Vassar College is a private liberal arts college in Poughkeepsie, New York, United States. Founded in 1861 by Matthew Vassar, it was the second degree-granting institution of higher education for women in the United States. The college became coeducational in 1969. The college offers BA degrees in more than fifty majors. Vassar College's varsity sports teams, known as the Brewers, play in the NCAA's Division III as members of the Liberty League. Currently, there are close to 2,500 students.
Elmira College is a private college in Elmira, New York. Founded as a college for women in 1855, it is the oldest existing college granting degrees to women that were the equivalent of those given to men. Elmira College became coeducational in all of its programs in 1969. As of 2023, the college has an enrollment of approximately 657 students.
The Hudson River State Hospital is a former New York state psychiatric hospital which operated from 1873 until its closure in the early 2000s. The campus is notable for its main building, known as a "Kirkbride," which has been designated a National Historic Landmark due to its exemplary High Victorian Gothic architecture, the first use of that style for an American institutional building. It is located on US 9 on the Poughkeepsie-Hyde Park town line.
The Main Building of Vassar College is the oldest surviving building on its campus in Poughkeepsie, New York, and the center of academic life. It was built by James Renwick Jr. in the Second Empire style in 1861, the second building in the history of what was one of America's first women's colleges. It is one of the earliest, largest, and most important examples of Second Empire architecture in the United States and is a National Historic Landmark for its architecture and educational significance. At the time of its completion, the structure contained the most interior space of any building in the United States, and housed the entire college, including dormitories, libraries, classrooms, and dining halls. Currently, the first and second floors house campus administration while the remaining three house student rooms.
Springside was the estate of Matthew Vassar in Poughkeepsie, New York, United States. It is located on Academy Street just off US 9. Detailed plans for a landscape, villa, and complex of farm buildings were drawn up by the influential Andrew Jackson Downing with assistance of Calvert Vaux prior to the former's death. The landscaping was completed and remains Downing's most intact surviving landscape, but only a few of the buildings he planned were ever built; most have since been lost to fire and structural failure. A cottage where Vassar resided was dismantled and removed in the mid-1970s. Its facade is on display in the New York State Museum.
The Academy Street Historic District is a historic district located along that street between Livingston and Montgomery streets in the city of Poughkeepsie, New York, United States. It is a few blocks from US 9, just northeast of Springside, Matthew Vassar's never-completed estate that is now a National Historic Landmark.
The Miscellany News is the student newspaper of Vassar College. Established in 1866, it is one of the oldest student newspapers in the country. The paper is distributed every Thursday during Vassar's academic year to locations across the College's campus, including dormitories, dining and athletic facilities, communal areas, as well as off-campus locations in the Town of Poughkeepsie. The paper accepts contributions from all members of the college community—students, administrators, faculty, staff, alumnae/i and trustees—and has a regular staff of roughly 40 to 50 student editors, reporters, photojournalists, multimedia correspondents and designers. In addition to its print publication, the staff also publishes articles, videos, and photo essays daily on its website and blogs.
Baltimore Heritage is an American nonprofit historic-preservation organization headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland.
Cushing House is a four-story dormitory on Vassar College's campus in the town of Poughkeepsie, New York. A response to freshmen overcrowding, the college's Board of Trustees hurried the Allen & Collens-designed building, named for college librarian and alumna trustee Florence M. Cushing, to construction and completion in 1927. Cushing was originally designed as eight smaller houses with euthenic principles in mind, but ended up as a single U-shaped dormitory in the Old English manor house style with Jacobean interior furnishings.
The Seeley G. Mudd Chemistry Building was a chemistry laboratory and classroom building on the campus of Vassar College in the town of Poughkeepsie, New York. The 42,000-square-foot (3,900 m2) postmodern building stood on the north end of a cluster of other science buildings on the site of the school's first chemistry laboratory. It was completed in 1984 at a cost of $7.2 million after the college received money from a fund bequeathed to it in the will of California cardiologist and professor Seeley G. Mudd. The structure replaced Sanders Hall of Chemistry and included elements designed to be energy efficient, notably a large wall of glass blocks that designers hoped would passively heat the building. Reviews of the structure were positive when it opened with critics praising the way its form complemented nearby older buildings. By 2015, many aspects of the building had been evaluated as being in Fair or Poor condition and the building was demolished in April 2016 as part of the Science Center project, later replaced with an open green space.
