The building at Bebek, which had been some time occupied on a lease, became the property of the Board in 1849.

In 1853, the number of students was fifty, of whom fifteen were Greeks, under the instruction mainly of Dr.Riggs; and there was then a theological class of eleven Armenians.

The Greek department was suspended in 1855.

The students were very useful as evangelical laborers within and around Constantinople; and not a few of the graduates occupy, and have occupied, important posts of usefulness in different parts of the empire.

It is recorded that, in 1857, sixty applicants were rejected for want of means to support them; and it was believed that, with adequate pecuniary means, one hundred could have received instruction as easily as fifty.
The metropolis was not found the best place to train men for the seclusion and small salaries of interior pastorates; but the school was nevertheless a most important instrument for good, and quite essential in the early progress of the mission.