Happy Valley School was an outgrowth of the work of The Five Point House, a private charitable foundation organized in 1850 to relieve the distressed conditions of an area in New York City known as the “Five Point District.”
By 1860 the work of The Five Points House had achieved such wide recognition that Abraham Lincoln, on his first trip to New York, gave a talk to the children under its care. His words of advice. “Always do the best you can and never be afraid.” have since been adopted as the School’s motto.
In 1911, the late William Church Osborn and Mrs. Osborn presented to The Five Points House a large tract of land at Pomona for the country home school now known as Happy Valley.