Grace Institute - Founding

Founding

In 1897, William R. Grace, twice Mayor of New York City, and his brother, Michael P. Grace, with the help and support of William’s wife, Lillius, established Grace Institute as a tuition-free nonsectarian educational and vocational school for immigrant women. They purchased the old Moore mansion on Tenth Avenue and West 60th Street to house the school that was incorporated by the New York State Legislature on April 16, 1897. Grace Institute was endowed as a memorial to William’s and Michael’s parents, James and Ellen Grace of Ireland.

An Irish immigrant who achieved the American dream, William Russell Grace was a success in business. He founded the W. R. Grace and Company, and was twice Mayor of the City of New York. He knew what it took to make a home and a life in a new country. He was determined to provide new arrivals with the opportunity not only to succeed in America, but to also contribute to the growth and prosperity of their adopted country.

The Grace family chose to open the Grace Institute to meet the training needs of immigrant women arriving in New York by the hundreds of thousands in the late 1800s. Many women arrived as young wives with families, needing to learn how to care for a home and family in their new country. Still others arrived alone without the skills to earn a living.

The Sisters of Charity of New York were asked to administer and staff the school. Sister Marie Dolores Van Rensselaer, who had opened Seton Hospital three years earlier, was appointed first superior of Grace Institute. Three hundred women were enrolled when Grace Institute first opened its doors in 1898. The following winter enrollment grew to 500 students. From 1900 to 1962, over 900 students each year attended classes at the West Side mansion.