https://www.northpark.edu/about-north-park-university/history-and-heritage/
North Park University’s history and heritage reach back to a Minneapolis church basement in 1891, where classes in language and business gave Swedish immigrants the skills needed to prosper in America. With an offer of land in Chicago, the school moved to the North Park neighborhood which was then just beyond the city limits. Old Main, the first building on campus, was completed in 1894. Its cupola became a landmark for pilots to locate Orchard Field (now O’Hare International Airport). The cupola was the tallest point on the city’s north side. At various points in its history, North Park was an academy, a junior college, and a four-year liberal arts college. We became a university, with a theological seminary, in 1997.
Founded in 1891, the origins of the University are rooted in 19th-century immigration from Sweden, the faith traditions carried from the homeland and established in a new world, and the educational needs of an immigrant denomination, today’s Evangelical Covenant Church.
https://assets.northpark.edu/wp-content/uploads/20180731111818/125-Archives-Exhibit-Book-
Information condensed from North Park’s Quasiquicentennial [125th Anniversary], 1891-2016, Exhibition Book:
Founded in 1891, the origins of North Park University (prior to 1997 North Park College and Theological Seminary) are rooted in 19th-century immigration from Sweden and the educational needs of an immigrant denomination, today’s Evangelical Covenant Church. Those who became Covenant, known as Mission Friends, were products of 19th century religious revivals in Sweden. As they sought to find their place in the diverse American denominational landscape, they formed various Lutheran synods, ultimately organizing themselves as a Förbund, or Covenant, in 1885.
In 1891 the Covenant officially adopted the immigrant training school of Swedish evangelist E. A. Skogsbergh in Minneapolis (est. 1884). After three years in the basement of Skogsbergh’s Tabernacle Church, the school prepared to relocate. The 1893 annual meeting of the Covenant voted to accept an offer of the Swedish University Land Association of 8.5 acres on the northwest outskirts of Chicago. Classes in Chicago opened in the fall of 1894. The school was comprised of five departments: Seminary, music, business, academy, and primary.
By 1917, the year of American entry into World War I, college courses were taught entirely in English, and all textbooks were in English. Because the Seminary was training pastors who served long-established Swedish-American communities, its students continued to read some Swedish texts and preach in basic Swedish well into the 1940s.
A two-year Junior College began in 1919 and was accredited in 1926, inaugurating a new chapter in the liberal arts. Both the University of Chicago and Northwestern University recommended prospective students to attend North Park’s Junior College for their first two years of study.
In 1958 the Senior College was officially inaugurated. The same year the Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) program began. The following year, on track for full accreditation, the Seminary traded its diploma to award full Bachelor of Divinity degree. North Park graduated its first four-year college class in May 1960.
In 1963, the Seminary was formally accredited by the Association of Theological Schools, and the College began its first four-year degree program in nursing, graduating its first class in 1968. In 1963, the Seminary was formally accredited by the Association of Theological Schools, and the College began its first four-year degree program in nursing, graduating its first class in 1968. Significant expansion of degree programs in the 1990s, including master’s degrees in nursing, management, business administration, and community development (the last ending in 2008), led to North Park’s being accredited as a university in 1997.
[Information gathered by Linnae Coss, posted by Jonathan Coss]