Grahm Junior college: 1950 – 1979
dedicated to the alumni of grahm jr. college and
cambridge school of Business and broadcasting
first published in 2000
The
three main buildings of GJC: Kenmore
Hall, Beacon Building and Leavitt Hall
A history of GRAHM JUNIOR COLLEGE
By Matthew Hasson, Class of 1978
Grahm Junior College was founded in 1950 as the Cambridge
School of Business. It began as one of a chain of schools whose main
office was in New York, with two other schools in Philadelphia and Chicago.
It’s first President was Jack Nesson, who started with nine students in
the first class. Milton Grahm assumed
Presidency of Cambridge School in 1951, with Nesson as Vice President, beginning
a journey from a small business school to making it into one of Boston's busiest 2-year
colleges. Despite the name, the
school was never located in Cambridge. It was in Copley Square for
several years at the corner of Boylston and Exeter Streets across from the
Boston Public Library. At the time there were two large statues of lions
flanking the building entrance. These stone lions were adopted as
the school's mascots and also gave name to the class yearbook. The
building has since been demolished, but the lions themselves were relocated
down the street to the entrance of the Fairmount Copely Plaza Hotel, where they
were painted gold and can still be seen today. In 1964, Cambridge School
was accredited as a Junior College of Business and it's student enrollment had
increased to 750. The curriculum was expanded to include
hotel/restaurant management, secretarial science and broadcast communications,
thus the name of the school was modified to the "Cambridge School of Business and Broadcasting."
That same year the school purchased a Kenmore Square
insurance office building at 632 Beacon Street and converted the premises for
radio & television production studios. In 1965 the school began leasing
dormitory space from the prestigious Hotel Kenmore located on the opposite side
of Kenmore Square. The hotel owners were experiencing declining business
and eventually decided to sell the building to the school outright. In
1966, Cambridge School purchased the Hotel Kenmore and Wadsworth annex.
The Hotel's original "Beef 'N Bird" Restaurant retained it's
name and decor and became the school cafeteria. The main Kenmore building
became a girls dormitory and Wadsworth Hall the boys dormitory. In 1967,
the school was renamed Grahm Junior College in honor of President Milton Grahm
who had worked for years on the school's expansion. By 1968, at the
height of the Vietnam war student enrollment was at an all time high with the
Baby-Boomers hitting college age (and an increase in male students attending
college for the purpose of getting a draft deferment). This required more
dormitory space, so Grahm purchased the former Hotel Buckminster, one of the
oldest and largest buildings in Kenmore Square. The new boys dormitory
was renamed Leavitt Hall, after Grahm's mother and father-in-law. The
college continued on through the sixties and into the seventies and retained a
good reputation in the broadcasting industry. At it's peak enrollment
there were over 1,300 students. By the
late 70's however, a faltering economy and a declining enrollment with
increasing debt and expenses forced the once prosperous school into bankruptcy.
In 1979, Grahm Junior College graduated it's last class and closed it's
doors forever, yet it’s legacy lives on today.
Many national and local TV announcers, reporters, and radio personalities
have Grahm Junior College on their resume. There were also hundreds of
directors, engineers and writers who joined the production, management and
technical end of broadcasting. There are
also graduates of the business school who live and work all over the country in
the hotel and restaurant industries and other services.
The New Grahm Junior College Memorial Page
I first started this website in 2000 based on
material I wrote for a TV production project I worked on when I was at
Grahm. I was given access to the schools
archives which contained memorabilia from the Hotel Kenmore and early publicity
releases from the Cambridge School.
Additional research material I obtained at the City of Boston Buildings
Department and the Boston Public Library.
I’ve had hundreds of people sign the guest book since I launched the
page on AOL. Now that original site is
no longer, I hope to get more Grahmites reunited at this new location. I’ve decided to streamline this new site
somewhat by putting all the photos in a photo gallery on
Google Picasa. The guestbook
remains with its many entries going back to 2001. Watch this page for future updates.
Milton Grahm
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