Bradford College Collection, 1803-2007

Bradford College Collection, 1803-2007 Collection Summary Reference Code: MRQ, US. Repository: Special Collections, Haverhill Public Library, Haverhill Massachusetts. Call Number: E1 Creator: Bradford College Title: Bradford College Collection Dates: 1803-2007 Size: 8 Cubit Feet Language(s): Collection materials are in English. Abstract: Bradford College was a four-year co-educational liberal arts college located in what was the town of Bradford, MA. The Bradford College Collection encompasses from the founding of the College in 1803 until its closure in 2000 though Trustee minutes, various correspondence, newspaper clippings, and other assorted materials. Organizational History Bradford College was founded in 1802 and incorporated as a school in 1803. The school was founded as a way to provide better education for the sons and daughters of the well off resident of Bradford. These included the Chadwicks and the Kimball’s. In 1803 shares were sold to raise money for the school. Thirty people invested in the school including Edward Kimball; Benjamin Walker; Moses Kimball John Peabody; Jonathan Chadwick and Nathaniel Thurston among others. Located in the village of Bradford, which would later be annexed to the city of Haverhill in 1897. From 1803 until 1836 the school was a coeducational school were the males would be taught during the summer and winter terms while the women would be taught during the summer terms. During the early years, the school would face financial troubles due to keeping the tuition low to allow more students to attend. The Trustees had decided in early 1836 to make Bradford Academy a woman’s only school with Abigail Hasseltine serving as the principal with the goal of training women to be useful in the “home—children—the nursery and the fireside—the family circle.” The school would continue to grow and expand adding buildings to accommodate the needs of the students. The school would suffer from short falls over the years, in the 1850s the school faced a $50,000 short fall that would be When Marion Coats came to the school in 1918 as principal. She was a graduate of Vassar College (1907) and completed a masters degree at Radcliffe College. The school started to serve the wider needs of the students with an equal divide between those attending Bradford Academy as a two-year preparatory school and other looking to Bradford as a junior college. Under Marian Coats leadership the process to become a Junior College began in 1925 though it would not completed until 1932 when Dorthy M. Bell was the principal (1932-1967) and the school was renamed Bradford Junior College. The school would be accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges and received its accreditation in December of 1931. In 1971 the school became a college and again to admit men again to help keep enrollment numbers up at the school. From 1982-1989 Arthur Levin was the president of the college. One of his longest lasting legacies of his tenure was creating the “Bradford Plan,” which all the majors became constrictions and all students would choose one of five majors: Creative Arts, Humanities, Human Studies, Management and Natural Science and Mathematics. Within those majors, students can then have a concentration such as English, biology or create an interdisciplinary concentration. His vision was to have an “applied liberal-arts” program that would be interdisciplinary and allow students to change and succeed after gradation. The college would continue to In November of 1999 the Trustees voted to close the college. The reason for the closing was because of competition for students; a modest endowment; issues with debt and not having a clear marketing approach for over a decade. The school had been running an annual deficit since 1989; though that debt was under $1 million. In the mid-1990s the school administrators attempted to reform the curriculum, but ran into issues with the faculty. The college had as many as forty majors with only thirty-five full time faculty. In May of 1997 a consultant recommended eliminating many of the areas of concentration and solely focus on the schools strengths. The building of additional dorms is the nail in the coffin; the Trustees voted in October of 1996 to build two new dormitories and would be paid for by the selling of bonds. The ability to repay those bonds were made on two assumptions: enrollment would reach 750 students by 2000 and the financial aid the school gave would decrees from 30.2 percent in 1997 to 28.8 in 1999. Over the next few years enrollment did not meet the anticipated expectations and with the need to attract student’s financial aid that the school offered went up to almost fifty percent. By 1999 there were