George Williams College was a college located in the northwestern corner of Hyde Park, Chicago. The college was an expansion of a summer camp founded by the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) on the shores of Geneva Lake, Wisconsin in 1886. The college remained in Hyde Park from its founding in 1890 until 1965, when it moved to Downers Grove, Illinois. Subsequently, the Hyde Park campus was demolished in 1989.
History
George Williams College can trace its origin to a summer camp founded on the shores of Geneva Lake, Wisconsin by YMCA leaders I. E. Brown, William Lewis, and Robert Weidensall in 1886. This camp was created to serve as a professional YMCA training school. Later, the camp moved to Hyde Park in 1890, where it transformed into a college. In Hyde Park, it went by a variety of names: Training School of the YMCA (1890–96) the Secretarial Institute and Training School (SITS) (1896–1903), the Institute and Training School of the YMCA (ITS) (1903–13), and the YMCA College or Association College (1913–33). In 1933 its name was changed for the last time, to "George Williams College". During the 20th century, the college "was a national center for the development of group work as a profession. It was also an early pioneer in the idea of holistic health, with the integration of body, mind and spirit that was key concept within the YMCA movement." By the late 1965, the college moved to the mostly-white Downers Grove, Illinois, which caused issues with racial tensions. By the 1980s, the school was flagging, and was eventually absorbed by Aurora University. The college library was acquired by The Master's University in Santa Clarita, California. In 1989, the abandoned Hyde Park campus was demolished to make room for new development opportunities.