The Boylan Industrial School and Home for Negro Girls opened in April 1886 as part of the mission of the Methodist Episcopal Church in order to provide education and vocational training for newly freed African Americans after the end of the Civil War. The School and Home began as a six-room cottage at the corner of Davis and Duval Streets. Missionary Hattie E. Emerson of Manchester, New York was the school principal. The school housed 7 women the first year and then expanded the following year, housing 18. Young women were taught needlework, dressmaking, housekeeping, and cooking. While some women lived in the home, many attended during the day and, eventually, night classes were added.

The school was expanded to include nurse training and, in 1901, the Nurse Training School opened. The Nurse Training School eventually became the Brewster Hospital and Nurse Training School.

In 1910 the School and Home moved to Jacksonville’s Eastside and in 1932 it merged with Haven Home, becoming the Boylan-Haven School. It remained in the Eastside until 1959 when it merged with Mather Academy and relocated to Camden, South Carolina.