was destroyed in a fire. In the academic year 1967-'68, the school again expanded to include a ninth grade. In 2000, the school opened Berkshire Country Day Secondary School (BCD2s), a high school division of the school consisting of grades 9-12. BCD's ninth grade was separated from BCD and became a part of BCD2s. The high school was located on Winthrop Campus, the Tanglewood Summer Institute which the school rented from Tanglewood during the academic year. However, in June 2007 at the end of the academic year, BCD2s was closed—although the ninth grade class option was kept and added back to the BCD student body. Currently the school solely resides at its Brook Farm campus, serving students in Pre-K through ninth grade. Even though the Winthrop Campus is no longer used by the school, BCD is still permitted by Tanglewood to use the Winthrop Theater for its upper school theater productions, talent show, and film festival.