The history of ACS Athens begins here; for shortly after its inauguration, the school began to admit British and American civilians.

The 1962 Evzone contains the following paragraph: "This year's graduating class is the first to hold commencement exercises at the new American Academy located in the suburb of Halandri, approximately seven miles from the center of Athens.

Two-storied, containing twelve modern classrooms, two science laboratories, a library and a study hall, the building replaced an ancient villa in Kifissia on Tatoi Road which overflowed into four very unscholarly army huts.

A photograph of the campus in this same yearbook shows the new school building surrounded by open fields dotted with a few farmhouses.

Until the early 1980s, ACS Athens students would follow the rituals of the school day to the accompaniment of the sound of bells clanging from the necks of the flocks of sheep and goats pastured in the neighboring fields.

Throughout these years, ACS Athens continued to operate separate Elementary School facilities in Kifissia and on base.

In 1968, yet another branch of ACS Athens was established on the island of Rhodes, for the approximately thirty children of Voice of America personnel stationed there.

In 1974, the school saw the building of the bridge, containing science labs, administrative offices and a conference room, connecting the academy and the middle school; the current cafeteria, which originally served as the library; the amphitheater; and finally, the current library and fine arts classrooms.

In 1978, the Department of Defense assumed control of the operation of the base school; at the same time, the international mix of the student body was enhanced by the arrival of a large Arabic community in the Athens area.

The Boarding Unit, originally housed in a hotel near the airport in Glyfada, and subsequently relocated to Kefalari and Nea Makri before moving to its current location in Mati, opened in 1981.

As a result, the student body expanded to include, among others, many children of expatriate Americans working in the oil fields of the Arabian peninsula.

While preserving its American character in philosophy and programs, ACS Athens, home to students representing over forty-five countries, was also ready to define itself as "The International School in Greece."