4. Finch College
Finch College was a private women’s college in Manhattan that began as a secondary school in 1900 before becoming a liberal arts college in 1952. Jessica Finch, a women’s rights activist who founded the Lennox School on the Upper East Side, founded Finch College. The Barnard College graduate started the school to focus on vocational, hands-on learning. Faculty included Columbia University professors, politicians, local actors and artists, and fashion designers. The college had some famous alumni, including actress Arlene Francis, Patsy Pulitzer (whose grandfather was Joseph Pulitzer), and Italian actress Isabella Rossellini.
Finch College was located on the Upper East Side and was known for the geographic diversity of its students. The college launched the Finch Intercontinental Study Plan in 1960, a notable study abroad program at the time. The Finch College Museum of Art opened in 1959, though just a decade later, the college struggled financially during the coeducation movement of the 1960s and the Vietnam War. The school ultimately shuttered in 1976 after failing to get federal funding to subsidize tuition.