Bryant University

Bryant University is a private university in Smithfield, Rhode Island. It has two colleges, the College of Arts and Sciences and the College of Business, and is accredited by the New England Commission of Higher Education. History Butler Exchange and downtown Providence Bryant University was founded in 1863 as a branch of a national school which originally taught bookkeeping and methods of business communication and was named after founders, John Collins Bryant and Henry Beadman Bryant. This separate chain of schools is currently called Bryant & Stratton College. In 1878 the Providence branch of Bryant & Stratton was sold to a teacher at the school, Thomas Stowell. Stowell died in 1916 the school was sold again and merged with Henry Jacobs' Rhode Island Commercial School (founded 1898). Classes for Bryant and Stratton College were originally held in the now demolished Butler Exchange building located in downtown Providence, at 111 Westminster Street on Kennedy Plaza. Bryant became non-profit in 1949 and offered its first master's program in 1969. College Hill From August 1, 1935, to 1971, Bryant College of Business Administration campus was located on College Hill near Brown University. Housed first at "South Hall" at the corner of Hope Street and Young Orchard Avenue, formerly Hope Hospital, the college expanded into neighboring buildings. The "South Hall" building was originally the 19th-century home of Byron Sprague, a nephew of manufacturer William Sprague III, and later the home of Isaac Gifford Ladd. When the school relocated to Smithfield, it sold the Providence campus to Brown University. The property, 26 buildings on 10 acres of land, became known as Brown's East Campus. The former South Hall became home to Brown's music department, and is now called the Orwig Music Center.