Al

Two very significant events happened during Steele's adminis- tration. The first was the establishment of Kent Model Home on the seminary campus, its purpose being 1‘to teach girls and young ladies how

to make a perfect Christian home.'95 The Women's Home Missionary So-

ciety decided in l884 to establish such a home on the Bennett campus.96 By 1886 the building itself was completed and girls were already living in the home.97 The new Home, named in memory of the husband of Mrs. Anna Kent,98 was dedicated in the spring of l887.99 The building was

large, containing seventeen rooms, and according to Steele, was the

lOO

best—built house in town. During the year 1887-1888 courses in sew-

ing, dressmaking, housekeeping, cooking, and nursing were offered to 13

10] Twelve girls occupied the home the next

l03

students by a faculty of 3.

l02

year, and the number of teachers remained the same. Mrs. Sarah

D. Snow was the first superintendent of the home, and left it only in

95Bennett College, Annual Catalogue, l900, pp. 3h-35. 96

Woman's Home Missionary Society, Third Annual Report, I883-

l884,_p. 39.

97Ibid., Fifth Annual Report, l885-l886, p. 82.

981bid., Eighth Annual Report, 1888-1889, p. 63.

99Ibid., Sixth Annual Report, 1888-1889, p. 42.

I001bid., Fifth Annual Report, 1885—1886, p. 82.

lolFreec‘lmen's Aid and Southern Education Society, Twenty-First Annual Report, l888, pp. I3, 36.

l . . . . 02Woman's Home M1ss1onary Soc1ety, Eighth Annual Report, l888—

1889’ P- 630

O . 3Freedmen's Aid and Southern Education Society, Twenty-Second Annual Report, 1889, p. 6.