structural and mechanical engineering and other scientific disciplines. The institute graduated its first class in 1893 and continues to educate students in naval architecture and marine engineering.
=== Founding and early history ===
On April 2, 1889, the state of New York incorporated Webb's Academy and Home for Shipbuilders as a non-profit institution. Webb had provided the academy with an endowment presumed to be sufficient to allow the institution to be self-supporting in perpetuity. It was intended to serve not only as an educational institution for future naval architects but also as a retirement home for aged shipbuilders.
Webb commissioned New York architect Arthur P. Jennings to design a building for the institution to be built on 14 acres (5.7 ha) of land on a bluff overlooking the Harlem and Hudson rivers in the Bronx. Construction commenced in 1890 and was completed in 1893. The building was designed in the Romanesque Revival style and was built of New York brownstone. It was intended to be "a …
