Pace University Setters

In 1906, brothers Homer St. Clair Pace and Charles Ashford Pace founded the firm of Pace & Pace to operate their schools of accountancy and business. Taking a loan of $600, the Pace brothers rented a classroom on one of the floors of the New York Tribune Building, today the site of the One Pace Plaza complex. The Paces taught the first class of 13 men and women. The school grew rapidly, and moved several times around Lower Manhattan.

The Pace brothers' school was soon incorporated as Pace Institute, and expanded nationwide, offering courses in accountancy and business law in several U.S. cities. Some 4,000 students were taking the Pace brothers' courses in YMCAs in the New York-New Jersey area.^[] The Pace Standardized Course in Accounting was also offered in Boston, Baltimore, Washington, D.C., Buffalo, Cleveland, Detroit, Milwaukee, Grand Rapids, Kansas City, St. Louis, Denver, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Portland, and Seattle. In the 1920s, concerned about quality control at distant locations, the Pace brothers divested their private schools outside New York and subsequently devoted their attention to the original school in Lower Manhattan, eventually to become one of the campuses of Pace University. Pace Institute in Washington, D.C. later became Benjamin Franklin University (now part of The George Washington University). In 1927 the school moved to the newly completed Transportation Building at 225 Broadway, and remained there until the 1950s.

After Charles died in 1940 and Homer in 1942, Homer's son Robert S. Pace became the new president of Pace. In 1947, Pace Institute was approved for college status by the New York State Board of Regents. In 1951, the college purchased its first campus building: 41 Park Row in Lower Manhattan. The building, a New York City designated landmark, was the late-19th-century headquarters of The New York Times. In 1963, the Pleasantville Campus was established using land and buildings donated by the then-president of General Foods and Pace alumnus and trustee Wayne Marks and his wife Helen.

In 1966, U.S. Vice President Hubert Humphrey and New York City Mayor John Lindsay broke ground for the One Pace Plaza Civic Center complex, with then Pace president Edward J. Mortola. The former New York Tribune Building at 154 Nassau Street, across from 41 Park Row, was demolished to make way for the new building complex.

The New York State Board of Regents approved Pace College's petition for university status in 1973. Shortly thereafter, in 1975, the College of White Plains (formerly known as Good Counsel College) consolidated with Pace and became the White Plains campus which at the time was used to house both undergraduate courses and Pace's new law school created in that same year. In September 1976, Pace began offering courses in Midtown Manhattan in the Equitable Life Assurance Company building (now AXA Equitable Life Insurance Company) on Avenue of the Americas, and moved once before moving to its current location in 1997. Briarcliff College was acquired in 1977 and became the Briarcliff campus. A graduate center was opened in 1982 in White Plains, New York, and in 1987 the Graduate Center moved to the newly built Westchester Financial Center complex in the downtown business district of White Plains; which at the time of its opening, Pace's graduate computer science program was the first nationally accredited graduate program in the state of New York.^[]

In 1994, all undergraduate programs in White Plains were consolidated to the Pleasantville-Briarcliff campus, and the White Plains campus on North Broadway was given to the law school; resulting in the university's Westchester undergraduate programs in Pleasantville and its Westchester graduate programs in White Plains. Finally, in 1997, Pace purchased the World Trade Institute at 1 World Trade Center from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

On March 5, 2006, Pace students, alumni, faculty, and staff from all campuses convened on the Pleasantville Campus in a university-wide Centennial Kick-Off Celebration; there was a Pace Centennial train, provided free of charge by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), to take Pace's New York City students, alumni, faculty, and staff to Pace's Pleasantville campus. Former President Bill Clinton received an honorary doctorate of humane letters from Pace during the ceremony, which was held at the Goldstein Health, Fitness and Recreation Center. Following the reception of the honorary degree, he addressed the students, faculty, alumni, and staff of Pace, officially kicking off the Centennial anniversary of the university.

Since her last visit in celebration of Black History Month in 1989, Maya Angelou again visited the Pace community on October 4, 2006, in celebration of Pace's Centennial. Two days later, on October 6, 2006, (Pace's Founders Day) Pace University rang the NASDAQ stock market opening bell in Midtown Manhattan to mark the end of the 14-month centennial celebration.

On May 15, 2007, Pace University President David A. Caputo announced his early retirement on June 3, 2007. Pace's Board of Trustees appointed Pace Law School dean Stephen J. Friedman to the position of interim president. Friedman had been dean and professor of law at Pace since 2004. He also served as commissioner of the Securities and Exchange Commission and as co-chairman of Debevoise & Plimpton. Friedman retired as president of Pace University in July 2017. In 2015, in an effort to consolidate Pace University's Westchester campuses into a single location, Pace University sold the Briarcliff campus.

The former president of Oberlin College, Marvin Krislov, was appointed president of Pace University in February 2017.

In February 2017, Pace University embarked on a $190 million renovation process known as the 'Master Plan'. Phase 1, which included the One Pace Plaza and 41 Park Row buildings, was completed by a ribbon-cutting event on January 28, 2019. Additional future phases include a vertical expansion of One Pace Plaza to create an additional 67,000 square feet (6,200 m²) of academic space, relocating the Lubin School of Business, moving administrative offices from 41 Park Row, and modernizing the facade of One Pace Plaza.