History

Doane Stuart is an interfaith school. We respect students of all faiths and backgrounds. Our chapel services celebrate all the major world religions. The religion curriculum at Doane Stuart is non-doctrinal and asks the students to explore, intellectually, their own faiths, and the faiths of others. The interfaith nature of the school community is well illustrated by our resident Buddhist Temple housed on campus.

The name Doane Stuart (taken from the First Episcopal Bishop of Albany, The Right Reverend William Croswell Doane, and the Roman Catholic educator, Mother Janet Erskine Stuart, RSCJ) appropriately represents our interfaith identity.

Doane Stuart, founded in 1975, traces its heritage to the merger of two Albany schools with long and proud histories grounded in the Roman Catholic and Episcopal traditions. The union of these two schools, (Kenwood Academy, founded in 1852, and St. Agnes School, founded in 1870) is a statement to the broader community about the importance of teaching students to live together peacefully, respecting the religious traditions of others.

In a school dedicated to religious inclusiveness, and therefore richly diverse, it is only fitting that Doane Stuart is inclusive also of both males and females. Doane Stuart is the Nation's only successfully merged Roman Catholic/Protestant school, and it is the area's leading coeducational, nursery through grade 12 independent school.