Our History
Founded in 1897, Grace Institute has helped low-income New Yorkers achieve economic stability for over a hundred years. W.R. Grace, an immigrant, shipping magnate, and twice-elected Mayor of New York City, founded Grace Institute as a tuition-free training program for women. His goals were both to educate and to find employment for women in need. Throughout the 20th century and into the 21st, women have learned skills to successfully enter the workforce. Since 1897, over 100,000 women have come through Grace Institute.
The Founding:
In 1897, William Russell Grace, along with his brother Michael, established Grace Institute as a tuition-free, nonsectarian educational and vocational job-training program for immigrant women. They purchased the old Moore mansion on Tenth Avenue and West 6oth Street to house Grace Institute that was incorporated by the New York State Legislature on April 16th, 1897.
An Irish immigrant who achieved the American dream, W. R. Grace was a success in business: he founded W.R. Grace & Co., and was twice-elect Mayor of the City of New York. He was the mayor in office who accepted the Statue of Liberty from France on behalf of the United States. He understood what it took to make a life in a new country. As a result, 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 the country. He opened Grace Institute to meet the needs of immigrant women who were arriving in New York by the hundreds of thousands in the late 1800s. Three hundred women were enrolled when Grace Institute first opened its doors in 1898. The following winter enrollment grew to 500 students.
The Early Years:
Grace Institute was originally staffed by the Sisters of Charity. The curriculum guide in 1898 listed cookery, millinery, child care, Red Cross, children’s sewing, and dressmaking as course offerings. 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.
20th Century:
Over the years, Grace Institute evolved into a secretarial training program that prepared women for careers in the business world. This included instruction in shorthand, telephone technique, secretarial procedures, and business law.
In the early 1960s, part of Fordham University was to be located in the new Lincoln Center complex which required Grace Institute to move from its west-side location. In 1963, J. Peter Grace, grandson of W. R. Grace and President of Grace Institute, constructed a new building for the school on Second Avenue between 64th and 65th Streets. Along with secretarial skills, new courses were offered in fashion merchandising, food and nutrition, and clothing construction.
Today:
As women’s roles in the workplace changed over the decades, Grace Institute kept adapting its curriculum to meet their needs. All these years later, however, the mission of Grace Institute remains the same: to provide tuition-free, practical job training in a supportive learning community for economically disadvantaged New York-area women of all ages and backgrounds and to develop the personal and business skills necessary for self-sufficiency, employability, and an improved quality of life.
Each year, Grace Institute trains women in the computer and business skills necessary for administrative or office support positions and then helps place them in jobs with benefits. By learning the skills needed to successfully enter and remain in the workforce, Grace students break the cycle of poverty that traps so many women and their children. The students are smart, determined, and enterprising women. Unfortunately, their economic and educational status has kept them from reaching their full potential and they don’t have the necessary funds to pay for an education. Grace’s tuition-free program is a lifeline for women desperate to escape from public assistance, the shelter system, unemployment, or underemployment at dead-end, low-wage jobs. The program is transformative for graduates: as they obtain full-time jobs with a good salary and benefits, the women are now determined to climb even higher.
Time Line:
Events in Women’s History and Grace Institute’s History
1897: Grace Institute is incorporated by the New York State Legislature
1898: Grace Institute opens its doors and enrolls 300 women.
1903: Women's Trade Union League founded to support working women
1904: Joseph P. Grace becomes President of Grace Institute
1917: National Woman's Party begins picketing White House for suffrage on July 14
1920: 19th Amendment (Woman Suffrage) ratified, August 26
1920: League of Women Voters founded
1932: Hattie Wyatt Caraway of Arkansas was the first woman to be elected to the U.S. Senate
1939: Marian Anderson's Lincoln Memorial concert draws an audience of 75,000.
1940: Margaret Chase Smith became the first woman elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. She was elected to the Senate in 1948 becoming the first woman to be elected to serve in both houses.
1941-1945: Millions of women enter work force during World War II
1945: J. Peter Grace becomes President of Grace Institute
1955: Rosa Parks arrested in Montgomery, Alabama, sparking the Black Civil Rights Movement, December 1
1962: The west-side location of Grace Institute closes to make room for construction of the Lincoln Center/Fordham University complex
1963: Grace Institute opens at its new east-side location /Equal Pay Act passed by Congress/ Betty Friedan's book, Feminine Mystique, sparks the contemporary feminist movement
1964: Civil Rights Act outlaws sex discrimination
1968: Shirley Chisholm is first black woman elected to the House of Representatives.
1972: Grace Institute opens an Outreach and Job-Training program in the Bronx. /Title IX of the Education Act Amendments of 1972 bans discrimination in most federally assisted educational programs.
1981: Sandra Day O'Connor first woman seated on the U.S. Supreme Court
1987: Census Bureau reports average woman earns 68 cents for every dollar earned by a man
1992: Record-breaking number of women elected to Congress
1995: Margaret Grace, who graduated from Grace Institute in 1939, becomes President of Grace Institute.
1997: Grace Institute celebrates it’s 100 anniversary and the City of New York honors the school with a proclamation. /Madeleine Albright becomes the first female Secretary of State.
2000: Hillary Rodham Clinton is elected to the U.S. Senate representing New York, becoming the first First Lady to be elected to a political office.
2002: Halle Berry becomes the first African-American woman to win an Academy Award for best female actress.
2006: California Representative Nancy Pelosi becomes the first female Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.
2009: October 28 is proclaimed Grace Day by the City of New York.
Bill Clinton, Former President of the United States: “Greetings to all those gathered to celebrate the 100th Anniversary of Grace Institute. Excellence in education is the key to our future. Fro a century, the faculty and staff of Grace Institute have been offering an ideal learning opportunity for their students and preparing them for the responsibilities that lie ahead. Our nation relies on schools such as yours to supply the knowledge and skills necessary to compete in the twenty-first century. I am confident that Grace Institute will continue to endow future generations with expertise and guidance.”
George Pataki, Former Governor, State of New York: “It gives me great pleasure to offer congratulations to the staff, students, and all associated with Grace Institute on the occasion of its 100th birthday. You have every reason to be proud of Grace’s contributions as a training school for women. Since 1897, Grace has been committed to developing the practical skills for obtaining employment and developing self-sufficiency. The women who complete training at Grace Institute greatly improve the quality of their lives.”
Office of the Mayor, City of New York: “For one hundred years Grace Institute and the Sisters of Charity have provided fine training for New York women, teaching skills that enable them to successfully enter the business world. Therefore, I Rudolph W. Guiliani, Mayor of the City of New York, in recognition of this important anniversary, do herby proclaim, Wednesday, April 16, 1997 in the City of New York as ‘Grace Institute Centennial Day.’”