Our Story
The original school, the original method, the original place. A century ago, in a valley in Western New York, a school began for students no one else knew how to teach.
Our Story
We understood different learners before the world understood learning differences.
In 1926, after twenty years of teaching, Peter Gow, Jr. saw that many capable students could not read or spell, and that ordinary schools did not know how to help them. He turned a farm in South Wales, New York into a school built around them.
Shortly after opening, he began working with Dr. Samuel T. Orton, the neurologist whose research shaped how the world teaches dyslexic students. From that work came The Gow Method of Reconstructive Language, refined in our classrooms for 100 years.
The ideas many schools use today were first put to work here.
Archival Image of the Original Main Building
A Teacher Who Saw What Others Missed
Peter Gow, Jr. spent 20 years in the classroom before he founded a school of his own. He taught at Choate Rosemary Hall, the Nichols School, and The Park School, and he kept meeting the same kind of student: bright, capable, and unable to read or spell with ease.
He came to believe those students needed two things ordinary schools could not give them: small classes and intensive, daily drill in the building blocks of language. To try it, he moved his family to South Wales, New York, and turned a horse barn into a school.
Shortly after Gow opened, he met Dr. Samuel T. Orton, the neurologist whose research on reading shaped how dyslexic students are taught to this day. Out of that partnership came The Gow Method of Reconstructive Language, Gow's own approach, similar to Orton-Gillingham and refined in our classrooms ever since.
From One Barn to a Full Campus
Howard Hall, our new state-of-the-art academic building, has replaced the converted barn. Over the years the campus has grown to more than 30 buildings on 125 acres. The Summer Program began in 1990, and in January 2012 Gow became coeducational, welcoming girls as both day and boarding students.
Four Pillars
Everything we do rests on four simple values: Kindness, Respect, Honesty, and Hard Work. Students hear them on their first day and live them every day after.
Gow at a Glance
- Summer camp opened 1922
- School founded 1926
- Coeducational since January 2012
- More than 30 buildings on 125 acres
A Sense of Place
The original place.
Gow began in an old horse barn in a beautiful valley in South Wales, New York. A century later, students still find their footing on the same ground: 125 acres of woods, fields, and nature all around, far from the pressures that weren't working.
- 1922Peter Gow, Jr. buys an old horse barn in South Wales and opens a summer camp for boys
- 1926The camp farm becomes a school, on the same ground where it stands today
- 30+Buildings have grown from that one converted barn
- 125Acres of woods and fields in the Great Lakes region
"At Gow, you have an entire community of experts who understand how these kids learn and what they need to succeed. They support the whole child—academically, socially, and emotionally—and help them become confident, independent young people."Parent, Class of 2029
Getting Here
- Buffalo-area airportsAbout 30 minutes
- New York, Philadelphia, BaltimoreAbout an hour by air
- Erie, PennsylvaniaAbout 1 hour 45 minutes