History of Ledgemere Country Day School

In 1935, Frances York opened Ledgemere Country Day School as a nursery school and kindergarten for young children.  Mrs. York used the main house for the classrooms and built a beautiful play yard off the porch.  Mrs. York continued to operate Ledgemere until sometime in the mid 1960's when she transferred ownership to her son-in-law, Kenneth Miller in June of 1966.

Mr. Miller was the director and owner of Ledgemere until November of 1972 when the property and business was sold to Mr. Richard Whiting.  Mr Whiting transferred ownership to Noice & Lois Eastman in July of 1975.  The Eastman's retained the property until it was bought by Alec and Susan Livingston on July 21, 1981.  It was during the Livingston's ownership that the nursery school was moved out of the main house and into the smaller building in the rear just barely visible from Mitchell Road.  The Livingston's then used the main building as their family's home and gave the nursery school it's own space in the smaller building.  It was also during the Livingston's ownership that one classroom was a Montessori based program while the other classroom continued in the vision of Mrs. York.  The Montessori program has long been gone and Ledgemere today operates as a traditional nursery school with influences from many theories of child development and early childhood curricula.  

In June of 1988, Bill and Joni Hewitt purchased the property from the Livingston's and continued running the nursery school until the current owners, BJ and Diane Nicholson, purchased the property in April of 1997.  Throughout the years Ledgemere has continued to offer the children of Cape Elizabeth, South Portland, Scarborough and Portland with an excellent early childhood experience.  In June of 2006, the main building and family home was extensively renovated and returned to it's former beauty.  The playground remains in it's original space although much of the equipment has been removed and updated.  The only piece of equipment that remains from the 50's is the "merry-go-round" which continues to be a childhood favorite.