Reverend James Lloyd Breck, for whom the school is named, arrives in Minnesota
History
Reverend Henry Whipple becomes the first bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Minnesota
The Breck Mission and Farm School is incorporated on December 9
School opens with 19 students; nine boys and 10 girls
Breck School Opens its doors in Wilder, Minnesota to educate the children of immigrant farmers. It is named for pioneer missionary the Reverend James Lloyd Breck and established under the auspices of the Episcopal Church and Bishop Henry Whipple. An Advertisement promises, “$110 pays for board, furnished room, and tuition for one school year of forty-four weeks.”
Financial problems plague the school, which is forced to close its doors in Wilder.
With the sale of the Wilder property in 1911, the Episcopal Church has the funds to reopen Breck School. Its purpose is to provide and education for “ students of moderate means.” Stull focusing on farmers’ children, Breck selects a new site in St. Paul Nead the University of Minnesota agricultural campus. Eight students enroll in the fall of 1917.
The first graduating class of five students leaves Breck, but lack of funds causes the school to close once more.
Thanks to careful financial stewardship, Breck is able to reopen at a new location on Como Avenue
A new building in the Como campus is dedicated, with ten classrooms, an auditorium, a gymnasium, laboratories, and shop facilities. The school adopts single-sex education, offering current female students the chance to finish their studies, but none accepts.
Breck wins the Twin City Academic League championship.
Breck officially adopts the Mustang as its mascot and blue and gold as its colors
Breck's facilities and campus expand with the addition of 36 acres, a new dormitory, high school, garage, and riding stables; enrollment reaches 249 students.
Responding to the country's needs during the Second World War, Breck institutes a military training program, including close-order drilling and horsemanship. The curriculum, optional when introduced in 1941, becomes mandatory in 1942. By the end of the decade the school, while still all-male, attracts a fairly diverse student population
Breck's sports and activities program is unusually varied for a school of its size, and enrollment rises to 450 students by 1948
Experiencing four administrations in five years, decreasing enrollment, increasing deficits and a physical plant in disrepair, Breck is in need of a new plan.
Breck is again brought back from the brink, thanks to strong leadership, successful fundraising and some inventive financial arrangements. The school dedicates itself to educating the "whole boy," providing opportunities for volunteers, tightening discipline and improving academics.
The board of the Church- affiliated Sheltering Arms orphanage agrees to loan Breck up to $300,000 to put the school back on the path to solvency
Female students enroll once again in grades one through three
Financial troubles begin to lift. Luther Theological Seminary agrees to buy the Como Avenue property, and the Sheltering Arms orphanage makes its River Road Minneapolis campus available to Breck with another low-cost
During Christmas break in 1956, Breck parents load furniture, books and office equipment into a caravan of trucks and move the school to the nearly completed River Road campus. Trustees and administrators adopt a long-range plan to improve Breck's academics, particularly the science, mathematics and English curricula, and provide more opportunities for individual student achievement
The last military review takes place in May, and the Board of Trustees discontinues the program.
Students enjoy increasing academic and athletic success, supported by enthusiastic parents. Breck Mothers Club and Women's Board establish the popular British Tea fundraiser
Ground is broken for the Chapel of the Holy Spirit, embodying the school's commitment to spiritual values. Breck takes its first steps toward re-establishing full coeducation. The Bendix G-15, a refrigerator-sized computer, is acquired for students to learn basic programming languages
The first class of girls since the 1920s enters the Upper School.
Enrollment reaches 634 students from a wide range of social and cultural backgrounds, and the first group of Breck students travels to China.
1979 On December 2, a fire destroys the Chapel of the Holy Spirit.
With a burgeoning enrollment straining school facilities by 1980, the Breck Board once again finds itself looking for a new home. Coincidentally, the Golden Valley School District, on the verge of merging with Hopkins and Robbinsdale, begins looking for a buyer for its high school and middle school campus and a match is made.
