Fannie Merritt Farmer School Opens

Fannie Merritt Farmer School. Boston Evening Transcript / 1903 / [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Fannie had previously managed the Boston Cooking School from 1891 to 1902. The aim of the Boston Cooking School was to teach people how to teach cooking.

She opened her own school, the Miss Farmer’s School of Cookery, in order to reach a different type of student. At her new school, she aimed to teach the people who would actually be doing the cooking — housewives and nurses. The new school opened on 23 August 1902; it was located at 30 Huntington Avenue in Boston, Massachusetts, USA.

Her summer courses were five weeks; they involved two sessions a day from Monday to Friday, covering Practical Dietetics (two sessions), Infant and Child Feeding (two sessions), Applied Organic Chemistry (four sessions), Invalid Cookery (two sessions), Feeding in Institutions (four sessions), Duties of a Waitress (eight sessions), Sewing (two sessions a week), Marketing Course (four sessions), and Advanced Cookery (twenty-four sessions.)

Others teaching at the school included a Dr Elliot P. Joseph, Dr Charles W. Townsend, a Mrs C.E. Pearce, and Alice Bradley (1875-1946).

“[Fannie] invited Bradley to teach there because the school had to offer courses in dietetics for nurses to gain acceptance. The school used two teaching methods: the demonstration lecture, and laboratory work done in small groups in kitchen/classrooms. Bradley taught at the school for nine years.” ^[1]Bradley, Alice, 1875-1946. Papers of Alice Bradley, 1893-1980: A Finding Aid. Harvard University. June 1983. Accessed May 2016 at http://oasis.lib.harvard.edu/oasis/deliver/~sch00468

Fannie gave lessons during the day for housewives, and during the evenings for nurses and professional cooks who had to work during the day.

In 1915, upon Fannie’s death, Alice Bradley purchased the school from Fannie’s sister Cora, and became principal of the school. She wrote a recipe book sponsored by the General Electric Company in 1928, called “Electric Refrigerator Menus and Recipes.” In 1903, the school became associated with Simmons College, which had opened on 9 October 1902. In 1903, Simmons College leased space at 372 Boylston Street in Boston which had formerly housed laboratories for the Boston Cooking School and which was merged into the College in 1902.

In 1944, Alice retired, and sold the school to a Dr. Dana Wallace.

The school was still in business as of 1945. CooksInfo is unsure of the history of it after that.

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Fannie Merritt Farmer School