North College, Kansas University's first building, was constructed in 1866 near 11th and Louisiana streets, where GSP and Corbin residence halls stand today. This 1867 image of Old North College is the oldest photograph the university has of its campus, according to University Archivist Becky Schulte.

It’s hard — if not impossible — to imagine Lawrence without Kansas University.

But in the years leading up to KU’s founding in 1865, multiple Kansas towns clamored to be home of “The Kansas State University,” the state’s flagship university, said Mike Reid, director of the KU History Project.

Plenty of bills came before the state Legislature about where to put the school, Reid said. The residents of Lawrence — including Kansas’ first governor, Charles Robinson — pushed, persisted and even helped pay for buildings to get and keep the university here.

“We owe it all to the first settlers,” Reid said. “That was something they really desired was education, right from the get-go … when they first came to town they were dreaming of that already, putting a university on top of this hill.”

KU is celebrating its sesquicentennial, or 150th, anniversary this school year, which kicks off Monday with the start of fall classes.

Especially considering KU’s modest roots, it would have been hard — if not impossible — for those early settlers to imagine what the university looks like today.

The first years

The “Board of Regents of the Kansas State University” gathered for its first meeting at 9 a.m. March 21, 1865, in Lawrence, establishing the university and electing the Rev. Robert W. Oliver as its first chancellor, according to the board’s original journal, available digitally through the Spencer Research Library website.

By day’s end, according to the journal, the regents resolved to open a preparatory department “as soon as the citizens of Lawrence shall provide suitable rooms, free of expense to the state” and accepted a deed from the city of an unfinished building foundation and land atop Mount Oread.

That foundation, initially built for a school that never happened, Reid said, became North College, KU’s first building.

North College remained KU’s only building until 1872, when the grand Old Fraser Hall opened — thanks to an almost unanimous vote by the citizens of Lawrence authorizing bonds in the amount of $100,000 to build it, plus another $50,000 from the Legislature, according to KU History Project.

The preparatory department was critical because back then KU’s first students, who came from a variety of backgrounds and places throughout the state, were not ready for university level courses, Reid said.

“They didn’t have high school educations,” he said. “So really the first six years or so the university served as a prep school trying to get students ready for college.”

KU’s first day of class was Sept. 12, 1866.

There were about 45 students on the first day, and about 55 had enrolled by the end of the first week, Reid said.

KU’s first commencement took place June 11, 1873, with a graduating class of four.

One of those four was Flora Richardson — not only the school’s first female graduate but also its first class valedictorian.

“It was a proud moment for students, faculty, and citizens alike, for KU was no longer a university in name only,” says a KU History article on the day. “It had taken seven years to produce a crop of students who met the faculty’s requirements for a bachelor’s degree.”

Flora Richardson, valedictorian of Kansas University's first graduating class. The first commencement took place in 1873, and four students — Richardson plus three men — earned degrees.

Open to all, but not easy

From the start, KU was open to both women and black students — unique during the period.

“Most places still did not admit women or people of color at that time,” Reid said. “I think the University of Iowa and us were the only two (state universities) in the Midwest.”

“To put it in perspective how early that was for minorities, black students weren’t admitted to (the University of) Missouri until the 1950s.”

To be clear, both groups faced obstacles.

Women have been enrolled at KU since its first batch of students in 1866. Though many of the first women never made it through to graduation, due to “marriage, child raising, and other commitments,” according to a KU History article on Richardson.

Reid said it was more difficult for women to find housing in town, too, not to mention simply getting through the unpaved streets and roadless walk up the hill in mud or snow while wearing the cumbersome dresses of the day.

Black students’ obstacles to success were far steeper, as they were in the greater society outside of the campus.

“The mindset at that time still didn’t make it easy at all for them,” Reid said.

Though KU was open to black students, Reid said he did not think there were any enrolled for KU’s first semester. There are a number of black students documented at KU prior to 1900, however, including three brothers from the local Harvey family who graduated between 1889 and 1894, according to a biography with the Harvey Family Papers in Spencer Research Library’s Kansas Collection.

Reid said one of the biggest problems was that graduation requirements included a number of things that black students were banned from doing.

A notable example from the 1930s was that of John McLendon — who would go on to become a college coach and Basketball Hall of Famer.

Completing his physical education degree required student teaching, but white schools would not let him, Reid said. The degree also required a swimming class, but at that time whenever a black student got in the pool at KU, it had to be drained afterward and refilled.

Eventually, physical education instructor James Naismith helped McLendon get into student teaching at Sumner Academy in Kansas City, Kan., and helped convince then physical education director Phog Allen to open the pool to all, and McLendon did graduate.

Kansas University's sesquicentennial logo.

Moving forward

Through the years, KU went through its own localized versions of hardships alongside the rest of the country.

Some of the worst were World War I and World War II, when barracks and training exercises were all over campus and many KU students lost their lives in combat, Reid said. The Vietnam War protests and race violence of the late 1960s and early 1970s included the shooting death of a person on the hill and the burning of the Kansas Union.

All the while, KU has kept growing, educating and turning out graduates from famous scientists to sports figures.

KU is incorporating the KU 150 theme into a number of events throughout the year. Find a schedule — plus historical features and a timeline — online at 150.ku.edu.