Our Campus

 

Friends School of Wilmington was founded in 1994 by members of the Wilmington Friends Meeting. Classes began in the fall of 1995 for middle school students who met at the Brigade Boys Club of Wilmington, and by 1998, the school had moved to its own campus at 350 Peiffer Avenue.  

 

In April 2002, FSW acquired property at Pine Grove and opened a preschool and elementary school to serve students from 18 months through 5th grade at that location. In August 2003, the school purchased the Garden House, enlarging Peiffer's footprint to seven acres. Beginning in 2007, modular classrooms were installed at Peiffer, providing enough classroom space to serve 5th through 8th graders.

In January 2015, the Board of Trustees adopted a strategic plan that would result in a consolidated campus, and in March of 2019, FSW broke ground on this infrastructure project. By October 2020, the Pine Grove campus was sold, and in January 2021, our preschool and K-4 buildings opened near the Garden House, creating the unified campus that we know today at 5814 Camellia Lane.

Most recently, in April 2021, we purchased an additional 2.8 acres adjacent to the Garden House with the intention to conserve green space for student and community use. After renovating the existing cottage, adding front and rear decking, and establishing cross-campus nature trails, this area became the Longleaf Center for Environmental Learning.

 

Along with Longleaf, our campus features natural play areas, woodland trails, a wetlands area, two retention ponds, bird habitat areas, native plantings, and classroom gardens, all of which provide rich opportunities for place-based and project-based teaching, learning, and play. To learn more about each unique area of our campus, scroll through the interactive map pins below.