Smith College was chartered in 1871 by Sophia Smith, the daughter of a prosperous farmer who inherited a large fortune from her family at the age of 65. Smith, who was deeply religious, decided that donating the money to a worthwhile cause would be the best way to fulfill her moral obligations and began a 9-year-long consultation with her pastor, John Greene, regarding what to do with the money.
After much deliberation, Smith left $400,000 and instructions in her will for the foundation of a women’s college with the “facilities for education equal to those afforded to young men.” Smith’s original plan was to found a school for the deaf, since she herself suffered from hearing loss, but another school for the deaf opened in the area just before her death and Smith was forced to revise her plan.
Smith College opened its doors in 1875 with 14 students and 6 faculty members. It was a monumental and groundbreaking college at the time—seeking to give women an education equal to that of their male counterparts at a time when higher education for women consisted of classes on sewing and painting.
Today, Smith is the largest of the seven sister schools with 2,600 undergraduates and 285 professors in 41 academic programs.
Northampton, Massachusetts, or NoHo as the locals like to call it, is a lovely, vibrant town of about 30,000 residents located in the wooded, mountainous landscape of Western Massachusetts. Its location in Pioneer Valley is prime leaf-peeping territory and the town and surrounding area is often flooded with tourists in the autumn months, all there to ogle the foliage.
The town has a thriving arts community and is home to the Paradise City Arts Festival, the #1 arts festival in the country. It’s known for having an earthy, crunchy, almost hippie-like feel and is generally regarded as a very progressive and tolerant town, no doubt in part because of its large gay and lesbian community.
Northampton has a bustling downtown area with shops, sidewalk cafes, galleries, clubs, and excellent restaurants, as well as several music venues that are a regular stop for many popular national acts. For shopping there is Thornes Marketplace, a 100-year-old department store that morphed into a 30-store indoor shopping area, as well as many smaller, local boutiques around the Main Street drag.
As reported by Abby Reilly, ’08:
“Downtown Northampton is where Smithies go to for a quick escape from the stress of college and to have some fun. One of the most popular off-campus hangouts is Packard’s. It’s a bar that lets in people under 21 (no alcohol though) and serves great munchies and burgers. It’s open late with a fun atmosphere. It’s cleaner and less crowded than your typical college bar and students of all ages can join in on the fun.
The most popular non-bar hangout is Haymarket, a coffee shop that serves delicious short order food. The food and drink usually run in the vein of 'earthy', which is pretty common in a town like Northampton. Students often bring work and reading to do since the quietness makes it a good place to be productive.
For a quick sugar boost, students frequent an ice cream shop called Herrell’s. It boasts homemade ice cream in flavors such as 'burnt sugar and butter' and 'Twinkie.' It gets super busy in the warmer months when the Western Massachusetts weather is hot and sticky.
Also in downtown Northampton is Faces, a clothing, knick-knack, home furnishing store known for its eclectic collection of stuff. Students end up at Faces to buy neat-looking bathroom and dorm room decorations or comfy American Apparel shirts. The variety of items in the store makes it an ideal place to browse with no real direction or purpose. It’s also a popular stop around Halloween because of the costume selection.
Finally, while it’s not a place to 'hang out' one of the other popular destinations at Smith is Rt. 9 in Hadley. It’s a major road connecting Northampton to several other towns and colleges. Rt. 9 is littered with different places to eat, such as Pizza Hut and Applebee’s and shopping stores like Target and Best Buy. There are also fun activities like roller skating in the Hampshire Mall on Rt. 9. The road is home to the Cinemark, the main multiplex in the area.”
Smith is located in Western Massachusetts in the town of Northampton. The campus consists of 147 contiguous acres beautifully landscaped by renowned American landscape architect, Frederick Law Olmsted and features more than 1,200 varieties of trees and shrubs.
The campus encompasses the seventh oldest botanic garden in the country, which includes a variety of specialty gardens, as well as the Lyman Plant House, a 12,000 square-foot glass conservatory. The garden is a major resource for the department of Biological Studies and allows students to analyze plant samples, study plant anatomy and observe examples of natural habitat.
On the southwest side of the campus, the buildings look out on scenic Paradise Pond. Near the pond are Smith’s boat house and the crew house where, in warmer months, the crew team can often be seen practicing.
The school’s Brown Fine Arts center features the world-famous Smith College Museum of Art, which holds nearly 24,000 objects in its collection from a variety of cultures and media. The 164,000-square-foot facility centers around a 40-foot high sky-lit atrium that serves as a year-round gathering space, uniting the art museum, art library, and art department.
Smith’s campus has seven library branches, making it the largest liberal arts library on the United States and larger than many university libraries. The branches include: the Nielson Library, Young Science Library, Hillyer Art Library, Josten Performing Arts Library, Mortimer Rare Book Room, Sophia Smith Collection and College Archives. Between these libraries the college’s collection numbers over 1.4 million items including books, maps, audios, videos, music, manuscripts, and more.
As reported by Abby Reilly, ’08:
“The Campus Center is the place to be at Smith. It has its own student-run bar in the basement and the best part is that there is no cover and the drinks are pretty inexpensive. However, it is really small and it can be hard to get in on a busy night. Also in the basement are pool and air hockey tables.
The Campus Center Café is probably the other cool place to hang out. It makes good food and people often go to hang out over some grub or to do some work. It’s a nice bright place with fluorescent seating so it helps keep you cheery and awake. People have meetings in the café often so it is common to see a mix of people (and genders) in there. Lots of local people and professors have lunch in there as well.
Chapin Lawn, when it is nice out, is always littered with students. On nice days, students can convince professors to hold class outside, too. Students nap, tan, read, eat, do work, and hang out there. Chapin Lawn is located in the middle of the campus, so it’s common to kill time there between classes with friends.”
Of course, one of the greatest woes of students attending a women’s college is the lack of opportunities to meet men. Though Smith has the reputation of being a lesbian school, this is not the case. Yes, the lesbian and transgender communities at Smith are larger than at most other schools, but the majority of girls are still straight. This stereotype, however, often makes it difficult for Smithies to meet guys, despite reassurances from tour guides and administration that there are boys-a-plenty in Northampton and nearby UMass, Amherst, Hampshire, and Mount Holyoke.
Other frequent complaints are of the academic pressure and lack of social scene (a byproduct of the academic pressure), as well as the declining quality of on-campus dining facilities.
One recent incendiary incident occurred in late October when a student and her guest showed up to a costume party as Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown. The problem was, they were wearing blackface. Several African-American students were deeply offended by the incident and the campus was in an uproar—either declaring the costumes blatantly racist or claiming the offended students were being “overly sensitive.”
