1912 - Mrs. Charles S. Deming of the Methodist Mission lead the formation of an association of those interested in starting a school in Seoul. The school opened with twenty-seven students in one room of the Pai Chai Methodist Boys' School.

1914 - A two-story "little red school house" was built by community subscription of approximately $1,000. U.S. on ground loaned by the Northern Methodist Missions near the Pai Chai classroom at little West Gate next to the city wall.

Miss Van Wagoner was the only full-time teacher during this time. She recalled those first years:

We were housed in the old Tri-lingual Press building at Pai Chai. The desks were no three of a color, some double, all old. When one broke under me I 'flew off the handle' at the laughing children. Splinters from the floor went through all three petticoats . . . School went out in a body when the Town Hall Burned, and saw the tower fall. We had but one room in those days. Overcoats were hung in the back of the room; we washed from a tin washbowl and drank from a pail. Each kept his own cup with his books, or borrowed teacher's. I took the dirty towels home ach night, boiling them up on Saturday. We did not miss the plumbing, as only Severance (hospital) and two other houses in Seoul then had modern sanitation.