Noble and Greenough School

The Nobles community is a thriving, inclusive, joyful community where our students are inspired by dedicated teachers, coaches and mentors to reach their highest potential each and every day. Our rigorous academic, arts and athletics programs are coupled with a strong support system, where students are well known, challenged and cared for by our faculty throughout their day.

Nobles students are highly accomplished, achieving incredible heights while on our campus and in the years that follow. More importantly, Nobles students go on to lead lives that are very purposeful and impactful, making an imprint on the world around them in deep and lasting ways. Our foundational purpose of inspiring leadership for the public good is carried out visibly throughout our program. During their time at Nobles, our students gain a tremendous depth of knowledge, an ability to think critically and inclusively, and unique experiences in local and global leadership that enable our graduates to step boldly and confidently forward.

Nobles sits on 173 acres bordered by the Charles River in Dedham, Massachusetts, 10 miles from Boston. Everyone has a “favorite space” on campus—whether it’s the alcoves in the Shattuck Schoolhouse, the stage in Vinik Theatre, or the serene glass-enclosed quiet reading room in the academic center. One place brings us all together: the Castle. It’s where our community shares meals each day, gathers to celebrate and exchange ideas, and it’s where several of our faculty live and raise their families.

The academic center is the newest building on campus. Completed in early 2018, it houses the new Putnam Library in addition to faculty offices and flexible classrooms. In the new library there are areas for collaborative work, a silent study and the main reading room that serves as a more inviting space for students to gather. The new innovation classrooms feature full whiteboard walls, easily reconfigurable furniture and built-in projectors. The culmination of the construction process involved knocking down the old Putnam Library, expanding the beach green space and relocating Fargo Circle to a new outdoor classroom.

In 1866, George Washington Copp Noble founded Noble’s Classical School, a boys’ day school known informally as “Nobles.” It was renamed Noble and Greenough in 1892 when James Greenough, a mathematics and science teacher, partnered with Mr. Nobles, and they relocated from Boston’s Beacon Hill neighborhood to Back Bay. In 1922, Nobles moved to its current location on the banks of the Charles River in Dedham, Massachusetts. Nobles went coeducational in 1974.