Scholfield's Commercial College
1882 engraving
TypePrivate co-educational Business college
Active1846 (1846) – ?
FounderAlbert G. Scholfield
Academic staff
12
Students650
Location
Providence
,
Rhode Island
,
USA
CampusUrban

Scholfield's Commercial College was a business college in Providence, Rhode Island, during the second half of the 19th century. It is no longer in operation.

History

Albert Scholfield (1807–1901)

In 1846, Albert Gallatin Scholfield (1807–1901)[1] moved from Connecticut to Providence. He was a proponent of the double-entry bookkeeping system, but found that most merchants in town used the single-entry system.[2] Sensing an opportunity, in June 1846 he opened Scholfield's Commercial College in downtown Providence.[2] It was the first business school in the city.[2] Eventually the double-entry method became the dominant accounting system in town.[2]

By 1867, the school boasted twelve faculty and an average daily attendance of 650 students.[3] The school taught both men and women, as well as students "young and old."[4]

In the years leading up to World War I, Scholfield's faced increasing competition from the four other commercial colleges in downtown Providence, including Johnson & Wales, Bryant and Stratton (now Bryant University) and Rhode Island Commercial School.[5]

Courses

This 1890 advertisement for Scholfield's in the Fall River Daily Evening News promises "no classes ... each student is favored with separate instruction."[6]

Bookkeeping was the main course of study at Scholfield's. The school promoted itself as teaching a superior and original method, which they called "Scholfield's Manuscript System of Book-Keeping."[3] This method dispensed with textbooks, and was simultaneously more thorough and faster to learn than other accounting methods.[3] The school offered "special attention" to bookkeeping for the Jewellery industry,[3] which was an important industry in Providence at the time. Further, the school boasted that Scholfield's System would "render the perpetration of fraud or embezzlement by workmen and employees nearly impossible."[3]

A catalog from 1867 lists courses including surveying; civil engineering; navigation; and penmanship.[3] Also offered was a course on "Common English Studies", which included arithmetic, grammar, geography and other studies.[3] Students could study a basic level of Latin, Greek, French, and German.[3] In 1892 the school offered courses in "shorthand, oil and watercolor painting, and mechanical drawing."[4]

Women studying bookkeeping were allowed to study with the men in the Bookkeeping Department, while other women could enroll in the Ladies Department, which offered instruction in penmanship, Belles-lettres, drawing, and French.[3]

Location

The school advertised for students from as far away as New York City, as in this advertisement from the New York Tribune from March 30, 1866.

The school was located in the Howard Building, at the corner of Dorrance St. and Westminster St. in downtown Providence.[7] In 1883, the address was given as Paris Hall, 193 Westminster Street.[8] An 1892 listing gives the address as 174 Westminster Street.[4]

Although Bryant College occupied the Howard building in 1863,[9] the two schools are not to be confused.[7] Scholfield's was a competitor of Bryant, and by 1882 Bryant was located in the Hoppin Homestead Building down Westminster Street.[7]

There have been four Howard Buildings on the site. Twice it burned down. The third building, home of Scholfield's, was built 1857 and demolished in 1957 after Hurricane Carol flooded downtown.[9]

The main hall of the Howard building was a huge space, with a capacity to hold 1200 students.[3] It measured 108 feet (33 m) long by 62 feet (19 m) wide, and 25 feet (7.6 m) high from floor to ceiling; it was illuminated by the light of fourteen windows by day, and fourteen chandeliers by night.[3] The school claimed in 1867 advertisements to be the "largest commercial college in the world."[10]

Alumni

In 1892, Scholfield's claimed an alumni body which included "thousands of successful graduates, scattered all over the United States," including governors, mayors, and "men in all responsible positions of life."[4] Some notable people who studied at Scholfield's include:

References

  1. ↑ "The Rhode Island Historical Cemeteries Transcription Project Index". US GenWeb Project. Retrieved 15 January 2016.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Greene, Welcome Arnold (1886). The Providence Plantations for Two Hundred and Fifty Years. Providence, RI: J. A. & R. A. Reid. p. 174. Retrieved 15 January 2016. Scholfield College.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Circular and catalogue of Scholfield's Commercial College. Providence: Knowles, Anthony & Co. 1867. Retrieved 15 January 2016.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Industries and wealth of the principal points in Rhode Island : being city of Providence, Pawtucket, Central Falls, Woonsocket, Newport, Narragansett Pier, Bristol and Westerly. A.F. Parsons Pub. Co. 1892. p. 153. hdl:2027/hvd.hxtaad. Retrieved 24 May 2020.
  5. ↑ Quinney, Valerie (1988). Bryant College: The First 125 Years. Smithfield, Rhode Island: Bryant University. pp. 23–24. ISBN 0-9619687-0-2. Retrieved 22 July 2021.
  6. ↑ "Scholfield's Commercial College". Fall River Daily Evening News. 4 October 1890. p. 2. Retrieved 24 May 2020.
  7. 1 2 3 "Scholfield's Commercial College Certificate". Digital Commons @ Bryant University. Bryant University. Retrieved 15 January 2016.
  8. ↑ Scholfield's Commercial College (advertisement). Fall River, Massachusetts: Fall River Daily Evening News. 20 September 1883. p. 3. Retrieved 24 May 2020.
  9. 1 2 Lennon, Sheila (25 January 2013). "Long ago, it housed a business school: Where, when, what's there now?". The Providence Journal. Retrieved 15 January 2016.
  10. ↑ "Scholfield's Commercial College". Fall River Daily Evening News. 19 July 1867. Retrieved 24 May 2020.
  11. ↑ "Henry Fletcher, City's Mayor 1909-13, Dies". Providence, Rhode Island: The Providence Journal. 27 August 1953. p. 12.
  12. ↑ "W.H. Vanderbilt Retires". New York Tribune. 5 May 1883. Retrieved 24 May 2020. Instead of taking a classical course, he entered the Scholfield Commercial College, where he remained until the latter part of 1853.
  13. ↑ "A.C. Robertson dies in Montville". Hartford Courant. 9 November 1908. p. 12. Retrieved 24 May 2020.
  14. ↑ Evening post annual: Biographical sketches (with portraits) of the state officers, representatives in Congress, governor's staff, and senators and members of the General Assembly of the state of Connecticut. Hartford, Connecticut: Evening Post Association. 1892. p. 56. Retrieved 25 March 2023.
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