East Woods School began when a group of concerned parents founded the school in 1946 to provide children with an education combining exemplary academics and character development. It was incorporated and chartered by the Board of Regents of the University of the State of New York and operated on a not-for-profit basis by an appointed twenty-four member Board of Trustees.

It is believed that 31 Yellow Cote Road in Oyster Bay Cove dates back to 1704, when Thomas Young was granted land in Yellow Coat Hallow. The farm on which it stood for not quite 200 years varied in size, but at one time contained more than 80 acres. There were many owners of the farms over the centuries, among them the “Yellow Coat” Townsends, one of the founding families of Oyster Bay, from whom it is believed the road got its name. In the early 1900s, the newly formed Yellowcote Land Company acquired a portion of the land. It is speculated that the name was changed to “cote” to give it more cachet to European investors. Chicago-born financier Walter Farwell bought the property in 1915, eventually amassing 135 acres in total.

Named after a castle in Ireland, the elegant Georgian Revival “Mallow,” which stands there now, was designed in 1918 by William Welles Bosworth. Bosworth trained at MIT, then at the École des Beaux-Arts, and worked in the offices of Henry Hobson Richardson, Carrère & Hastings and Frederick Law Olmsted. He toured Europe with the Georgian Revivalist William Rotch Ware. He worked in the classical tradition with versatility and an elegance of touch that is apparent in the original 26-room residence.

The two-story brick house has a nine-bay entrance front that is articulated by full-height pilasters supporting a brick-and-wood baluster parapet that screens a low-hipped roof. The exterior bricks probably came from an 18th century farm purportedly built by Thomas Jefferson for General James Breckinridge in Williamsburg,Virginia. The garden front, which opens on formal terraces, features the two-story semi-octagonal bay that houses the tall salon. In 1922, Architectural Review magazine called it, “the most perfect country home in America.”

The property was later sold to Charles Cushing.  East Woods bought the Cushing property and 14 acres on July 30, 1948 for the princely sum of $70,000. The school was able to acquire additional acres from neighbors, which were then converted to playing fields. Architect Everett Post made the initial recommendations for converting the house into a school. Since the original acquisition, the school has expanded as the needs of the community have grown and changed. In 2009, East Woods opened the new Upper School Academic building. Designed by the architectural firm Perkins Eastman, the building echoes some of the architectural features of the stately original.