Watchman Institute
| Watchman Industrial School | |
|---|---|
| Location | |
|
North Scituate, RI USA |
|
| Coordinates | 41°50′03″N 71°34′59″W / 41.834158°N 71.583052°W |
| Information | |
| Type | Private Trade school |
| Established | 1908 |
| Closed | 1938 |
| Campus | Rural/Suburban |
The Watchman Industrial School and Camp, known to some as the Watchman Institute, was founded in 1908 for black youths by Reverend William S. Holland in Providence, Rhode Island. He based it on the educational theories of Booker T. Washington. In 1923, Holland moved the school to North Scituate when he acquired the property of the Pentecostal Collegiate Institute. He closed the school in 1938 during the Great Depression, when many private schools were unable to survive financially.
The school had suffered fires in 1924 and 1926; newspapers reported that the Ku Klux Klan was suspected, as it had become active in the western part of the state. Holland and his wife operated the related summer camp at the facility from 1938 until 1974.
The school was founded by Reverend William S. Holland, who was educated at Virginia Union University. Deeply interested in education for black youth, Holland founded the Watchman Industrial School at 140 Codding Street, in Providence in 1908. He hoped to duplicate the success of the educational program of Booker T. Washington, as operating at the Hampton Institute and the Tuskeegee Institute, historically black colleges. He trained black youths in vocational trades in addition to academic subjects, hence the name "industrial school," which was a popular model at the time for lower-class youths. Educators believed that young people needed to be taught skills for the workplace. Holland often took custody of young persons in trouble with the authorities, in lieu of seeing them enter Rhode Island's reform school or prison systems.
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