Baxter Montessori was founded in the late 1960s by a pair of educators who believed deeply in the Montessori approach and wanted to bring its principles into Los Angeles’s working-class neighborhoods. Construction and preparatory work on the school began in the late 1960s, and the school was officially licensed in 1970, making it one of the longer-standing Montessori programs in the Echo Park/Elysian Heights area. It was established with the goal of offering parents a reasonably priced, well-staffed early childhood education option grounded in Montessori philosophy, complete with cheerful classrooms and authentic Montessori materials.