In 1958, the college was relocated from Newark to Union Township, site of the Kean family's ancestral home at Liberty Hall.

After its move to the historic Livingston-Kean Estate, which includes the entire Liberty Hall acreage, the historic James Townley House, and Kean Hall, which historically housed the library of United States Senator Hamilton Fish Kean and served as a political meeting place, the school became Newark State College, a comprehensive institution providing a full range of academic programs and majors.

The building of the estate on which Kean University is situated was begun in 1760, when lawyer William Livingston, who would become New Jersey's first elected governor on August 31, 1776, and a Revolutionary War patriot and signer of the United States Constitution, bought 120 acres (0.49 km2) in then-Connecticut Farms and Elizabethtown, across the Hudson River from his New York City home, in hopes of establishing a country residence.

The new owners established an English boxwood maze that still stands today and made extensive additions to the principal outbuildings of the property, established or improved a large hot house, and developed the gardens, introducing rare shrubs and trees to the grounds, and possibly laying out the grounds west of the mansion.

Having died from a respiratory disease that developed as a result of being held prisoner of war at sea during the Revolution, Kean died at 39 and Susan Livingston Kean remarried to Count Julian Niemcewicz, a Polish nobleman who fled Poland after fighting unsuccessfully for Polish independence from Russia but returned in the wake of Napoleon's successful campaigns.

John Kean II, who served on the staff of Governor Pennington with the rank of colonel, was an original stockholder of the Camden and Amboy Railroad, served as the first president of the Elizabeth and Somerville Railroad, as a vice president of the Central Railroad of New Jersey, as president of the National Bank of New Jersey, as president of the Elizabethtown Gaslight Company (later known as Elizabethtown Gas Company) and Elizabethtown Water Company lived at Liberty Hall for 60 years and made the most dramatically significant changes to the house and property in its history, transforming the house into a 50-room Victorian Italianate structure.

Senator Kean lived at Liberty Hall when not in Washington, D.C., and held annual New Year's receptions for his political supporters at the estate.

[citation needed] After the death of Senator John Kean the house passed to his nephew, Captain John Kean, a National Guard cavalryman and president of the National State Bank, the Elizabethtown Water Company, and the Elizabethtown Consolidated Gas Company.

Supreme Court Chief Justice John Jay was married to Governor Livingston's daughter, Sarah, at Liberty Hall.

The academy was designed to improve the skills of teachers whom Congar correctly viewed as lacking in formal training.

Following the Union victory in the war, increasing numbers of Catholics, largely the children of immigrants, began to enroll beginning the school's theme of a diverse student body that would continue to evolve over the next 150 years; by 1911 the children of immigrants exceeded thirty percent of the student body; since that time, Kean University has become one of the nation's most diverse schools.

In 1917, during World War I, the Normal School faculty and students worked in war-related fundraising and relief efforts.

The Great Depression brought challenges for the school as enrollment and the overall number of teachers hired in New Jersey declined sharply.

During the war, President Roy L. Shaffer pledged to keep the college "rolling" as part of the "moral and intellectual defense" of the nation.

One young veteran, writing home from occupied Germany, predicted that the college would see a lot more men's faces after the war, which turned out to be very accurate; the education benefits offered under the GI Bill of Rights drove men to apply at unprecedented levels, including more African-American students.

As the post-war Baby Boom generated a large demand for new teachers, the college found itself broadening in the face of student desires for a broader curriculum that quickly expanded to encompass the liberal arts and sciences, the professions, and graduate education.

Weiss was committed to wide access to higher education, especially for first-generation college students, while fostering vastly expanded new programs in the sciences, health cares, business, and academic and administrative computing.

The academic quality of the institution improved towards the end of the 20th century as more members of the faculty, in rapidly escalating numbers, pursued teaching innovations, original scholarship and research, and external grants and funding.

By the time Kean College of New Jersey became a university in 1997, under President Ronald L. Applbaum, the institution had achieved a higher level of academic and public recognition.

"[24] One year later, the university's president, Dawood Farahi came under scrutiny from the Kean Federation of Teachers leadership who accused him of multiple errors on his resumes.

[25] The following year, in April 2012, the NCAA accused the university of "major violations" and placed all of its sports teams on probation.

Kean's Main Campus (121.5 acres (0.492 km2)) is located in Union, New Jersey and contains most of the university's buildings and institutions.

It hosts Nathan Weiss East Campus, as well as additional athletic fields, the East Campus Gym, Jacqueline Towns Court, Enlow Recital Hall, the College of Health Professions and Human Services, a self-serve cafe, the President's House, and the Ruth Horowitz Alumni House.

[37] Several NBA teams have practiced at Jacqueline Towns Court, including the Minnesota Timberwolves, Milwaukee Bucks, and more.

[39] Kean University began construction on a campus in Wenzhou, in Zhejiang Province, China in 2007 and was formally established on March 31, 2014.

[22] The campus sits on 500 acres and has won several rewards for its integration of American and Chinese layout and architecture.

[42] Students of Kean USA have the option to spend up to a year studying at WKU for no additional tuition cost with compensated airfare.

[9] On May 29, 2007, Kean University won their first Division III College World Series, winning the national title in baseball.

The Galleries showcase student work, globally recognized artists, and organized collections from National Geographic, the American Museum of Natural History, and more.