Stuart Hall School in Staunton, Virginia was founded by the Episcopal church as Virginia Female Institute in 1843. It was renamed in 1907 in honor of its most famous headmistress, Flora Cooke Stuart, the widow of Confederate cavalry leader Maj. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart.
 
Originally named the Virginia Female Institute, Stuart Hall has its origins in Mrs. Sheffey’s 1831 school, which held classes in her Staunton home.
During the Civil War the school’s building was used to house the Virginia School for the Deaf and Blind while VSDB’s building was being used as a hospital. During this time students attended classes in a nearby home in Staunton.
Under the direction of Mrs. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart from 1880-1899, the school persevered through the economic and social times following the Civil War. Mrs. Stuart revised the curriculum and raised the standards of scholarship.
From 1899 to 1915, the principal was Maria Pendleton Duval,^[1] Mrs. Stuart’s cousin, and the first faculty advisor to ELA, the student group that founded the library in 1882. Under Miss Duval’s leadership, the school was renamed “Stuart Hall” in 1907 and was expanded to include grades K through 12 with boys being admitted into the lower school.
In 1940 the Lower School was discontinued. In 1992, the School opened a Middle School serving male and female day students in grades 6-8. In 1999 boys were accepted as day students into the Upper School. In 2007, Stuart Hall School merged with Hunter McGuire School and again became a K-12 independent school.
 
Notable alumni 

• Marijane Meaker, novelist, best known as an author of YA books under the pseudonym M.E. Kerr
• Anne McCaffrey, science fiction author
• Juliette Gordon Low, founder of the Girl Scouts of the USA
• Nancy Massie Meadows, First lady of West Virginia, 1949-1953
• Anne Carter Lee,Daughter of Confederate General Robert E. Lee
• Eleanor Agnes Lee, Daughter of Confederate General Robert E. Lee