Our History

Pasadena Waldorf School was founded in 1979 by visionary Paul Livadary, with seven children and their teacher, operating out of a rented church basement in La Cañada Flintridge. As enrollment increased, the need for a larger, permanent campus became vital. Miraculously, a gift from Los Angeles philanthropist Paquita Lick Machris at exactly the right time allowed to school to make the purchase of its beautiful and enchanted five-acre historic property on Mariposa St. in Altadena, today known as the Paquita Lick Machris Campus.

The school quickly grew to become a Kindergarten through Grade 8 program. In 2003, the school’s Parent-Child program started, and in 2007, the school opened its Preschool. After many years of planning, in August of 2012, Pasadena Waldorf High School opened its doors to welcome its first high school class. At the same time, thanks to an extraordinary gift from the Marshall and Margherite McComb Foundation, the school was able to purchase and begin renovations of a second campus, a four-acre property, just three blocks from away, that would become the permanent home for Pasadena Waldorf High School. In 2016, the school graduated its first High School class in the courtyard on the new McComb Campus.

Today, PWS offers Waldorf Education from Early Childhood (Parent-Child, Preschool, and Kindergarten) through Grade 12 with a powerful and inspired curriculum that has the potential to change the world, one child at a time.  Teachers make decisions at each developmental step along the way to nurture and support the fullest unfolding of a student’s potential, by providing an extraordinary learning environment, and integrating the arts and academics to foster imagination and independent thinking in our students.

We are part of an international Waldorf school community with over 100 years of development, and over 1,100 schools and 2000 Kindergartens worldwide that embrace a common philosophy and inspired approach.

Pasadena Waldorf School is a fully accredited member of Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC), Association of Waldorf Schools of North America (AWSNA) and Waldorf Early Childhood Association of North America (WECAN).