The name "Athol" was created to honor MacGill's ancestral home in Scotland.

[3] In 1845, Nicolas Worthington freed seventeen of his slaves, and gave them 150 acres (61 ha) of the "Athol enlarged" land which was then called "Freetown".

In 1941, an additional acre was not accounted for, then sold on a separate bid for $701 to Herbert M Brown.

[9][10] Modern accounts of the development of Columbia note that Rouse Company donated land for public schools, but prior to the requirement, the company sold unusable land from its 1963 purchases to build Columbia back to the school board.

[11] The High School would later be renamed the Harriet Tubman building, to be used by the Board of Education.

In 2006, James N. Robey issued $1.6 million in Howard County loans to Grassroots to build an enlarged homeless facility on the Atholton School grounds.

[16] The student population as of September 2023 is ≤5% Native American or Alaskan, 18.5% Asian, 31.4% Black or African American, ≤5% Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, 13.5% Hispanic or Latino, 28.3% White or Caucasian, and 8.1% Two or more races.