Every week we publish a historic photo highlighting a story from Naperville’s past from the history archives of Naper Settlement.
Before it became a fixture in downtown Naperville, North Central College’s humble beginnings can be traced back to 1861 in neighboring Plainfield.
Plainfield College was founded by the Evangelical Association of America, which today is affiliated with the United Methodist Church. In its first year, there were 40 male and female students taught by three professors, one woman and two men.
Augustine Austin “A.A.” Smith, who had been an administrator at Oberlin College in Ohio, was the first college president.
It didn’t take long for officials at the school, renamed North Western College in 1864, to realize they had a problem. The village lacked a train stop, making it difficult for people to get to and from the college.
Officials started searching for a new home, and Naperville quickly caught their eye. Not only did the Burlington Railroad build a line with a Naperville stop in 1864, city fathers were willing to pay the college $25,000 if the new school was built there.
Declar Sleight, who owned large tracts of land on the east side of Naperville, donated eight acres for the campus. The site was bordered by Loomis Street, Brainard Street, School Street and Benton Avenue.
The cornerstone for the Old Main building, seen in today’s photo, was laid on May 17, 1870. Billed as the “first durable link between Naperville and North Central,” it was built with limestone from local quarries.
Architect John Mills Van Osdel was paid $3,200 for his work, $2,000 of which came from donations from townspeople at the dedication ceremony. He was a famous architect, having designed two of the first three Palmer House Hotel buildings in Chicago.
The fourth and fifth floors of Old Main served as the living quarters for students who paid $2.75 to $3 a week for a room. For a while, meals were served in the basement.
Enrollment grew through the years, reaching 300 in 1874. For several decades, Old Main was the only building on the campus.
In 1901, students demanded a gymnasium. Thanks to the generosity of J.L. Nichols, it was built at a cost of $12,720 and dedicated as Nichols Hall on Jan. 17, 1902.
In 1905, college trustees approached famed philanthropist Andrew Carnegie about building a campus library. The steel magnate agreed to provide $25,000 with one stipulation — the school had to raise the same amount of money to build a science hall.
Albert Goldspohn, a North Western College graduate and a prominent surgeon in Chicago, agreed to meet Carnegie’s condition and the science hall was built.
In 1926, it was decided the school should be renamed North Central College to end the ongoing confusion between it and Northwestern University in Evanston.
NCC had a big impact on education throughout the area because it produced many of the teachers who were hired at local schools. In the 1930s, about half of its graduates became educators.
In 1997, Old Main underwent a $6 million renovation to preserve its limestone exterior and to rebuild the interior for offices and student spaces. Some renovations were needed because of a fire on Sept. 5, 1997, which damaged the fourth and fifth floors and the roof.
Completed in October 1998, the building’s main entrance was moved to the west side of the building and a new east side entrance added.
A new welcome center opened on the first floor in 2017.
To learn more about Old Main, a video made by Naperville Preservation can be viewed at www.youtube.com/watch?v=genVTCn9GaA.
Andrea Field is the curator of history at Naper Settlement. For more information, go to www.NaperSettlement.org. Steve Metsch is a freelance reporter for the Naperville Sun.
