Early Life
Frances Elizabeth Caroline Willard was born in 1839 in New York to Josiah Flint and Mary Thompson Willard. During Willard's childhood, the family of five moved to the Midwest, first to Ohio and then to Wisconsin. With their father's encouragement, Willard and her sister Mary began attending boarding school at North Western Female College in 1858 in Evanston, Illinois. Soon after, the rest of the Willard family moved to Evanston.
Willard graduated from North Western Female College in 1859. For the next decade, she taught in schools across Illinois, New York, and Pennsylvania. North Western Female College merged with the newly-chartered Evanston College for Ladies in 1869, and the College's board elected Willard to serve as president in 1871. She was the first woman to serve as president of a college in the United States. In 1873, the Evanston College for Ladies merged with Northwestern University, and Willard continued to serve as Dean of the Woman's College at Northwestern until 1874. During her tenure in these positions, Willard created a safe and morally-conscious atmosphere in which young women could receive an exceptional higher education.
The family built the house at 1730 Chicago Avenue in 1865.