Brief History of Manhattanville: History and Educational Commitment
Manhattanville’s tradition is based on an educational heritage that fosters the free exchange of ideas between students and teachers within the context of challenging academic programs. Through this exchange, the College encourages the development of human values and a view of society as a community requiring each person’s support. A liberal arts education at Manhattanville seeks to cultivate the growth of conscience as well as intellect – the ability both to reach personal moral decisions by the use of reason and understanding and the courage to defend these convictions. The many alumni who have become successful teachers and leaders testify to the usefulness of the College’s definition of a liberal arts education.
The College began as the Academy of the Sacred Heart, a school for girls founded on Houston Street in New York City in 1841. It was one of a worldwide network of schools maintained by the religious congregation founded in France in 1800 with the name of Society of the Sacred Heart. Like its sister schools, the Academy accepted pupils ranging in age from the elementary grades through high school. After the 12th grade, two more years were added (the so-called superior classes), which prepared students for independent work and allowed a wider choice of subjects. The last two years of undergraduate work were added in 1917 and the institution was chartered by the State of New York as a college for women – with the new name, Manhattanville College of the Sacred Heart. Still committed to the values that shaped its founders’ belief in the liberal arts, the College became coeducational in 1971 and independent of the Society of the Sacred Heart after 1971.
Changes in the nature of the institution did not take place without corresponding changes in locale. The success of the school in the 1840's was such that a larger area was needed and Houston Street was abandoned for the salubrious air of Astoria. This place, too, quickly proved too small and the Lorillard Estate north of the present 125th Street on the upper West Side was purchased. In 1847 this was a rural area; gentlemen’s estates and small farms were its characteristic features and the district was known as Manhattanville, hence the name of the modern College. As the College and the city grew, better conditions for the largely residential student body became necessary. After one hundred and five years another move in 1952 brought the College to Purchase, New York, just 25 miles north of New York City, to the property formerly owned by the Whitelaw Reid family.
The long tradition of the school, which preceded the College charter, determined the character the College would have: a firm belief in the liberalizing effect of the liberal arts, a lively sense of tradition, a wide-ranging interest in the most humane manifestations of the human spirit, a continuing effort to enhance the local community and to accept responsibility for this segment of human history. These forces are alive today on the College campus. It is the challenge of students and faculty to keep them active, to translate them into terms which can be effective in a world remade and reinterpreted by science and technology, and, perhaps, threatened by the very success of human ingenuity.
Manhattanville College's mission is to educate students to become ethically and socially responsible leaders for the global community. Manhattanville continues to dedicate itself to the values of the College founders: academic excellence and a deep respect for intellectual values; development of the whole person, mind, body and spirit in an atmosphere of responsible freedom; the building of a caring, compassionate, nurturing community founded on mutual respect and accountability for individual actions; a special commitment to social awareness; and a moral obligation to educate our students about the role they can play in improving their community and world around them.
By its successful pursuit of its mission, the College believes that good human values will be fostered, respect for one’s self and for others will be encouraged and its graduates will be enabled by both their training and vision to assist and to improve their world.