Originally named the North Bennet Street Industrial School when incorporated in 1885, this brick three-and-a-half-story structure with sandstone trim, ground-floor rustication, and corbeled cornice was renovated for the progressive institution that typified Boston's response to the pressures of industrialization, urbanization, and immigration. For nearly a century this handsome brick complex served the North End community as both a social service organization and an industrial school. The school's founder, philanthropist and reformer Pauline Agassiz Shaw, used the school to launch experimental educational programs in manual training, including the Sloyd method of woodworking, which were later adopted by public schools and institutions in Boston and elsewhere. In 1981, the school redirected its mission toward accredited postsecondary education in fine handicrafts.