Founded in 1881 by Henry F. Durant, Dana Hall originally served as Wellesley College's preparatory program.

[3] In 1871, Charles Blanchard Dana purchased the old Wellesley Square Congregational Church and moved it to his property at what later became 66 Grove Street.

It was first used as a boarding house called Dana Hall and in 1879, Dana gave it to his friend Henry Fowle Durant to use as a Wellesley College dormitory for the “Teacher Specials,” older women who came to Wellesley College to continue their studies.

The Dana Hall seal was designed in 1909 by George T. Abell of Wellesley, based on the Amor Caritas of Augustus Saint-Gaudens.

The same year, Marcellus E. Wheeler, Helen Temple Cooke's business partner since 1898 died, leaving her the majority ownership of the school.

Helen Temple Cooke remained the primary owner of the school until 1938 when she donated her interest and much of her property to Dana Hall.

Cooke and the trustees decided that the School (now a non-profit corporation) would give a gift of $28,000 in lieu of taxes to the Town of Wellesley.

The same year in 1942, the school closed for over a month between December and February to minimize student travel during war time.

In 1945, a Dana Hall chapter of the League of Women Voters was formed, along with a student lead Inter-Racial Club.

Helen Temple Cooke retired in 1951 after 53 years as the Head of the Dana Hall Schools, but retained her position as the President of the Board of Trustees until she died on April 12, 1955 on the eve of her 90th birthday.

The same year, Pine Manor became independent of Dana Hall and left Wellesley for the Dane Estate in Chestnut Hill by September 1, 1964.

In 1970, under pressure from shifting beliefs about gender segregated learning, Dana Hall experimented with co-ed classrooms.

In 1992, one of the first gay-straight alliances in Massachusetts was established by Dana students with Latin teacher Jacqui Bloomberg as its faculty advisor.

The same year, a Women of Color Club was established, later renamed to SHADES ("Sisters Honoring All Diasporas and Enlightening Society") in 1998.

In 1998, the Lucia Farrington Shipley Science Center, a new Helen Temple Cooke Library, and the newly renovated Middle School were opened.