Southern Vermont College

Southern Vermont College is a private, four-year liberal arts college located on the 371-acre (1.50 km2) former Edward Everett Estate (originally called The Orchards) near Bennington, Vermont in the southwestern corner of the state bordering New York and Massachusetts.Southern Vermont College was founded in 1926 as St. Joseph Business School, an institution offering certificates of proficiency in secretarial accounting, finance, shorthand and typewriting. Eleven students were in the first graduating class. In 1962, it became an accredited junior college, St. Joseph College, awarding associate degrees in business and secretarial science. Twelve years later, in 1974, the school moved to its current location on the Everett Estate and became Southern Vermont College, a nonsectarian liberal arts college offering a career-directed curriculum. In the years immediately following this change of location, the College earned bachelor's degree authority from the Vermont Department of Education and full accreditation with the New England Association of Schools and Colleges.The 27-room Everett Mansion, listed (along with most of the campus) on the National Register of Historic Places, serves as the College's primary administrative and academic building. It was built 1911–14 for Edward H. Everett, a successful businessman from Cleveland, Ohio, and is architecturally a distinctive combination of Beaux Arts and Norman Revival styles, designed by George Oakley Totten. It hosts the library, theatre, Center for Teaching and Learning (academic support), Burgdorff Gallery, eight classrooms, plus administrative offices. From 1977 to 1994, the theatre served as the residence for the regionally acclaimed Oldcastle Theatre Company.