Our history is distinctive. Founded in 1709 as a charity school supported by Anglican missionaries, the school had its first classes meet in Trinity Church at the head of Wall Street. Its first schoolhouse was built on the church grounds in 1749, and it is the oldest continuously operating educational institution in the city of New York. In their horizontal expansiveness, our facilities are enviable. The school stretches nearly the length of 91st Street between Columbus and Amsterdam Avenues. In addition to classrooms, science and computer laboratories, and administrative offices, the school includes a garden, a rooftop playing field (known as the "turf"), a dining room, two chapels, two theaters, two swimming pools, three playgrounds, a weight room, a fine arts pavilion, two libraries, and three gymnasiums. Our community is diverse. Deeply committed to having a diverse community of learners and teachers, Trinity has a student body that reflects the ethnic, racial, socioeconomic, and religious diversity of the city it calls home. Trinity’s commitment to this diverse community and its success is supported by the curriculum, counseling, extra-curricular activities, and Community Time programs and speakers. It reaches into every corner of school life. Our teachers are extraordinarily talented and dedicated. More than twenty of them have doctorates and over 100 others hold master’s degrees from selective colleges and universities around the world. Recruited for their outstanding academic achievements and their commitment to Trinity’s core educational values, teachers are encouraged to select, expand on, modify, and even invent their curricula, fostering an unparalleled sense of ownership and creativity in the classroom. This creativity is supported by a unique and well-endowed program of faculty development and enrichment grants.