Packer Collegiate Institute

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Packer Collegiate Institute is an independent, private, college preparatory school for students from prekindergarten through grade 12. Formerly the Brooklyn Female Academy, Packer has been located at 170 Joralemon Street in the historic district of Brooklyn Heights since its founding in 1845.

The Packer Collegiate Institute
Motto "Macte Virtute" ("Increase in Worth")
Established 1845
School type Private
Headmaster Dr. Bruce Dennis
Head of Admissions Mr. Noah Reinhardt
Chairman, Board of Trustees Mr. Sam Seymour
Location 170 Joralemon Street
Brooklyn, New York, USA 11201
Enrollment Total: 942 Students
Faculty Fulltime : 131 Part-time: 15
Mascot The Pelican
Homepage The Packer Collegiate Institute

After a fire destroyed the school on January 1, 1853, Harriet Putnam Packer (1820-1892), the widow of William S. Packer, a former trustee offered $65,000 to rebuild the school, provided it be renamed for her late husband. At the time, this was the largest gift ever made for the higher education of women. The new building, designed by the noted architect of Brooklyn churches, Minard LaFever, opened in November, 1854.

From 1919 to 1972 the school also operated a junior college. Packer abolished the college in 1972 after it accepted male students and became co-educational.

Packer is the oldest independent school in Brooklyn. Its 942 students represent all five boroughs of New York City and parts of New Jersey and its campus contains over 65 classrooms, two libraries, two gymnasiums, a fitness center, a theater, a dance studio and a dining commons, and a Gothic Revival Chapel with notable stained glass windows designed by Louis Comfort Tiffany. A new middle school space was recently added.

[edit] Notable alumni

  • Mary White Ovington (1890) - Civil rights leader, author - Co-founder and Executive Secretary of the NAACP
  • Lois Lowry (1956) - Author - Number the Stars and The Giver
  • Barbara Severy Wellington Winthrop (1965) - Talented Chef, Entrepreneur and poet
  • Alison Blackman Dunham aka. "Advice Sister Alison" 1972-a life & career expert, writer, creator of the Advice Sisters "Great Relationships" web sites and credited with bringing the advice/information genre, online (as described in the academic textbook: Marriage and Family Experience: Relationships Changing Society 8th Edition by Bryan Strong, Christine DeVault, Theodore F. Cohen, 2004)
  • Rosanna Scotto (1976) - Television News Anchor - FOX 5 News, New York City
  • Malcolm D. Lee (1988) - Director, Roll Bounce, Everybody Hates Chris and Undercover Brother
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