St. Francis College (St. Francis of Brooklyn or SFC) is a private Franciscan college in Downtown Brooklyn, New York City. It was founded in 1859 by the Franciscan Brothers of Brooklyn as the St. Francis Academy and was the first private school in the Diocese of Brooklyn. St. Francis College began as a parochial all-boys academy in the City of Brooklyn and has become a small liberal arts college that has 19 academic departments offering 72 majors and minors.
St. Francis College is a predominantly undergraduate institution with graduate programs in accounting, project management, psychology, creative writing, and exercise and sport science. St. Francis is set in an urban environment and considered a commuter college. As of 2021, there were 2,372 undergraduates and 117 graduate students.
St. Francis College eliminated all intercollegiate athletics following the 2022-23 academic year. Prior to this, the school had 21 athletic teams that competed in Division I of the NCAA and were known as the Terriers.
History
Baltic and Butler Street Campus
In 1858, Brother John McMahon, O.S.F., and Brother Vincent Hayes, O.S.F., from the Roundstone Monastery in Ireland came to the United States to begin work on establishing an academy dedicated to educating underprivileged youth in the Brooklyn diocese. This was done at the request of the Bishop of Brooklyn, Reverend John Loughlin. In 1859, St. Francis College was founded as the St. Francis Academy, the first Catholic school in Brooklyn. St. Francis Academy opened in a building on 300 Baltic Street in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn, with 30 students and six Brothers. The first President was Brother John McMahon, one of the founders. The academy expanded and grew to encompass six row houses, with of frontage, and a former Methodist Church on Baltic Street.
In 1868, the academy was incorporated, and on May 8, 1884, it was chartered: the trustees of the academy received permission from the New York State Legislature to "establish a literary college in the City of Brooklyn under the title of St. Francis College, with the same powers to confer diplomas and literary honors possessed by the universities and colleges of New York State." St. Francis Academy became St. Francis College and, in June 1885, bestowed its first Bachelor of Arts degree. By 1884, St. Francis College encompassed interconnected buildings that were on Baltic and Butler Streets, between Court and Smith Streets. The entrance to the college was on Baltic Street, and the entrance to the monastery on Butler Street. In June 1892, the college conferred it first Bachelor of Science degree. In 1896, St. Francis fielded the first collegiate men's basketball team in New York City. Then, in May 1902, St. Francis received its charter from the State of New York. From this time on, the college's curriculum offered only a post-secondary course of study. By 1917, the college's enrollment dropped to half, due to students enlisting in the military as the United States entered World War I. In 1926, the Franciscan Brothers opened a new facility on Butler Street, after raising US$250,000 through a fundraising campaign dubbed the "Great Drive." About 10 years later, its preparatory school moved out and eventually became a legally separate institution, St. Francis Preparatory School, which is located in Queens.