Rockford University history

Today, the University is perhaps best known for one of those first degree recipients: Jane Addams, Class of 1881.

In 1882, she returned to campus and was awarded the first bachelor’s degree.

Sill resigned in 1884, and Martha Hillard became the school’s second principal.

By 1885, the yearly cost was raised to $300.

Source: Picturesque and Descriptive History of the City of Rockford Winnebago County Illinois 1887

Under her presidency the membership grew rapidly from some 50 cultural clubs to several hundred, representing tens of thousands of members, and the formation of state federations, beginning with Maine’s in 1892, went forward rapidly.

Rockford Seminary became Rockford College in 1893.

The original address was “Seminary between Bluff and Division St” and kept that address at least through 1894-95 Rockford City Directory.

5, 1895, East Orange, N.J.), American clubwoman, a founder and the first president of the General Federation of Women’s Clubs (GFWC).

View of Rockford College, 1902, formerly called Rockford Female Seminary, off Seminary St

While struggling to maintain funding and keep enrollment high, the university was one of the first to jump into adult education, offering its first courses in 1919.

By 1930’s Rockford City Directory it was more specific and listed as 527 Bluff St Bluff St was later renamed as College Ave.

Fifty years later, in 1931, the reformer, humanitarian, suffragist, and peace activist received the Nobel Peace Prize.

In 1952, the school created the Center for Learning Strategies, to help young people and adults in the community improve their academic skills.

Men were first granted admission to the university at the beginning of the 1955-56 school year.

1987: Sandra Day O'Connor, former Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States

On October 2, 2012, the board of trustees voted unanimously to rename the college as a university.

People today, in 2016, may be familiar with the Winnebago County Health Dept. at 401 Division St, nearby the former Rockford Female Seminary location.