Mrs. Dow's School

Briarcliff College

Dow Hall within Pace University, 2015
Former names	Mrs. Dow's School for Girls Briarcliff Junior College
Type	Private
Active	1904 (1904)–1977 (1977)
Location	Briarcliff Manor, New York
Campus	Suburban 37 acres (0.1 km2)
Briarcliff College Location of Briarcliff College Show map of Briarcliff Manor Briarcliff College Location of Briarcliff College Show map of New York Briarcliff College Location of Briarcliff College Show map of the US
Coordinates	41°08′18″N 73°49′29″W / 41.138443°N 73.824842°W / 41.138443; -73.824842Coordinates: 41°08′18″N 73°49′29″W / 41.138443°N 73.824842°W / 41.138443; -73.824842

Briarcliff College was a women's college in Briarcliff Manor, New York. The school was founded as Mrs. Dow's School for Girls in 1903 at the Briarcliff Lodge. After Walter W. Law donated land and a building for the college, it operated at its location at 235 Elm Road in Briarcliff until 1977; closing due to low enrollment and financial problems. Pace University subsequently operated it as part of its Pleasantville campus from 1977 to 2015. In an effort to consolidate its campuses, Pace University sold the campus in 2017 to the Research Center on Natural Conservation, a host of conferences relating to global warming and conservation.

Mrs. Dow's School for Girls was founded in 1903 at the Briarcliff Lodge; two years later, Walter W. Law gave Mary Elizabeth Dow 35 acres (14 ha) and built the Châteauesque Dow Hall (Harold Van Buren Magonigle was its architect). Dow retired in 1919 and Edith Cooper Hartmann began running the school with a two-year postgraduate course; the school became a junior college in 1933. Briarcliff remained a junior college until 1957, shortly before the presidency of Charles E. Adkins and when it began awarding four-year bachelor's degrees. The school library, which had 5,500 volumes in 1942, expanded to about 20,000 in 1960. By the time of its closing, it had about 300 students.

The school prospered from 1942 to 1961 under President Clara Tead, who had a number of accomplished trustees, including Carl Carmer, Norman Cousins, Barrett Clark, Thomas K. Finletter, William Zorach, and Lyman Bryson. Tead's husband Ordway Tead served as chairman of the board of trustees. The school gradually improved its academic scope and standing, and was registered with the State Education Department and accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools in 1944. In 1951, the Board of Regents authorized the college to grant Associate of Arts and Associate of Applied Science degrees. The following year, the Army Map Service selected the college as the only one in the country for professional training in cartography.