page_title: New-York Central College
hierarchical_section_title: New-York Central College
caption_attribution_description: English: The New York Central College, in McGraw, NY (at that time called McGrawville) was the first college in the country that accepted all students, black and white, male and female, from tge very first. It is also the first college with black faculty. It lasted from about 1849 to 1859.
context_page_description: New-York Central College, commonly called New-York Central College, McGrawville, and simply Central College, was an abolitionist institution of higher learning founded by Cyrus Pitt Grosvenor and other anti-slavery Baptists in McGraw, New York. The sponsoring organization was the American Baptist Free Mission Society, of which Grosvenor was a vice-president. It was chartered by New York State in April 1848 and opened in September of that year.
  The college lasted about 10 years. As put by the author of a modern study, "A little town tried to create a place without any prejudice, and it did make a difference. It created humanitarians and heroes in a time where nothing else existed like this." While Oberlin and Oneida had accepted African-American students, and Oberlin female students, New-York Central College was the first institution in the country founded to accept all students, and did so from its very first day. This was the vision of its founder, Cyrus Pitt Grosvenor.
  As was common in the Antebellum period, when there were no public secondary schools anywhere in America, Central had a large preparatory, or high school, division.
context_section_description: New-York Central College, commonly called New-York Central College, McGrawville, and simply Central College, was an abolitionist institution of higher learning founded by Cyrus Pitt Grosvenor and other anti-slavery Baptists in McGraw, New York (at the time called McGrawville; not modern McGrawville, New York). The sponsoring organization was the American Baptist Free Mission Society, of which Grosvenor was a vice-president. It was chartered by New York State in April 1848 and opened in September of that year.
  The college lasted about 10 years. As put by the author of a modern study, "A little town tried to create a place without any prejudice, and it did make a difference. It created humanitarians and heroes in a time where nothing else existed like this." While Oberlin and Oneida had accepted African-American students, and Oberlin female students, New-York Central College was the first institution in the country founded to accept all students, and did so from its very first day. This was the vision of its founder, Cyrus Pitt Grosvenor.
  As was common in the Antebellum period, when there were no public secondary schools anywhere in America, Central had a large preparatory, or high school, division.
caption: Main building, 1850.
  The first two floors held classrooms and the third a dormitory for male students.
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