The school moves to Golden Valley, building a new Chapel of the Holy Spirit which is dedicated on the third anniversary of the fire that destroyed its River Road predecessor
Breck marks its Centennial as the oldest independent day school in Minnesota. On February 18, a clock-tower bell from the original Wilder campus is donated back to Breck. The school hosts its first-ever Special Olympics tournament, kicking off a new annual tradition
The innovative Advanced Science Research program, offering seriously interested and talented Upper School students the opportunity to do research in university and corporate laboratories, begins. Breck's Lower School is named a "Blue Ribbon School of Excellence" by the U.S. Department of Education
The Lower School modern language program begins, as kindergartners begin daily instruction in Spanish or Chinese. Many choose to continue studying the language in Middle and Upper School, graduating with 13 years of instruction and strong language proficiency
Breck dedicates its new Art Center with skylit spaces for students and faculty in the visual arts.
The Middle and Upper Schools are recognized as "Blue Ribbon Schools of Excellence" by the U.S. Department of Education.
Breck begins the Wednesday Service Program. Every Upper School student and teacher travels to a year-long service site for weekly face-to-face contact with people in need.
Renovations to the campus include the Performing Arts wing, Middle School library and dining room, and Fieldhouse.
The Breck School Anderson Ice Arena on Highway 55 is dedicated.
School opens with an all-time high enrollment of 1,200. Fourth and eighth graders take part in a program that gives each a laptop computer. As it has from the start, Breck remains focused on scholarship, diversity and spiritual values.
Breck School was named for a pioneer missionary, the Reverend James Lloyd Breck, and established in 1886.
The first Breck campus was in Wilder, Minnesota, with a goal of educating children under the auspices of the Episcopal Church, headed at the time by Bishop Henry Whipple. In its earliest years, Breck attracted students from a wide range of backgrounds, particularly children of local immigrant farmers. The single fee for tuition, room and board for an entire year was $110.
In 1916, Breck moved to St. Paul. Under the leadership of the Reverend Charles Haupt, the school opened at 2095 Commonwealth Avenue, near the University of Minnesota’s agricultural campus. In 1920, the school moved to 2102 Carter Avenue, and in 1921 the first five students received diplomas. In the fall of 1922, Breck moved to a new building at the intersection of Como Avenue and Herndon, a then-undeveloped site near the St. Paul city limits.
The Rev. Haupt retired in 1938, at the age of 81. He was succeeded by Chester DesRochers, who introduced a military and riding curriculum, and Breck became an all-boys school. In the early 1940s, Breck officially adopted the Mustang as its mascot and blue and gold as its school colors. After DesRochers’ departure in 1948, Breck headmasters included Morison Brigham, Warren Wadsworth, Daniel Cowling and the Reverend Canon Douglas F. Henderson, who assumed the role in 1952.
Under Canon Henderson, Breck reintroduced female students in grades one through three, strengthened the school’s academics, and worked hard to attract a diverse student body. Nevertheless, the school suffered from serious economic challenges. Breck nearly faced extinction until a Twin Cities plumbing contractor, Reuben Anderson, came to its rescue.
By 1956, Breck was flourishing, and it had outgrown its Como Avenue campus. The school’s trustees purchased land on the River Road in Minneapolis. Ground was broken in February, and the building was completed in time to be used in the second semester of the 1956-57 school year.
In 1959, Breck’s board of trustees formally voted to eliminate the military program. In 1964, the school broke ground for the Chapel of the Holy Spirit and took its first step toward full coeducation by allowing the third grade girls to move on to fourth grade. By 1967, those girls were ready for what was then the Upper School, and the transition was complete.
When Canon Henderson retired in 1974, he was succeeded by John Littleford, the youngest headmaster in Breck’s history. By 1979, Breck’s enrollment was at an all-time high of 716. That same year, however, there was a devastating fire that destroyed the Chapel. School leadership began to contemplate the need for a larger facility.
In 1981, Breck moved to its present location in Golden Valley, occupying the city’s former middle and high school, which had been closed due to a school district merger. Construction began on facilities, including a new Chapel of the Holy Spirit, which was dedicated on the third anniversary of the fire that devastated its River Road predecessor.
Breck celebrated its centennial in 1986 with enthusiasm. That same year, John Littleford was succeeded by interim headmaster Kathryn Harper. Samuel Salas was named headmaster in 1987 and served the school until his retirement in June 2007. Edward Kim served as Breck's Head of School for 10 years, from 2007-2017.
Breck's 16th Head of School, Natalia Rico Hernández, began her tenure in July 2017.