Annie Wright Schools is the older of Tacoma's two flagship independent schools, founded in 1884 by railroad magnate Charles Barstow Wright and Bishop John A. Paddock of the Episcopal Diocese of Olympia. The structure is unusual within the region: Lower and Middle Schools are co-ed PreK-8, while the Upper School splits into single-sex divisions for boys and girls in grades 9-12, with both day and boarding options. International Baccalaureate programming runs across every division — one of the few WA schools with full IB continuity.
The Tacoma peer set is small but significant. Charles Wright Academy in University Place — coed PreK-12 on a 107-acre campus, also Episcopal-tied, founded 1957 — was named after the same Charles Barstow Wright and is the closest comparable; the two schools remain administratively independent. Niche named Annie Wright the #1 Boarding School and #1 K-12 Private School in Washington for 2025, and Architectural Digest named the campus the Most Beautiful Private School in WA. Boarding draws students globally, anchoring an internationally diverse community that distinguishes Annie Wright from any Seattle-area peer.
Total enrollment runs near 620 across all divisions. WIAA athletics participation is limited — single-sex divisions and small Upper-School class sizes are real tradeoffs against the IB and global-boarding model. PolarisList shows one HPM placement (WA rank #33), low compared to Seattle independents but consistent with the smaller Upper School cohort and a graduate base whose top-college destinations skew international rather than US-only.
Open this school on the live map