The History of Kean University

Names over the years

• 1855 Newark Normal School

• 1913 New Jersey State Normal School

• 1934 New Jersey State Teachers College at Newark

• 1959 Newark State College

• 1973 Kean College of New Jersey

• 1997 Kean University

Kean University was founded in 1855 in Newark, New Jersey, as the Newark Normal School. Initially established for the exclusive purpose of being a teacher-education college it became New Jersey State Teachers College in 1937.

In 1958, following a post-war boom of students and increasing demands for a more comprehensive curriculum, the college was relocated from Newark to Union Township, site of the Kean family’s ancestral home at Liberty Hall. 

After its move to the historic Livingston-Kean Estate, which includes the entire Liberty Hall acreage, the historic James Townley House, and Kean Hall, which historically housed the library of United States Senator Hamilton Fish Kean and served as a political meeting place, the school became Newark State College, a comprehensive institution providing a full range of academic programs and majors.

Read more at the Kean University page on Wikipedia.