Martenbank is so named because it sits on the banks of Martin Stream. For many years Martenbank was the home of Good Will Superintendent Walter Palmer Hinckley, the son of the home's founder, G.W. Hinckley. Martenbank was completed in 1900.

Reverend George W. Hinckley founded the school in 1889 for the education of troubled youth. By 1950 (the year of Hinckley’s death), the school had grown to 3,000 acres with a core of architecturally distinguished academic buildings.