The Lovett School Breaks Ground on Rita Anne Rollins Hall as Centennial Year Begins

The Lovett School held a groundbreaking ceremony on August 27, 2026, for Rita Anne Rollins Hall, a new state-of-the-art home for worship, dining, the arts, and student support that will be the hub of campus life. The ceremony, held on Lovett’s 100-acre Riverbank campus, marks a landmark moment for the One Lovett Campaign and helps usher in the school’s yearlong Centennial Celebration.

The transformative campus hub honors Rita Anne Rollins ’72, the oldest child of Randall and Peggy Rollins. The family's $30 million gift, announced in November 2025, is the largest single gift in the school's history and among the largest ever made to an independent K-12 school in the United States.

Rising on the site of the former Community Center, which opened in 1960, Rollins Hall will feature a light-filled chapel, expanded and reimagined dining spaces, an expansive campus green to connect our Lower, Middle, and Upper Schools, state-of-the-art performing arts spaces, and intentionally designed classrooms, studios, and makerspaces to meet expanded curricular offerings for students. It opens its doors in Fall 2028.

“This is a proud day and historic moment for The Lovett School,” said Meredyth Cole, Head of School. “Lovett started as a dream by our founder, Eva Edwards Lovett, one hundred years ago, who envisioned a school that prioritized a child’s holistic development over rote learning, or as she put it, an extension of the home, supporting ‘full and continuous physical, mental, and social development.’ This building will quite literally make her dream a reality.

“Rita Anne Rollins Hall started as a mere idea decades ago. When it opens in Fall 2028, it will do more than house classrooms; it will shape how our students think, create, and dream for generations to come. Years from now, students not yet born will walk through our doors to see hands-on learning on display, bond with classmates on our expanded greenspace, and ultimately see their future selves.”

Members of the Rollins family and other campaign donors joined school leadership, trustees, and student ambassadors to turn the ceremonial first shovels.

“Projects of this magnitude don’t happen simply because of a dream,” said John. O Knox ’88 and Eileen Keough Millard ’80, One Lovett Campaign Committee Co-Chairs. “They happen when a community comes together with a shared vision and extraordinary generosity to make that dream a reality. We want to thank Amy Rollins Kreisler ’88, Pam Rollins ’75, and Tim Rollins ’81 for their investment in the future of Lovett.”

The centennial year honors the school's 1926 founding by Eva Edwards Lovett and will feature a community-wide storytelling series, an interactive artifacts display, an original documentary film, and the Centennial Gala on October 24, 2026. More information, including the full programming schedule, is available at Lovett100.org.

To learn more about the One Lovett Campaign, visit OneLovett.org.