Forest Park University

For the Forest Park campus of St. Louis Community College, see St. Louis Community College–Forest Park.

Forest Park University basketball team, 1900; portrait of founder Anna Sneed Cairns; Forest Park University main building

Forest Park University for Women, originally Kirkwood School and then Kirkwood Seminary, sometimes Forest Park College, was a female college that operated in the greater St. Louis area of Missouri, United States from 1861 until 1925.[1][2] The school was founded and led by educator and activist Anna Sneed Cairns for the entirety of its existence.[2][3] She and her sister Mary Sneed established the school in a rented room during the American Civil War, with seven little girls as their students.[4][5] Kirkwood Seminary was incorporated in 1868.[4] The school later moved to a two-room building, and then "an imposing stone building."[5] Kirkwood Seminary's final location was on Webster Avenue in Kirkwood, Missouri.[4] The seminary became four-year college in 1886.[4]

The school moved to a new, larger building, on Clayton Road south of Forest Park, in 1891.[4][6] Cairns renamed the institution to Forest Park University in 1893.[4] By 1911 the school claimed more than 5,000 alumnae.[4] The school closed in 1925.[2] The building was sold off in 1926.[2]

References

  1. ^ "St. Louis Q&A". St. Louis Post-Dispatch. February 18, 1996. p. 180. Retrieved 2025-11-08.
  2. ^ a b c d "Veteran Educator Expires in St. Louis". Springfield Leader and Press. September 2, 1930. p. 16. Retrieved 2025-11-08.
  3. ^ "Memorials Proposed to St. Louis Women Who Made History". St. Louis Globe-Democrat. September 27, 1936. p. 36. Retrieved 2025-11-08.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g "Forest Park University Observes 50th Anniversary by Home Coming of Alumnae and Former Pupils". St. Louis Post-Dispatch. May 6, 1911. p. 2. Retrieved 2025-11-08.
  5. ^ a b "Know Your County: Kirkwood". The St. Louis Star and Times. February 20, 1946. p. 17. Retrieved 2025-11-08.
  6. ^ "First University for Women in United States". St. Louis Globe-Democrat. September 25, 1949. p. 68. Retrieved 2025-11-08.
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