Hannah Hoyt (1805-1871)
Courtesy, New Jersey Historical Society, 1837

In 1837, Hannah Hoyt began teaching a group of young girls in a house on lower Albany Street in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Her reputation grew, especially among the socially prominent families, who sent their daughters both as boarders and day students. In 1847, she moved her school to a three-story Georgian building on George and Paterson Street. Hoyt practiced“t he memorizing system” of education because she believed that “accuracy of expression” was “inductive to accuracy of learning, and vice versa…” One of her former students remembered her as “genial and sympathetic and often delightfully humorous.”  The school closed upon her death.