History

St. Mark’s School of Texas is a non-sectarian, college-preparatory, independent day school for boys in grades one through twelve. The School's charter states that it is “designed to afford its students well-rounded physical, intellectual, moral, and religious training and instruction.” The School is intended to be a diverse community of teachers and students who share a love of learning and who strive for high achievement in whatever they undertake.

 

St. Mark’s proudly builds upon a rich heritage of scholarship and excellence in education that dates back nearly to the turn of the century. In 1906, Mr. M.B. Terrill, fresh out of Yale University, came to Dallas, a city of over 70,000 citizens, and established the prestigious Terrill School for Boys, which served both day and boarding students through classes so small, and professor-student relationships so supportive, that teachers almost assumed the role of private tutors and top achievement was assured.

 

In 1913, at Mr. Terrill’s urging, Ela Hockaday moved to Dallas and opened the Hockaday School for Girls. The Hockaday campus on Haskell and the Terrill campus at Peak and Swiss backed up to one another with a simple fence in between. In 1946, Terrill School became The Cathedral School, which in turn merged in 1950 with Texas Country Day School, founded in 1933, to form St. Mark’s School of Texas.

 

Impressive facilities such as the planetarium, observatory, and greenhouse once inspired Time magazine to call St. Mark's the “best equipped day school in the country.” In the sixties and seventies, the School established a financial aid program and initiated innovative teaching methods within the classical curriculum where appropriate. During the eighties, the Board of Trustees developed a forward-looking strategic plan called Goals for St. Mark’s which resulted in dramatic modernization of the School’s physical plant and substantial growth of its endowment. 

 

Today the School continues its tradition of excellence serving more than 900 boys and their families.

St. Mark’s aims to prepare young men to assume leadership and responsibility in a competitive and changing world. To this end, the School professes and upholds certain values. These values include the discipline of postponing immediate gratification in the interest of earning eventual, hard-won satisfaction; the responsibility of defending one’s own ideas, of respecting the views of others, and of accepting the consequences for one’s own actions; and an appreciation for the lively connection between knowledge and responsibility and the obligation to serve.