History and Heritage
Marymount Manhattan College was founded in 1936 by the Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary as a two-year women’s college and a New York City extension of Marymount College, Tarrytown in Tarrytown, New York. In 1948, the College moved to its present location on 71st Street and became a four-year bachelor degree-granting college; the first class graduated from MMC in 1950. In 1961, MMC was granted an absolute charter as an independent four-year college by the Regents of the University of the State of New York.
That same year, the College razed the brownstone between its building and that of the Colonial Dames to the west on 71st Street and used the space to build an extension, giving the building its present entrance. MMC broke ground for Nugent Hall, named in honor of former Chair of the Board of Trustees Joseph C. Nugent, in 1972. The Thomas J. Shanahan Library, also named for a trustee, opened in 1974, and the College’s theatre followed in 1975, which was later named for alumna and trustee Theresa Lang ’97, H’08, in 2001. Until 1989, a member of the Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary served as President of the College. The first lay president, Regina Peruggi, served from 1990 to 2001; MMC’s formal parlor, formerly called “the Mezzanine,” was renamed in her honor.
Faithful to the vision of its founders, Marymount Manhattan has a long history of reaching out to diverse populations in need of higher education. Originally the College served women, many of whom were commuting students of traditional college age. Over the years, Marymount Manhattan’s mission as an urban, independent, coeducational, nonsectarian liberal arts college has expanded to include a greater variety of students, including men, older students, various ethnic and geographic backgrounds, and a diversity of interests. In the past, people chose Marymount Manhattan because they already lived or worked in New York; now, many students choose the College for the opportunity to live in one of the world’s great cities.