The Industrial School for Girls was originally established 1853 in Winchester, Massachusetts, and moved to Dorchester in 1859 after it outgrew the property, which was not well suited to a school. The Dorchester site was designed by noted architect George Snell. At first a residential school, it served young girls, aged 6 – 15, largely from poor or dysfunctional families. They learned domestic skills with the goal of becoming self-supporting.
After 1881, the girls attended local public schools in the morning and took vocational classes at the Industrial School in the afternoons. When students were placed as domestic servants in private homes, guardians or managers from the school oversaw their situations to ensure their well-being. The program was distinctive and, as such, received attention at conferences and in professional publications. In 1941, the Industrial School for Girls united with the Home for Little Wanderers and was thereafter called Everett House.
It was sold to the Epiphany School in 2011.In 2015, Joe Bagley, an archaeologist for the City of Boston, and a group of volunteers conducted a dig at the site and found thousands of artifacts. Among them were fragments of porcelain dolls (see photo above), poignant reminders of the young girls who were once students at the school. Two women who were deeply involved with the school in its early days were Emeline Everett and Mary Parkman.
Emeline Everett was born into a prominent family who were members of the congregation of the First Parish Church in Dorchester in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Her grandfather, Reverend Moses Everett, served as minister of the church for almost twenty years. Her father was dedicated to community activities and was a state senator representing Norfolk County. His cousin was the noted political figure and orator Edward Everett. Emeline continued the family tradition of service with her involvement in the Industrial School for Girls, where she served on the board of managers as both secretary and later vice president. After leaving the board, she lived with her mother and sister in Dorchester until her death in 1889.
Mary Eliot Dwight was born in 1821, the daughter of noted education reformer Edmund Dwight. Her mother, Mary, a descendent of shipping magnate Samuel Eliot, was frequently ill, and Mary was called on to care for her and her younger siblings. She married Harvard graduate Samuel Parkman, a physician, in 1849. He died from typhoid in 1854, after which Mary’s financial situation deteriorated. She opened a small school to supplement her income and later became secretary of the board of the Industrial School for Girls when it was located in Winchester, MA. She served as vice-president between 1860 – 1862 after the institution moved to Dorchester. She lived in Boston and later Beverly, MA. Parkman promoted public health as a member of the executive committee of the American Social Science Association (ASSA). She served as chairman of the New England Women’s Auxiliary to the Sanitary Commission during the Civil War and later aided in creating a school to train nurses at Massachusetts General Hospital. She died at her Beacon Hill home after having lived out her last years in Beverly Farms, Massachusetts, where she wrote reviews of works of fiction for The Nation.
