Type Private, Coeducational Grades K-12 Mascot Lion Phone +1 212-861-0404 | Head of school Frank J. Carnabuci III Campus size Single Building Number of students 500 Faculty 70 | |
Established 1991 (as Birch Wathen Lenox School)1921 (as Birch Wathen School)1916 (as Lenox School) Enrollment 500 (total)175 (grades 9–12) Address 210 E 77th St, New York, NY 10075, USA Motto Integrity, Civility, Loyalty Similar Brearley School, The Browning School, The Chapin School, Columbia Grammar and Prep, The Dalton School Profiles | ||
The Birch Wathen Lenox School is a New York City college preparatory K-12 school on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. BWL comprises approximately 500 students from all around New York City. The Birch Wathen Lenox School is one of 322 independent schools located in the city.
Contents
History
Birch Wathen Lenox was created in 1991 through the merger of The Birch Wathen School that was founded in 1921 by Louise Birch and Edith Wathen, and The Lenox School founded by Jessica Garretson Finch in 1916. The Lenox School was an all-girls school until 1974. The combined school has 500 students from kindergarten through twelfth grade.
Before its merger with Lenox, Birch Wathen was situated for decades in an ornate French-style building on East 71st Street across from the Frick Collection. Built in 1933 by architect Horace Trumbauer, it was purchased as a private residence in 1992 by now-disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.
Extracurricular activities
Birch Wathen Lenox offers teams in a variety of different sports: soccer, volleyball, swimming, basketball, baseball, softball, cross country, track and field, golf, tennis, and hockey. Athletic teams fall under the Independent Schools Athletic League (New York) or the (Girls Independent School Athletic League), which are leagues in the NYSAISAA (New York State Association of Independent Schools Athletic Association). In 2004, the boys' varsity basketball team won the New York State Championship (the "Independent" title of the New York State Association of Independent Schools Athletic Association). In 2009 they returned to glory winning the ISAL championship. Now the ISAL is now split into two divisions, and BWL is in the Big Apple Division.