In 1853 Washington University in St. Louis was founded in 1853 as Eliot Seminary by Wayman Crow and minister William Greenleaf Eliot, grandfather of poet T.S. Eliot. It functioned solely as a evening school until 1956. After admitting full-time students, the school’s name changed to Washington University.

Today the university is a private, nonsectarian research university enrolling over 6,000 students in 7 graduate and undergraduate schools, including a Medical School.