Nellie Cornish

[4] Born July 1876 in Nebraska,[5] she grew up first in Arlington, Oregon[6] and then in Blaine, Washington, as the daughter of the town's first mayor, lawyer Nathan Armfield Cornish.

[7] In her early teens, she lived about half a year in Portland, Oregon, where she studied piano under Ebenezer Cook, a teacher of strong local reputation.

Her parents moved to Spokane, Washington, where her mother died two years later; Nellie stayed in Blaine much of that time, teaching fourth grade although still in her teens.

[14] By 1911, when she left for Los Angeles, California to study for six weeks with Calvin Brainerd Cady, she was a very well established Seattle music teacher, with a suite of five studio rooms and two assistants.

In 1918, Cornish invited poet Maurice Browne and actress Ellen Van Volkenburg to found a theater department at her school.

[1] The curriculum soon expanded to include subjects as diverse as eurhythmics, French language, painting, dance (folk and ballet), and theater.

[1] Mark Tobey, Martha Graham,Merce Cunningham and John Cage spent time teaching at the Cornish School during the early part of their careers.

[27] This remained the case even after the mortgage was paid off and the building donated to the school in 1929,[28] and financial difficulties inevitably grew during the Great Depression.