only 497 fulltime students lower than expected enrollment a tuition discount went to sixty percent and the annual operating deficit was $5.2 million dollars. On Tuesday, November 23 Jean Scott, Bradford College president, announced that the school would close at the end of the 1999-2000 school year. The college held several college fairs to help student’s transfer and faculty made efforts to find other jobs since many job openings had closed around the time of the closing announcement. Several local colleges and universities looked at buying the campus, but none of the schools were interested. The school would sit abandoned for several years. In 2001 several of the properties that were not part of the main campus were sold to pay creditors. On December 31, 2001 the College voluntarily withdrew from accreditation. The Wreath School, which is a school for boys who have been abused or neglected, looked to purchase the campus in 2002. There was a public out cry and calls to block the sale. The City of Haverhill at one point looked to purchase the school as a way to block the Wreath School from purchasing Bradford campus. These deals would fall though along with several others until 2007 when David Green the CEO of Hobby Lobby purchased the campus and donated the campus to Zion Bible College, which was located in Barrington, Rhode Island. In 2008 the campus reopened. In 2013 the college changed its name to Northpoint Bible College. Arrangement Series 1: Series 1: Founding and History, 1803-1930 Series 2: Curriculum Reports, 1916-1927 Scope and Content Note Administrative Information Preferred Citation: Bradford College Collection, MRQ, US, Special Collections, Haverhill Public Library, Haverhill, Massachusetts. Custodial History: Much of the material was acquired from creator. The Haverhill Public Library also collected materials from the creator. Acquisition Information: Materials from the Haverhill Public Library are unknown; from Bradford College, transfer, 2001. Processing Information: Erik R. Bauer, 2015 Access Rights: Collection is open for research. Phys. Access Restrictions: Scrapbooks have brittle pages. Tech Access Restrictions: The Haverhill Public Library does not own playback equipment required for use of audio recordings. Copyright: Copyright has not been assigned to the Haverhill Public Library. All request for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Board of Trustees. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the Haverhill Public Library as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the researcher. This does not apply to items where the copyright has expired. Related Collections: Zion College, Y1 Separated Materials: None Conservation Notes: Newspaper clippings have been photocopied on archival quality paper to preserve their recorded information. Staples and paper clips have been removed and tears have been mended. Subjects: Bradford College (Haverhill, Mass.) Bradford College--Alumni and alumnae--Directories. Bradford College—Yearbooks Bradford College—Student Papers Graves, Marion Coats, 1885-1962. Clippings (informational artifacts) Correspondence Newspapers Collection Inventory Series 1: Founding and History, 1803-1930 This Series contains materials that relate to the founding of Bradford College and its general history. Included is the book that the founders used to create the school for the years 1803-1843. There is also historical events that relate to the school from 1812-1930. Container Folder Folder Title Number Number Title, Dates Sermon for Rev. Messieurs Judson & Newell, 1812 1 1 Presentation of the Portrait of Harriet Newell, 1815-1900 2 2 Address for Dedication of Bradford Hall, 1841 2 3 Poem Delivered at Semi-Centennial, 1853 2 4 By-Laws of Bradford Academy, 1868 1 5 Letter to Mr. John Cawell, 1881 1 6 Correspondence of Bradford, 1869-1980 8 7 Presentation of the Portrait of Ann Hasseltine Judson, 1884 2 8 By-Laws of Bradford Academy, 1885 1 9 Presentation of Samuel Dennis Warren Portrait, 1889 1 10 Senior Class Trip to Salem, MA, 1889 1 11 Bradford Academy Reminiscences, 1891 2 12 Invite to Honor Miss Laura A. Knott, 1901 1 13 Invitations to Bradford Events, 1903, No Dates 10 14 Centennial Dinner Program, 1903 1 15 Preservation of An Historic Landmark, 1904 1 16 Annual Report of the Principal, 1917-1918 1 17 Faculty & Student Address Book, 1923-1924 1 18 Beginnings of Bradford: A Play, 1928 1 19 Bradford Academy History, ca. 1930s 1 20 Series 2: Curriculum Reports, 1916-1927 This Series contains a report conducted by the administration and faculty of Bradford Academy, which is a review of the curriculum and what courses students should take. The purpose of the report appears to help

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