Dickinson Seminary for Young Ladies: Shaping Education for Women

Making It Home Timeline
Dickinson Seminary for Young Ladies: Shaping Education for Women

Dickinson Seminary, 1860s.

Reverend Baxter Dickinson (1795-1875).

Reverend Baxter Dickinson (1795-1875).

Dickinson Seminary reinvented as Mitchell Hall, 1878.

Dickinson Seminary reinvented as Mitchell Hall, 1878.

Here, early elementary students are pictured in front of South School c. 1910. Bottom row: Raymond Baldwin, Fred Dornbush, Eddie Peddle, Edward Gansberg, Arthur Johnson, Joseph McGovern, Arnold Carlson, Patrick Baldwin, Edward Boobyer, Oliver Lindenmeyer, Henry Beebe, Alfred Marwede, William Lenore, and William Haltenhoff. Second row: John Redmond, Richard Baldwin, Arthur Baker, Eddie Whalen, Frank Jaeger, Joseph Peddle, Christie Peterson, and Leonard Burns. Third row: Helen Peddle, Madeline Baldwin, Anne Mae McGovern, Sarah Jane McGovern, Doreen Hiscox, and Sadie Sage. Fourth row: Emily Bowman, Margaret Baldwin, Kathleen Ryan, Beth Jackson, Rebecca Preston, Madeline Ryan, and Mary Peddle. Fifth row: Rose Gansberg, Margaret Preston, Agnes Whalen, Mary Baldwin, and Fannie Rodgers.

Here, early elementary students are pictured in front of South School c. 1910. Bottom row: Raymond Baldwin, Fred Dornbush, Eddie Peddle, Edward Gansberg, Arthur Johnson, Joseph McGovern, Arnold Carlson, Patrick Baldwin, Edward Boobyer, Oliver Lindenmeyer, Henry Beebe, Alfred Marwede, William Lenore, and William Haltenhoff. Second row: John Redmond, Richard Baldwin, Arthur Baker, Eddie Whalen, Frank Jaeger, Joseph Peddle, Christie Peterson, and Leonard Burns. Third row: Helen Peddle, Madeline Baldwin, Anne Mae McGovern, Sarah Jane McGovern, Doreen Hiscox, and Sadie Sage. Fourth row: Emily Bowman, Margaret Baldwin, Kathleen Ryan, Beth Jackson, Rebecca Preston, Madeline Ryan, and Mary Peddle. Fifth row: Rose Gansberg, Margaret Preston, Agnes Whalen, Mary Baldwin, and Fannie Rodgers.

Rev. Baxter Dickinson opened Dickinson’s Seminary for Young Ladies with his four daughters as instructors in 1859. The school was located in an Italianate building near the southeast corner of Washington Avenue and College Road.Dickinson and his daughters taught 30 boarders and 20 day students. Board and tuition was $230 per year. Its reputation as an educational institution for young women in the West was high, with nearly 400 attending during its nine-year run.The Seminary closed in 1867 due to Rev. Dickinson’s poor health. It was a forerunner to Ferry Hall, which opened its doors in 1869.
Baxter Dickinson was a minister from Massachusetts who had taught at Lane Seminary in Cincinnati with Presbyterian leader Lyman Beecher. He was also at Lane when Robert W. Patterson, first president of Lake Forest College, was a student, possibly the connection that drew him to the new community of Lake Forest in 1859.
The former seminary building served as a boarding house for a time. After Lake Forest College relaunched as a coeducational institution in 1875, it was converted to a women’s dormitory. The dorm was known as Mitchell Hall after the pioneering female astronomer Maria Mitchell, a friend of Lake Forest College founder Mary Smith Farwell.
In 1899, Lake Forest College erected Lois Durand Hall, a large women’s dormitory. The City of Lake Forest acquired the former Mitchell Hall building and moved it to Sheridan and Maplewood where it operated as South School, a public grade school. High School students also attended South School briefly but then held classes at Lake Forest City Hall.