Throughout the school's history, it had operated in various rented spaces in Maryland, but it had long wanted a permanent location of its own. In 1971, the United Jewish Appeal asked the Greater Washington Jewish Community Foundation to raise funds to build a permanent location for the school. The Greater Washington Jewish Community Foundation searched for a site with about of land that was as close to Washington, D.C., as possible. In 1974, the Greater Washington Jewish Community Foundation took an option