On September 28, 1970, 112 students and five teachers gathered in a converted house on a former horse pasture at the intersection of Sardis and Rama Roads, near the Olde Providence neighborhood.
The parents who gathered throughout 1970 to create Providence Day —amid busing that had begun in the 1969-70 school year—said publicly that the busing was their motivation, and they wished to preserve a neighborhood school and avoid the disruptions that long bus rides brought to their children. They were part of a trend, both locally and nationally, of independent schools founded during this era.
Within a year, this new school received approval from the state Department of Public Instruction and began adding grades. A new headmaster, Dr. William Townsend, and new athletic director and coach, Gil Murdock, soon rounded out the school’s launch. The hardworking group of founding parents oversaw the construction of first the Williams Building, then Providence Hall, completed by 1973.
