Bradford Durfee College of Technology, Board of Trustees meeting minutes and correspondence

In 1895 the Honorable Samuel Ross, member of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts General Court and a prominent New Bedford resident, helped sponsor a bill that authorized the creation of three state textile schools in Massachusetts, in the cities of New Bedford, Fall River and Lowell. The result was the establishment, over the next 9 years, of Bradford Durfee Textile School in Fall River (1904), the New Bedford Textile School (1899), and the Lowell Textile School (1895). Although the Bradford Durfee Textile School was chartered in 1895 and incorporated in 1899, it did not open it’s doors until 1904, when the first building was finally completed on the corner of Durfee and Bank streets in downtown Fall River (see URC 12 for a more detailed chronology of the various buildings that made up the school over the years). The city of Fall River raised $35,000 to match funds from the Commonwealth for its construction. The first class consisted of 5 day and 163 evening students. Four options were offered: a 3-year diploma course in General Cotton Manufacturing, and 2-year diploma courses in Designing and Weaving and in Chemistry and Dyeing. Over time the certificate courses were extended to 3 years and a course in Mechanical Engineering was added. In 1946 the school name changed to Bradford Durfee Technical Institute and in 1947 the school was authorized for the first time to award the bachelor of Science degree. The name of the school changed again in 1958 to the Bradford Durfee College of Technology to reflect its status as a college with a 4-year curriculum (non-degree granting schools with less than 4-year curricula were known as technical institutes).

In 1960 it merged with the New Bedford Institute of Technology to form SMTI (Southeastern Massachusetts Technological Institute), which was later renamed SMU (Southeastern Massachusetts University). The trustees of both schools maintained separate campuses in New Bedford and Fall River until the present facility in North Dartmouth was completed in 1964. The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth still maintains both buildings in downtown New Bedford.