Founded by Lucy Sprague Mitchell, her husband, and Harriet M. Johnson, "Bank Street" began as a research group called the Bureau of Educational Experiments in 1916. In 1919, the Bureau developed its second division, a nursery school in a series of houses on West 12th and West 13th Streets. Harriet Johnson directed the Nursery School. Up to 1929, the Bureau and Nursery School continued to grow as it attracted more and more teachers who wanted to undergo this special training in early childhood education. In 1930, the Bureau expanded when it acquired an old yeast factory at 69 Bank Street. The Nursery School began adding elementary grades. At this new location, there was also space for a school to train teachers.In 1937, the Bank Street Writer's Laboratory was formed to encourage writers to create children's books.With certification by the Board of Regents of New York State to confer the Master of Science degree, the Bureau became Bank Street College. It left 69 Bank Street in 1971.