Westbrook College Campus

Established in 1831, Westbrook Seminary, as the school was originally known, may be the earliest coeducational boarding school in the country. Once noted as having been in three cities without moving, the institution began in a section of Westbrook that became Deering and was later annexed to Portland. Westbrook Seminary was founded by Universalists but open to all youth, whatever their creed or gender. Permitted to give college work in 1863, it provided laureate degrees to women for more than 50 years. In the 20th century, the institution moved from coeducational seminary to girls’ school, to junior college for women, to college, and finally it became part of the University of New England, all under the school’s original charter. Westbrook College Campus tells the story of this institution through vintage images, some never published before, selected from the campus archives.