Doane Academy in Burlington City is moving ahead with a $12.1 million campus expansion, anchored by a new $10.5 million athletic building at Pear and Ellis Streets and a plan to convert the school's existing 1965-era gymnasium into a $1.6 million auditorium. The project got a major boost this week when the school announced an $8 million gift from the Lee Rowan Foundation, pushing total fundraising past the $6.4 million the school had already raised for the two projects.
The new building will include a field house, fitness center, and gymnasium, and will rise directly across from the school's main campus, a short walk from the Delaware River, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer. Head of School Erin Mayo told the paper that pre-construction work on the site is already complete, with groundbreaking construction set to begin once the school receives its final building permit from Burlington City. Doane is aiming to finish the athletic center by August 2027.
A New Home for the Gym, and a New Life for the Old One
Once the new athletic building opens, the school's current gymnasium — built in 1965 — will be converted into an auditorium, a $1.6 million project Doane hopes to complete by early 2028. The same report notes the school already reconfigured the gym's locker-room area into an instrumental music space back in 2023, a first step toward repurposing that footprint for the performing arts.
Mayo said the Lee Rowan Foundation's gift enables major improvements to students' athletic and performing arts experiences, and she expressed gratitude to the foundation for its generosity and faith, per the same account. Doane also plans to open the new fitness center to the surrounding community through memberships and court rentals, Mayo said, though the school has not yet detailed pricing or access rules for that program.
Land With a Long History
The site where the new building will rise sits on land Doane Academy once owned before selling it off decades ago. In October 2019, the school repurchased the former Elias Boudinot Elementary School property at Pearl and Ellis Streets from the Burlington City School District for $450,000, according to an earlier Inquirer report, expanding the school's campus footprint by 15% in preparation for future development — that property was originally Doane's own before it was sold to Burlington City in 1955. The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection approved Flood Hazard Area individual permits and tidal verifications for the site in October 2023, clearing the way for construction along the tidal stretch of the Delaware River, per a NJDEP bulletin.
Doane's 15-acre riverside campus already includes three structures listed on the National Register of Historic Places, among them St. Mary's Chapel, built in 1847 and recognized as the first Neo-Gothic church building constructed in the United States, according to the school. The campus sits directly across from Burlington Island and Bristol, Pennsylvania.
Philanthropy With Deep Roots
The Lee Rowan Foundation's $8 million gift continues a long-running relationship between the Rowan family and the school. The family previously gave Doane a $17 million endowment gift in 2015 and funded a $5 million donation in 2013 to build Rowan Hall, part of a broader pattern of landmark gifts industrialist Henry Rowan and his family made to multiple Delaware Valley educational institutions.
Mayo, who took office in July 2023, is Doane's 24th head of school and its ninth female head — the first woman to lead the institution in nearly 50 years, since 1974. She previously served as the first female head of Fryeburg Academy in Maine before coming to Doane.
From Near-Closure to Capital Campaign
The scale of the current expansion stands in contrast to the school's recent history. Around the year 2000, Doane faced severe financial distress and the possibility of closure when enrollment dropped to roughly 100 students, before a recruitment turnaround under then-headmaster John McGee restored growth and shifted the school toward a broader regional student base.
By late 2023, Doane enrolled roughly 235 to 240 students commuting from 56 municipalities across New Jersey and Pennsylvania, with students of color making up 55% to 60% of the student body — supported by busing and financial assistance the school provides to maintain that geographic reach. Today the school describes itself as an independent Episcopal day school serving roughly 200 students from pre-K through 12th grade.
Tuition for the 2026-27 school year ranges from $16,600 for pre-K through second grade to $25,700 for grades nine through 12, well above the Burlington County average private elementary school tuition of $8,135 a year, according to Private School Review, placing Doane among the higher-cost independent college preparatory options in South Jersey.
189 Years on the Delaware
Doane Academy, now 189 years old, traces its founding to May 1837, when Episcopal Bishop George Washington Doane established it as St. Mary's Hall — the first Episcopal girls' boarding school in the country to offer a classical academic education to women. The school severed its official diocesan affiliation in 1955, became a coeducational day school, and adopted the Doane Academy name in 2008, according to Wikipedia.
Once the new facilities open, Doane's athletic teams will use the field house, gymnasium, and fitness center for competition in the Burlington County Scholastic League and the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association, where its varsity teams face both public and private schools across the region.
