Chapin School was founded in Princeton in 1931 by Frances Jordan Chapin. Mrs. Chapin believed that self-esteem is essential to a student's learning process, and she created an environment at her school that helped to foster each child's sense of self-worth. Over the next twenty years the school grew to encompass a faculty of six and a student body of forty, all housed in Mrs. Chapin's cramped apartment in "downtown" Princeton. 

Remembered as "a white-haired Southern lady with a heart-shaped face, fine nose, nice eyes, and a manner of beetling her eyebrows to command attention," Mrs. Chapin would enter a noisy school room and "quiet would descend." Fellow educator Mary Mason, founder of Miss Mason's School and the Mason Early Education Foundation, recalled the classroom atmosphere at her friend's school. "They broke practically all the rules of education, but they had a dedication and feel for children which went far beyond anything one can describe in words."   When Mrs. Chapin died in March of 1951, the parents of her students committed themselves to continuing her educational vision, and establishing a corporation to operate the school.

The first decade of the "new" Chapin, incorporated in April of 1951, saw a growing student body, administrative stability, and the acquisition of a permanent site for the school. Following Mrs. Chapin's death, classes were held for three years in a rented house at 11 Mercer Street. In 1954, the school moved to "Snowden," which it leased from Bernard Kilgore, publisher of The Wall Street Journal  and The Princeton Packet.   In 1958, Chapin moved to its present location in northern Lawrence Township, having purchased the five-acre Edgar S. Smith estate, the centerpiece of which was the pre-Revolutionary War Henry D. Phillips House. 

By the school's 30^th anniversary in 1961, with an enrollment of more than 100, Chapin was sufficiently well established to complete a capital campaign that resulted in the addition to the original farmhouse of two classrooms, an office, a kitchen, and a multi-purpose auditorium/gymnasium. Subsequent property acquisitions and facilities improvements have expanded the campus to its present 13 acres comprising four buildings and three playing fields. A comprehensive Campus Master Plan to guide future growth was completed in 2002.

As the school "grew up," curriculum and institutional procedures matured. In 1991 Chapin received accreditation from the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools, and in 2002, the school achieved dual accreditation from Middle States and the New Jersey Association of Independent Schools.

Chapin approaches its 75^th anniversary stronger than ever. Enrollment is at 305 students in grades Pre K through 8, a forty percent increase over just a decade ago. Our educational program is comprehensive, age-appropriate, and rigorous. Our graduates are well prepared, and they are successful at their secondary schools. Our teachers are highly qualified, committed to Chapin's philosophy, and, like their predecessors of so long ago, have "a dedication and feel for children ... beyond anything one can describe in words."

* On the occasion of the school's 50^th anniversary, an institutional history was written by E. Parker Hayden, Jr. P'74,'76,'77 and Herbert O. Hagens '60. Much of this article is adapted from this book, Chapin School: An Idea In Search of an Image 1931 - 1981