History

Spartanburg Day School opened its doors on September 12, 1957, with 35 students attending grades one through five at the Drayton Mill Community Building. In a Spartanburg Herald editorial column written the next year, Dr. Pendleton Gaines wrote, “The Day School was begun last year by a group of energetic Spartanburg citizens who wanted a private school with small classes for their children…. The school is marked by rigorous, old-fashioned drilling in such fundamentals as English, mathematics, science, history and spelling... The Spartanburg Day School is a place where the future of Spartanburg, and indeed America, is being determined.”

School Growth

As the demand for upper grades increased, the founding board members identified a new campus location less than one mile from the school. After receiving his purchase offer, Captain Roy J. Pennell instead sold a19.5 acre tract to the Day School for the sum of one dollar. In October of 1962, the new campus on Skylyn Drive was dedicated. Architect A. Hugh Chapman designed the school to be “extremely functional… with courts between classroom wings so that the best kind of study atmosphere would be maintained without sacrificing utility.” The first graduating class of six members received their diplomas in the Upper School Assembly in May of 1964. The Day School added a pre-school program for five-year-olds in 1967, and a readiness program for four-year-olds in 1974, taking the school to the fourteen grades that it still serves today.

History and Traditions

Under the leadership of the school’s first headmaster, Harry Groblewski, the student body adopted the griffin as the official SDS symbol. The mythological griffin combines an eagle’s head and wings with a lion’s body, representing domination over the earth and the sky. For SDS, the griffin symbolizes the need for individuals to combine intelligence and strength. The school’s motto is “Finis Coronat Opus,” a Latin phrase that translates “The End Crowns the Work.”

Campus Changes

The buildings that comprise the SDS campus have grown in number as the student body has grown. The Seth Milliken Gymnasium was dedicated in December of 1965. General Mark Wayne Clark gave the dedication address. The school officially closed the doors of the Drayton Community building (and two nearby residences that housed the four-year-old and five-year-old kindergartens) in the spring of 1993. The new Lower School Wing was dedicated that fall. This building completed Mr. Chapman’s original design of four wings for the school. In 1999, SDS expanded its campus with the addition of the Mildred Harrison Dent Fine Arts Center.

Spartanburg Day School Alma Mater

We with zeal pursue our studies
Toward a happy mind fulfilled
Recognizing sound achievement
As the rock on which we build.

Finis Coronat Opus
The end crowns the work
Is our steadfast rule.
Finis Coronat Opus
The motto of the Spartanburg Day School.

For our goal we build a spirit
Great in power and clear in form
Bending not to moral whirlwind
Standing fast in every storm.

Finis Coronat Opus
The end crowns the work
Is our steadfast rule.
Finis Coronat Opus
The motto of the Spartanburg Day School.

SDS Fight Song

SDS is marching on
We are proud and we are strong
Let us wave our colors red and blue
Let us cheer for students brave and true
We will fight and we will win
Never ever giving in
No matter where you go
You will always know
Our SDS team is marching on!