Cornish College of the Arts was founded in 1914 as the Cornish School of Music, by Nellie Cornish (1876–1956), a teacher of piano.Cornish would go on to serve as the school's director for its first 25 years, until 1939. The Cornish School of Music began its operations in rented space in the Boothe (or Booth Building on Broadway and Pine Street.As Cornish developed the idea of her school, she initially turned to the Montessori-based pedagogical method of Evelyn Fletcher-Copp, but turned at last to the progressive musical pedagogy of Calvin Brainerd Cady, who had worked as musical director with John Dewey as the latter set up his seminal progressive educational project, what is now the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools.Conceived by Cornish as "an elementary school of the arts—all the arts—with music as its major subject, the school initially taught only children, but it soon expanded to functioning also as a normal school (a teachers' college) under Cady. Within three years it had enrolled over 600 students, expanded the age range of its students to college age, and was the country's largest music school west of ChicagoCornish College of the Arts is an integral part of Seattle's landscape, history, and future. As a hub for artists, Cornish thrives in the perfect city for an Art School. The Cornish of today is a lab for creativity and transformation, where talented students are empowered to become artists, citizens, and innovators.