Episcopal High School

Episcopal High School, on the hill to the southwest, was founded in 1839 as a boys' preparatory school, one of the first in the South; girls were admitted in 1991. The school was a pioneer in the establishment of student honor codes in preparatory education. In 1861 Union troops occupied the school and used it as a military hospital; the poet Walt Whitman served as a nurse there. Episcopal High School reopened in 1866. The central administration building, now called Hoxton House, was built about 1805 by Elizabeth Parke Custis, a granddaughter of Martha Washington.