By Michael Bushnell
Northeast News
July 6, 2016

Established in 1890 as a school for “girls,” the Scarritt Bible and Training Institute was located at Harris (now Norledge Avenue) and Askew avenues in Historic Northeast Kansas City. Rev. Nathan Scarritt donated land worth $15,000 as well as a $25,000 gift of cash to start the fledgling college two years after he founded the Melrose Methodist Church only two blocks away.

The Women’s Board of Missions raised an additional $25,000 to build the school. The first graduating class in 1894 numbered all of five people. Belle Harris Bennett, a noted Methodist leader, assisted in the founding and taught at the school for a period of time.

In an excerpt from “Belle Harris Bennett – Her Life’s Work” by Mrs. R. W. MacDonell, she gave an account of Dr. Scarritt’s generous gift.

“On the Sabbath evening during my visit,” she wrote, “we walked over to the beautiful hilltop overlooking the Missouri River and Kansas City Kansas. Dr. Scarritt said to me, ‘If you like this, I will give you here whatever you think is necessary for the establishment of a training school for young women.’”

After almost 30 years at Askew and Harris avenues, the school moved to Nashville, Tenn., to be part of Vanderbilt University and Peabody Bible College, where it exists today. Shortly after the move, the stately school was razed, and single-family homes, mostly bungalows, were built on the site.

The Elite Postcard Company of Kansas City, Mo., published this postcard. It was never mailed.