History of Washington University in St. Louis

Washington University's origins were in seventeen St. Louis business, political, and religious leaders concerned by the lack of institutions of higher learning in the Midwest.

In fact Wash U is unique among other American universities, in not having any prior financial endowment to begin with; the school had no religious backing, wealthy patron, or government support.

[1] Under pressure from Eliot, the Board of Trustees created a task force charged with naming the university, headed by Samuel Treat.

At first the university paid for the evening classes, but as their popularity grew, the bill was transferred to the St. Louis public schools.

By the 1890s, due to the dramatic expansion of the Manual School, and a new benefactor in Robert Brookings, the University began to move west.

A committee of Robert S. Brookings, Henry Ware Eliot, and William Huse found a site of 103 acres (0.42 km2) just beyond Forest Park, located west of the city limits in St. Louis County.

To solve financial problems, the new buildings were leased as the headquarters of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition (also known as the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair).

The administration continued to hold that full desegregation "would place the University outside of the community," as Vice-Chancellor Leslie Buchan claimed in 1951, and could spark "incidents on campus."

However, under mounting internal and external pressure, the board of trustees in May 1952 passed a resolution desegregating the school's undergraduate divisions.

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[7] In the summer of 2002, Brookings Hall Room 300 was transformed into the Mission Control center for Steve Fossett's sixth and ultimately successful attempt to circumnavigate the planet in a balloon—the Spirit of Freedom.

The transformation project, built on the original 1895 campus plan by Olmsted, Olmsted & Eliot, encompassed 18 acres of the Danforth Campus, adding five new buildings, expanding the university's Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, relocating hundreds of surface parking spaces underground, and creating an expansive new park.