In the winter of 1876–77, Thomas O'Neill, Jesuit provincial superior in St. Louis, sent John Baptiste Miege to found the school and serve as its first president.

[2] Originally located at the Trowbridge Mansion on Jefferson Avenue, in 1890 the school moved across the street to Dowling Hall to accommodate a growing student body.

Then in the late 1920s construction of the new building began at 8400 S. Cambridge near Seven Mile Road, under John P. McNichols, president of the University of Detroit.

[3] Funds raised paid for restoration of the original chapel (which had become a library in 1968 after Vatican II) and the addition of several classrooms, an art room, and two new gymnasiums.

[4] On April 6, 2006, U of D Jesuit began the public phase of a $22 million endowment campaign designed to support tuition assistance, faculty salaries, and other means of strengthening the school's finances.