Grace Institute - The Early Years

The Early Years

The curriculum guide in 1898 listed cookery, millinery, childcare, Red Cross, children’s sewing, and dressmaking as course offerings. Classes in the daytime were organized for housewives and included an informal day nursery. Evening classes were scheduled for working women.

By the turn of the century, Grace Institute was offering a schedule of business classes in typing, bookkeeping, and stenography to help women secure jobs in New York City’s rapidly growing business community. This training qualified women for the better paying positions in offices that were a welcome alternative to factory work. In 1902 the school had 1002 students with 497 in Dressmaking, 272 in Stenography and Type- writing, and 233 in Cooking.

Over the years, the school evolved into a secretarial school that prepared young women for careers in the business world. From 1898 to 1962, over 70,000 women received training.