About our Facility
1 Oak Knoll was built as a 22-room residential mansion. Though it has served as a childcare facility since 1990, it maintains the character of its history and the feeling of a private home – a 22-room schoolhouse, you might say.
Today, we have eleven classrooms on four floors, each with abundant natural light, as well as shared facilities that include a dedicated gross motor room on the lower level, a second gross motor room on the third floor, covered play area, and two fully enclosed playgrounds.
CECC features an on-site kitchen and laundry facilities, as well as administrative offices.
About Oak Knoll Park
Clayton Early Childhood Center is located at 1 Oak Knoll Park, in one of two stone mansions on 14.5 acres of rolling terrain.
Oak Knoll is the second largest park in the city of Clayton, MO, with a variety of botanical life, a quarter mile walking path, picnic areas, a public playground, and a pond decorated with a fountain and inhabited by turtles and ducks.
In the early 1800s, the park was part of the 300-acre Kennedy Farm. Charles Rice, a local lawyer, bought the property in 1905 and built 1 Oak Knoll for his family.
In 1958, the grounds became a municipal park, named for a stand of 150-year-old Post Oak trees that still remain.