Our grandfather, Ralph Barker’s sister Sarah Barker was the first graduate from this school.
New York Training School for Deaconesses Project
(History Provided by the Episcopal Diocese of New York Archives)
THE NEW YORK TRAINING SCHOOL FOR DEACONESSES was founded in October 1890, by the Rev. William R. Huntington, D.D., as a school where women might be trained to meet the requirements of the Canon on Deaconesses, drawn by him and passed largely through his efforts at the Convention of 1889. Through the instrumentality of Dr. Huntington a considerable sum of money was raised with which a building on East Twelfth Street was bought, where the pupils were first housed. Rooms in Grace Settlement House were used for Recitation Halls. This, however, he always regarded as an inconvenient and temporary arrangement; and when his life-long friend, Archdeacon C. C. Tiffany, left to the School a legacy of $120,000 upon the condition that a suitable school building in memory of Mrs.
Tiffany should be erected in the Close of the Cathedral, Dr. Huntington took immediate steps toward fulfilling these requirements. The planning of the building was a great joy to him and one of the last acts of his life was the signing of the contract for its construction. Designed by architects Heins & Lafarge, the cornerstone for the building was laid May 7, 1910. The building contains a chapel at the eastern end known as the Oratory of the Good Shepherd, a Library, a Refectory, recitation rooms and dormitories for 50 students.
From 1890-1919 284 women were admitted to the school; 169 graduated, of whom 95 became deaconesses. As enrollments dropped the school was closed in 1947 and the building was turned over to the Cathedral to be used primarily for offices, with the upper floors used as residences for the Suffragan Bishop and for the Canon Ministers of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine.
The New York Training School for Deaconesses records are part of the archives collection of the Diocese of New York. The archives received a grant from EWHP to provide a finding aid for the 19 banker’s boxes and 8 hollinger boxes of material that comprise the NYTS collection. The archives has now processed about two-thirds of the material. You can access the new finding aid in Word here. In addition we are providing a link to a 1907 description of the school from The Churchman. the Archives are located in the former training school building (now Cathedral offices) on the grounds of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. For access to the collection, contact Wayne Kempton, Archivist at 212-316-7419 or archives@dioceseny.org.