1886

In 1886 Elizabeth Harrison opened Miss Harrison's Training School, held at the Loring School at 2535 Prairie Avenue in Chicago, offering mothers' classes to educate parents about kindergarten. Her first class included five students and two mothers. Elizabeth Harrison and Denton Snider established the Chicago Literary School, in operation until 1894, under the auspices of the Chicago Kindergarten Club where Miss Harrison was president. In 1887 Mrs. John N. (Rumah) Crouse and Elizabeth Harrison joined forces and changed the name and expanded the curriculum, holding classes of the Chicago Kindergarten Training School in the Chicago Art Institute. Harrison would go on to play a major role in the kindergarten exhibit at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893.

1913

In 1912-13, Harrison visited Rome to observe the school of Maria Montessori, and in 1914 her study of the Montessori Method was published by the U.S. Bureau of Education. The following year the National Kindergarten College, successor to the Chicago Kindergarten College, began offering classes in the Montessori Method. The National Kindergarten College campus moved to 2944 South Michigan Avenue where it remained until 1926. The red brick and stone Victorian mansion built in 1882 had belonged to John W. "Bet a Million" Gates. It had tapestry-lined walls, high ceilings of gold leaf, a three-story curving staircase, numerous fireplaces, and stained glass windows. In addition, the college included a three-story brick dormitory building, the new Marienthal, and a two-story carriage house and stable that the College used as classrooms and offices.

Enrollment at the new campus grew at a rapid pace, from 132 in 1913 to 150 in 1920, leading the College to add new dormitories. Eventually six houses were rented along Michigan Avenue, taking up almost an entire block. The dorms were named Avilla House, North House, South House, Elizabeth House, Thomas House, and Peabody House. Like Marienthal (sometimes known as Main), they too had been elegant homes and served as an introduction to fine arts for many of the young kindergarten students from small towns.

1926

In 1926 the campus moved to Evanston, occupying the first and second floors of Harrison Hall and Marienthal Residence Hall. The Children's School, which included a nursery, the first on the North Shore, moved with the College to Evanston and opened up with summer school in 1926. The Children's School initially admitted students through third grade, with a new grade added each year through eighth grade. The school was housed in ten rooms in Harrison Hall and tuition was charged, starting at $135 for nursery up to $175 for elementary grades.

Groundbreaking ceremonies took place in March 1925 with six-year-old Caroline Sutherland, turning the first spadeful of earth to symbolize the new building's dedication to the interest of childhood. Caroline was the daughter of alumna Carrie Chambers Sutherland '03 and trustee William Sutherland. Mary E. McDowell '94 represented alumnae; Laura Hooper, the faculty; William Otis Waters, the trustees; and Grace Baird '25, president of the senior class, the students. To mark the occasion, hundreds of students sent up balloons in celebration.

1965

On September 23, 1965, a groundbreaking ceremony for Sutherland Hall was held with representatives from the faculty, staff and student body, including (from left: Jeremiah James in front of President K. Richard Johnson, Frances Andrews Savage '36 (Mrs. John L.), Miss Wren Staley, Ernestine Santucci, William Sutherland, and Candace Carlson). To symbolize the school's ongoing commitment to early childhood education, all groundbreaking ceremonies at Harrison Hall involved a child.

The College took on a $4 million building program in 1965 with the construction of two new facilities: Baker Residence Hall (named for former president of the National Kindergarten and Elementary College Edna Dean Baker and her sister Clara Belle Baker, former president of the Children's School) at the corner of Sheridan Road and Isabella; and Sutherland Hall (in honor of former trustee William Sutherland and his wife, and alumna Carrie Chambers Sutherland); a building to house the new library; Baker Demonstration School; the Guidance Clinic; and physical education facilities—including a swimming pool, gymnasium and classrooms. Both buildings were in use by 1967, freeing up space in Harrison Hall for renovation of much-needed classrooms and a modern science laboratory.

1986

In 1986 Michael W. Louis made a historical $30-million gift to the National College of Education, which was among the largest ever granted to a college or university in Illinois. It enabled National, one of the nation's leading institutions for teacher preparation, to greatly expand its programs and to formally consolidate business management and liberal arts programs into two other colleges. To put the impact of the gift in perspective, its total amount exceeded National's yearly budget at the time, which was about $25 million. The university was renamed National-Louis University in 1990 in honor of Louis, who previous to his historic contribution, had donated more than $3 million to the university.

1999

In 1999, the historic twenty-two-story Peoples Gas Building at 122 S. Michigan Avenue, built in 1910, became the flagship campus of National-Louis University. Standing on the site of the elegant H. H. Honoré family home, the mansion where Bertha Honoré married the legendary Chicago tycoon Potter Palmer, the building was designed by Daniel Burnham. The state-of-the-art building is constructed with the world's finest materials, including white Pentelikon marble quarried outside Athens, Greece; sea-green granite from Massachusetts; the finest mahogany imported from the Andaman Islands in East India; and ornamental bronze.

National-Louis University occupies four floors with faculty and administrative offices, library, classrooms and computer labs.

2011

Today, National Louis University celebrates its 125th year and is respected as one of Chicago's oldest, yet most innovative private universities. As a leader in providing a quality education for the new traditional learner, defined as the working adult learner, National Louis continues the commitment of its founders who believed in the value of education as "preparation for life." From a sense of community to a student-centered approach, the university is constantly evolving to meet society's changing needs.

The university includes the National College of Education, the College of Management & Business, and the College of Arts & Sciences. It offers bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees in 60 disciplines in education, human services, business and the arts and sciences. With five campuses in the Chicago area, three others nationwide, and one of the top business schools in Europe in Nowy Sacz, Poland, National Louis annually serves more than 11,000 students.