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Bishop Louis William DuBourg
and his College on the Frontier
 Saint Louis University traces its history to the opening of St. Louis College in November 1818 in a private residence near the Mississippi River in St. Louis. The idea to establish a college in St. Louis originated with the Reverend Louis William Du Bourg, Catholic Bishop of Louisiana.
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Du Bourg, a friend of Archbishop John Carroll, the first Catholic Bishop in the United States, had served as president of Georgetown College from 1796 to 1798. On one occasion, Du Bourg had even been a dinner guest of President George Washington at Mount Vernon. Du Bourg was consecrated Bishop of Louisiana in 1815, then quickly decided to make St. Louis, not New Orleans, the headquarters of his diocese and to build both a cathedral and a college in frontier St. Louis.