The school was founded in 1884 at the request of Alexander and Lois Cassatt, niece of President James Buchanan, as The Haverford College Grammar School. Originally affiliated with neighboring Haverford College, in 1903 the school became independent, changed its name to The Haverford School, and moved to its current location across Railroad Avenue from the college. The school was Quaker during its affiliation with the college, but is now nonsectarian. Haverford's original school colors were red and yellow for the first decade of the school's existence. However, after the outbreak of the Spanish-American War in 1898, the official colors were changed to maroon and gold out of national pride, since the colors of the Spanish flag were the same red and yellow.
Athletics
The Haverford School is a member of the Inter Academic Athletic Association, the country's oldest inter-scholastic athletic conference. With eighteen interscholastic sports, Haverford ranks among the top 20% of private high schools in Pennsylvania for amount of sports offered. The Haverford School lacrosse team gained national fame when the Fords won national championships in 2011 and 2015 after undefeated seasons. The 2015 team won USA Today's All-USA Boys' Lacrosse Team honors. The Fords lacrosse team is the most awarded team in the Inter-Ac League, having won two national championships, ten state championships, and eighteen Inter-Ac titles. In 2018–19, Haverford captured the Inter-Ac's Heyward Cup for overall excellence in athletic competition. The Fords have won the Heyward Cup 18 times, more than any other school in the league.
Athletic traditions
EA Day
Haverford is known for its long-running rivalry with fellow Inter-Academic League member Episcopal Academy. The two schools have competed annually since 1889 in Haverford-EA Day, a day of competition occurring each November. The winner is determined by who wins more of the day's five events: cross-country, water polo, soccer, golf and football. In the event of a tie, victory goes to the incumbent champion. Each year's winner earns the "Sweater". The Sweater is made from parts of uniform sweaters from each schools, cut in half and sewn together down the middle. Each school has a side, indicated by its colors, onto which years of victory are embroidered. Since the inception of the Sweater in 1987, Haverford leads Episcopal Academy with 18 Haverford/EA Day wins. Haverford held the Sweater for a decade between 2006–2016, the longest streak between either school.
#10ve Cup
A newer, friendly rivalry exists between Haverford and Garnet Valley High School's lacrosse teams. When Kip Taviano, a Concord Township-native and Haverford School lacrosse and football player, was killed in a 2013 car accident, the two schools came together to establish the #10ve Foundation in his memory. Haverford School and Garnet Valley compete in the #10ve Cup, an annual lacrosse event to benefit the Kip Taviano '13 Scholarship Fund.
Campus and facilities
The Haverford School is located ten miles from Center City Philadelphia. The school has ten buildings, including a LEED Gold certified Upper School building constructed in 2008 and an alumni gathering space unveiled as Nostrant Pavilion in 2012. Academic facilities include eighty classrooms, two libraries with a combined 40,000 volumes, eleven science and five computer labs, two auditoriums, two theaters, and ten art and nine music studios. The school has three gymnasiums, three turf and one grass athletic fields, four tennis courts, a twenty-five meter pool, four squash courts, a rubberized outside track, a fitness center, and an off-campus crew boathouse in Conshohocken. Before the construction of the Conshohocken boathouse, the school's crew team was associated with Undine Barge Club in Boathouse Row. In 2019, Haverford began construction on a new middle school facility to replace the previous middle school building, Crosman Hall, which the school has used since 1952. The contract was awarded to Adams-Bickle Associates and the building is expected to be completed for the beginning of the 2020–2021 school year and will be LEEDgreen certified.
