The Simmons College Graduate School of Social Work, founded in 1904, operated at this site for many years before moving to the college’s main campus in The Fenway. It was the first school of social work to be affiliated with an institution of higher learning. When Simmons College was established as a women’s college in 1899, Henry LeFavour, the first president, explained that the college hoped to prepare young women to earn their own livings. Recognizing that the college’s goal was controversial, he explained: “Whether society ought to be constituted so that women should not need to earn their own living is a debatable question, but it is evident that the trend of society is now in the other direction.” When the college opened, it offered training in household economics, secretarial studies, library science, and general science. The household economics course developed out of the Women’s Educational and Industrial Union’s School of Housekeeping. Social work was added next, followed by salesmanship and public health nursing. The salesmanship program–officially the Prince School of Education for Store Service, also developed out of the Women’s Educational and Industrial Union. Founded in 1905 by Lucinda W. Prince (1862-1935), the program became so popular that Prince soon teamed up with Simmons College to offer teaching training courses for her instructors. By 1915, the program was given its own name–the Prince School of Salesmanship–and it was administered jointly by Simmons and the Union. By 1918, Simmons assumed complete responsibility for the school which was located at 49 Commonwealth Avenue (next to the School of Social Work) in the late 1940s. The Simmons College main campus is located in the Fenway. It offers an undergraduate liberal arts program and graduate programs.
The School of Social Work building was owned by Isabella Stewart Gardner’s father-in-law, John L. Gardner, who willed it to his son George, who gave it to Simmons. He
was influenced by his mother, Eliza Endicott Peabody Gardner, whose life-long interest in social work convinced her son that this was the most appropriate use of their family home.
