A Special Campaign to Refresh Our Home Base
In the historic building that’s been our schoolhouse for more than 30 years, Parkmont students find a sense of security that allows them to challenge themselves and grow. We are indeed lucky to have a beautiful home so suited to our program.
Today, we invite you to join the Parkmont Schoolhouse Project, a special campaign to fund the first major improvements to our building’s interior since 1991. With your help, we will update our space to better meet the needs of today’s Parkmont students and the next generation.
Our overall goal for the campaign is $300,000. A current Parkmont family has generously pledged to match up to $150,000, and we are turning to you to help us raise $150,000 to meet that match. For this special, one-time campaign, we ask that you consider doubling your usual gift. Please help us reach this ambitious goal on behalf of our students!
The Parkmont Schoolhouse Project Will Provide
- All newly upgraded classrooms (completed)
- A new science lab
- A new computer room
- A new kitchen
- Refreshed bathrooms
- Fresh paint in cheery Parkmont colors (completed)
- New Carpet (completed)
- New lighting (completed)
- New Classroom technology (completed)
- New wall displays (completed)
Gifts from an angel donor allowed us to begin work in 2023. Our students have been thrilled with the updates so far!
There’s a little bit of magic that happens here that has to do with our building. The schoolhouse is more like a home, and kids feel relaxed and comfortable as a result.
Parkmont staff member
Our Schoolhouse’s History
Farms, mills, and dairies defined the neighborhood when our schoolhouse was built in 1911 as a private family home. The city had extended 16th Street past our front door only a year earlier, and our neighborhood, Crestwood, wouldn’t be named for another 27 years. The house’s terracotta roof tiles, deep windows, and porticoed front porch were the height of chic at the time, and the neighborhood would soon be dotted with other homes for Washington’s growing population.
Over the decades, 4842 16th Street did turns as both an embassy and a church, and artifacts from its past are among students’ favorite features. The rose window in the commons, for example, was installed while it was St. Andrew’s Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The window now draws students to study and socialize in the tinted afternoon light it casts across the commons.
The Parkmont Schoolhouse Project continues our building’s evolution, preserving its historic details while aligning the interior spaces with modern needs.
- 1911: 4842 16th Street is built as a private family home
- 1942 The Republic of Haiti buys the building to be its embassy
- 1958: St. Andrew’s Ukrainian Orthodox parish buys the building and converts it to a church
- 1972: Parkmont School opens in McLean, VA
- 1973: Somerset School opens in Washington, DC
- 1977: Parkmont moves to Georgetown
- 1982: Parkmont moves to Hearst Hall at the National Cathedral
- 1984: Somerset buys 4842 16th Street NW
- 1985: Parkmont moves to Temple Sinai
- 1991: Parkmont and Somerset merge. Parkmont moves into the Somerset building, and Parkmont School, grades 6-12, reopens that fall.
- 2022: Parkmont celebrates 50 years!
- 2024: Public launch of the Parkmont Schoolhouse Project
I love sitting in the window seats on the landing to work or just hang out.
12-grade studentThe bright colors keep me energized in class!
9th-grade studentI really like the changes. If the workspace is nice, it motivates me to learn.
12th-grade studentWhat is special about the building are the many nooks and out of the way spaces, which many students use to decompress and rest. It allows me to give students space to work on projects or group assignments.
Parkmont teacherI like how (the building) has so many twists and strange places. It feels far more interesting and engaging than just a linear hallway with rooms off each side.
Parkmont teacher
How to Give
Thank you for supporting the Parkmont Schoolhouse Project! We hope to raise $150,000, more than twice what we typically receive through Annual Giving. Please consider doubling your usual gift. Thank you!
If you have questions or would like to discuss donating securities or structuring a multi-year gift, please call (202) 726-0740, or send an email to
Christy Halvorson Ross
Director of Institutional Advancement
[email protected]
Siobhan Roth
Director of Communications
[email protected]