Buffalo Seminary

About this property

Buffalo Seminary (SEM) is an independent, private, college preparatory day and boarding school for girls in Buffalo, New York. SEM is an accredited member of the National Association of Independent Schools, the New York State Association of Independent Schools, The Association of Boarding Schools, the Small Boarding School Association, the National Coalition of Girls' Schools, and Online School for Girls. As an independent school, SEM is not confined by the guidelines established by the New York State Board of Regents. SEM is a Committed Steinway Select School. Founded in 1851, SEM is the sixth oldest school for girls in the United States and the second oldest in New York state. The school was originally named The Buffalo Female Academy and has maintained an all-female student body. Its original mission was to provide an exceptional education for young women, to prepare them to engage productively with the world. Originally, it offered education for young girls from kindergarten through sophomore year in college and had boarding. In 1889, the school adopted its current name, Buffalo Seminary. Graduates of SEM founded the Twentieth Century Club in the late 1800s. one of the oldest private women's clubs in the United States, which is on the National Register of Historic Places. The school changed its policy in 1899 to teach only grades 9 through 12 after merging with the Elmwood School. In 1908, the school moved from its initial founding address on Johnson Park to the current address on Bidwell Parkway, and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2011. In 2008 SEM reestablished boarding which has expanded into a campus of five renovated historic homes next to the school building. Since adding the residential program, American girls and girls from all over the world have lived and learned at SEM. SEM's school building is located at 205 Bidwell Parkway. It was designed by Boston architect George F. Newton and built in 1908 in the Tudor Revival style. SEM's campus includes five historic homes renovated for faculty and student residences, and Larkin Field where SEM's Red-Tailed Hawks play soccer, lacrosse, and field hockey. SEM launched a capital campaign "Remarkable Opportunities - Campaign for SEM" in the spring of 2015 which when it closed June 30, 2016, with gift commitments of $9.2 million, surpassing its goal of $8.5 million. One of the campaign's goals was to build the Magavern-Sutton Courtyard to connect the five SEM student and faculty houses with the school building. The private courtyard opened for the 2016-17 school year. It is located in the Elmwood Historic District–East.

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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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