Established on April 1, 1911, by Alva Belmont on her Brookholt estate,[1] located in the hamlet of East Meadow, 3 miles (4.8 km) from Hempstead, Long Island, New York, it was believed to be the first institution of its kind for the exclusive benefit of women.

[2] At the time, Brookholt was a fertile and highly improved tract of 240 acres (97 ha) lying within the "hold" of two arms or branches of the Meadowbrook, where it divides in its course to the ocean 3 miles (4.8 km) to the south.

Beyond the main house, past the orchards and the long garage, thru an avenue of maples, sat the Belmont farmhouse, its fame increased by the advent of the farmers of the future, nicknamed "farmerettes".

This school was the expression of Belmont who had been devoting practically all of her time and a considerable part of her large income to the advancement of women.

Belmont believed that the very foundation of this was economic independence, and that women must not be simply able to earn a bare subsistence, but must be trained for a permanent occupation which would give them a chance to make more than a mere living and to become more than a lifelong employee of somebody else.

[2] Belmont looked upon agriculture, horticulture and landscape gardening as ideal employments for women, offering permanent, healthful work that could be followed into advanced age.

[2] Should the experiment prove successful, Belmont's intention was to make the institution permanent, to direct it during her lifetime and to endow it at her death.

[9] In March 1911, immediately after the announcement appeared in newspapers that Belmont was opening a school on her Long Island estate, letters, telephone message, and personal inquiries began to come to the headquarters of the Political Equality Association she founded, located on Manhattan's Fifth Avenue.

[2] When the farmhouse was built some years before the school opened, Belmont gave it the attention that she bestowed on the family mansion.

The architecture inclined to the English, but the interior was decidedly Dutch, with low, beamed ceilings, oak presses built in the wall, and the entrance hall done in blue tiles painted from Belmont's own sketches.

She combined sanitation with artistic merit, as evidenced by a large, light, well-appointed kitchen and the designs of horse trough, seats for resting, and fencing around the barnyard court.

The other two sides of the large yard were enclosed by the wagon houses, barns and dairy, where the girls learned the care of milk and butter making, while the hives of Italian bees were sheltered from the wind.

There were porcelain bath tubs and plenty of hot water; fresh toilet and soft slippers; a bountiful supper served on a fine, white tablecloth, with linen napkins.

[2] The recreation hall included a library of good books, a piano, some fine pictures, and easy chairs.

She wanted a practical, experienced woman farmer and found her in Williams, who had for years owned and managed a farm near Philadelphia.

First of all, flowers, vegetables and fruit were gathered, first for Belmont, who was responsible for the enterprise, and who paid the girls their weekly wage, and then for the public market.