From modest beginnings, Lovett grew into educational powerhouse

Q: What is the history of The Lovett School?

A: The Lovett School was founded by Eva Edwards Lovett in 1926. The independent K-12 school, which has an enrollment of nearly 1,700 and a campus spanning 100 acres of riverfront property in Fulton County, started inside a home with just 20 students. Headmaster Billy Peebles said Lovett had been a teacher for more than 30 years by the time she opened her own academy. Her hands-on, heavily experiential approach to education differed from most other schools of that period, he said. “I just have to think she was incredibly visionary, creative and gutsy,” Peebles said. “At that point of time,I imagine there would’ve been some resistance to the progressive vision of education, but she pressed on.” Lovett was born in 1873 and was married to William Cuyler Lovett, a Methodist minister. A teacher since 1891, she toyed with the idea of starting her own school — running lessons out of her house from 1916-21 — but it wasn’t until her husband retired from preaching that she chose to fully pursue her dream. In 1926, Lovett’s school opened with first through third grades in a Midtown Atlanta home. By 1930, her school had moved to Myr- tle Street in Midtown and expanded to include grades 4-7, with Lovett’s daughter Evelyn serving as the academy’s second teacher. The school soon outgrew its second home and moved to West Wesley Road in northwest Atlanta in 1936. Lovett taught into her early 80s, ultimately retiring in 1954. Peebles said the lifelong educator, who died in 1965, left behind a legacy that still impacts many of the school’s policies and programs. By 1960, with a student body that had grown to more than 1,000 students, the Lovett School moved to its current location on Paces Ferry Road. The location, stretched along the eastern bank of the Chattahoochee River, is a site filled with historical significance. In the Civil War, Confederate troops were garrisoned on what is now the campus. During Gen. William T. Sherman’s Atlanta Campaign, the Union general stationed some of his troops just across the water in Vinings in response to the Confederates’ position. Wright Mitchell, founder of the Buckhead Heritage Society, said the school has set up historical exhibits to mark these events, which included a few small cavalry skirmishes. The first decade at the Paces Ferry campus was challenging, as the Lovett School struggled to respond to integration. Martin Luther King Jr.’s son, Martin Luther King III, was famously denied admission to Lovett in 1963, a decision that led to a rift among board members and ultimately caused its headmaster to resign in protest. In 1967, the school revised its policy to accept students of all races and religions. The school spent the following three decades expanding its campus, and in 2001, Lovett launched a $65 million fundraising campaign to construct a new lower and upper school, as well as softball fields, an athletic center and other facilities. Today, Lovett has a $58 million endowment, 283 staff members and an alumni base filled with an Olympic gold medalist, a Korean pop superstar and a NASA astronaut, Robert Shane Kim- brough, who graduated in 1985. Kimbrough has spent 189 days in orbit and served as commander the of International Space Station for six months from late 2016 to 2017. Peebles, who is retiring this summer after 14 years at Lovett, said one of his most exciting moments as headmaster took place in the 201617 school year, when Kimbrough managed to video chat with students. “We were able to beam him in live from outer space,” Peebles said. “It was amazing — he even had his Lovett shirt on.”