Aiken County · Marker 02-51
Aiken Preparatory School
619 Barnwell Ave., N.W., Aiken
Front inscription
Aiken Preparatory School (APS), founded in 1916 as a boarding school for “junior gentlemen” in grades 4-8, was a fixture in the city of Aiken for almost 100 years. Louise “Lulie” Hitchcock (1867-1934), a leader among the wealthy Northerners in the Aiken Winter Colony, founded it to prepare boys for boarding schools in the Northeast. APS emphasized a classical education and physical education.
Reverse inscription
The original home for APS was a house built for U.S. Sen. George Edmunds of Vt. First headmaster Frederick A.M. Tabor was succeeded in 1938 by Harold A. Fletcher, headmaster until 1971. The school added grade 9 in 1960. It merged with Aiken Day School in 1989, added grades 4K-3, and became coeducational, then added a high school in 2000. Aiken Preparatory School was merged with Mead Hall Episcopal School in 2012.