[4] Nashotah House was founded in 1842 by three young deacons of The Episcopal Church (TEC): James Lloyd Breck, William Adams, and John Henry Hobart, Jr., who were all recent graduates of the General Theological Seminary in New York City.

Breck served as the first dean, and was highly committed to the principles of the Oxford Movement, which in part revived liturgical practices.

[6] Nonetheless, as of 2023, Nashotah House was the only seminary affiliated with the Episcopal Church that does not admit students who have entered into same-sex marriages.

[9] In February 2014, Salmon invited the liberal TEC Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori to preach at the school.

[3] The decision was condemned by the seminary's largely conservative supporters, including ex-Dean Munday,[16] who cited Jefferts Schori's policy of suing breakaway ACNA parishes to keep their resources within TEC, as well as what they considered her heretical views.

[3][11] Under Garwood Anderson (d. 2017-24), who made efforts to recruit ACNA members[12] and low church adherents[6] as seminarians, full-time equivalent enrollment rebounded from 52 to 119.

[24] The DMin, STM, MDiv, MPM, MTS, MM and MSM degrees are accredited by the Association of Theological Schools in the United States and Canada.

The main buildings of the seminary include, from oldest: There are also apartments for both single and married students, and several houses for the dean and other faculty, as well as maintenance facilities.

James Lloyd Breck's vision was to create a center for Christian formation in the (then) wilderness that would also be movement to propagate other communities for the purpose of evangelizing the frontier.

Always anticipated on the campus is the annual St. Laurence Cup, a flag football game played against students from Sacred Heart School of Theology and St. Francis Seminary (Wisconsin).

[35] The formerly annual Lavabo Bowl game was played against Seabury-Western Theological Seminary which stopped granting residential Master of Divinity degrees in 2010 after ceasing to accept new M.Div.