Raymond House is one of five quadrangle residence halls at Vassar College, located in the town of Poughkeepsie, New York. Designed by Francis R. Allen, Raymond House was erected in 1897 in response to the popularity of Strong House and named after the second president of Vassar College, John Howard Raymond. The dormitory has five floors and is one of the residence halls that was paid for by the college in entirety.
Lathrop House was the third quadrangle dormitory built on Vassar College's campus in the town of Poughkeepsie, New York. Constructed in 1901 and designed by Boston-based Allen & Vance, the brick dorm stands five stories tall. Lathrop houses 180 students who may be any year or gender.
The Philaletheis Society is a student theatre group at Vassar College in the town of Poughkeepsie, New York, and the school's oldest student organization. Founded in December 1865, Phil began as a college literary society and its first leader was college president John Howard Raymond. Control of the organization was swiftly handed to the students and the group split into three chapters, each with a distinct focus. The group maintained its literary focus until the 1890s, by which point dramatic productions had taken over in popularity. The tradition of producing four and later three plays per year continued into the mid-twentieth century, but in 1958, the organization disbanded due to lack of interest. It was revived in 1975, first as an arm of student government and then as an independent student organization.
Davison House is a five-story dormitory on the campus of Vassar College in the town of Poughkeepsie, New York. Designed by Boston architecture firm Allen & Vance and built 1902, it was the fourth dorm built on Vassar's residential quadrangle. It houses 191 students of any grade or gender and it became Vassar's first disabled-accessible dorm following a 2008–2009 renovation.
The Students' Building on the campus of Vassar College in the town of Poughkeepsie, New York, U.S., houses the school's All Campus Dining Center as well as additional multifunctional student space on its second floor. Designed by Joseph Herenden Clark of McKim, Mead & White and built in 1913, the structure originally housed a variety of different student organizations and school functions. In 1973, it was converted into a campuswide dining hall; it underwent a second renovation in 2003 that returned multipurpose student functionalities to its upper floors.
Jewett House is a nine-story Tudor-style dormitory on the campus of Vassar College in the town of Poughkeepsie, New York. Built in 1907 to accommodate increasing demand for residential space, the dorm was designed by Vassar art professor Lewis Pilcher of the architectural firm Pilcher and Tachau. Early reviews looked unfavorably upon Jewett, even dubbing it "Pilcher's Crime" and by 2002, a host of issues plagued the dorm, leading to a $21 million renovation. Up to 195 students of any gender or class year may live in Jewett, which has been purported to be haunted by several different ghosts during its existence.
The Bridge for Laboratory Sciences is a two-story laboratory and classroom building on the campus of Vassar College in the town of Poughkeepsie, New York. Designed by Ennead Architects, the 80,000-square-foot (7,400 m2) structure curves 300 feet (91 m) across the Fonteyn Kill and connects to the renovated Olmsted Hall as part of the Integrated Science Center project.
Ely Hall is a two-story Richardsonian Romanesque classroom and laboratory building on the campus of Vassar College in the town of Poughkeepsie, New York, US. The structure houses Vassar's Department of Earth Science and Geography, the A. Scott Warthin Jr. Museum of Geology and Natural History, and the Aula, a spacious and frequently used gathering space.
Margaret Burnham Geddes was an American architect, urban planner, and activist who worked in Providence, Rhode Island. She designed several early modernist houses in southern New England with partner J. Peter Geddes and worked as a planner for the Providence Redevelopment Agency.
Alice Dorothea Snyder was an American professor of English at Vassar College and president of the Poughkeepsie Woman Suffrage Party. During the early 20th century, Snyder led the campaign that earned New York women the right to vote. Besides her positive impact to the women's rights movement, Snyder was an academic who focused on the work of Samuel Taylor Coleridge. British philosopher John Henry Muirhead called Snyder a "pioneer in the sympathetic re-examination of these manuscripts".
