Rutgers Female College


Rutgers Female College was chartered in April 1838 under the name Rutgers Female Institute. Its first home was at 262–66 Madison Street on the Lower East Side, on land lent by William B. Crosby, one of the first incorporators. The cornerstone of a new building was laid August 29, 1838, and the institute was opened in the spring of 1839. It was the first seminary for the higher education of women in the City of New York. In 1860, it moved uptown to 487–91 Fifth Avenue.
An application for a full collegiate charter was made to the New York State Legislature, and granted April 11, 1867, expressly conferring on Rutgers all rights, powers, and privileges enjoyed by any college or university in the state, except the authority to grant medical ot legal diplomas.
By 1870, a branch had been established in Harlem, at the corner of Second Avenue and 124th Street.
The college ceased operations in 1894.