In 1959, plans were being made to open Berkeley Preparatory School, a private high school dedicated to academic excellence. Initial plans were to bring 200 students to a home at 6409 Bayshore Blvd. to begin operations. The 5-acre property was to provide enough space for 24 athletic fields plus volleyball and tennis courts. Instead, the school met at its temporary headquarters at the St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church parish house at 240 Plant Ave. in Tampa.

The school was planned because concerned residents concluded they could only get their children into college prep schools by sending them away from home. They hired Edgar T McCleary, a Yale graduate from Asheville, North Carolina, as the first headmaster. The co-educational school originally included grades seven through 12, with an additional year for those needing more college preparation. The curriculum contained no non-academic subjects. English, history, and science were the focus. Tuition when the school opened in 1961 was $1000 per year. Even though the new school admitted various faiths and denominations, they sought and were granted an Episcopal Church school designation. It was named for George Berkeley, an Anglican bishop in the 18th century.

In 1962, the school administration purchased the three-story Davis Islands Hotel and adjoining Islands Club at 102 Biscayne Ave. to convert into a larger campus. The school was again to have athletic fields, a science laboratory, an auditorium, and a library. They remodeled the former site of the Islands Club, a nightclub, into a chapel for students. The former honeymoon suite became the headmaster’s office. While the school was being constructed, officials leased 6 ½ acres of land at the Peter O Knight airport or athletic fields. The Davis Islands campus opened in 1963, but the school maintained its presence at the St. Andrew’s parish hosting kindergarten through grade 6 classes.

In 1978, the same year headmaster McCleary retired, construction was underway for the first phase of a new $3.8 million 33-acre campus on Kelly Road in Town & Country. The new campus was dedicated in April 1979 after the school had already moved out of its Davis Islands location. That building, which once housed the Biscayne Hotel, Casa Del Mirasol, and finally, the Davis Island Hotel, was demolished in 1979. Townhouses were built in their place soon after.

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