The number of pupils was increased to seventy-eight, and the school ceased any longer to need aid.
A fire destroyed the mission premises at Tocat in 1859.

The flames were so rapid as not only to consume the buildings, but the clothing and bedding of the pupils, the books and apparatus of the school, a portion of the furniture of Messrs.

Pettibone and Winchester, who had been recently placed at the head of the school, and all the effects of Mr.Van Lennep, including a large and valuable library, and a manuscript Armenian translation of a commentary on the Bible, made, and to have been printed, at the expense of the Prince of Schoenberg.

In view of this calamity, it was deemed expedient to close the training-school.

A similar one was opened in the fall of the same year, at Harpoot.