Quincy University a private liberal arts Catholic university in the Franciscan tradition. It is located in Quincy, Illinois and currently enrolls around 1,300 students. A small group of Franciscan friars left Germany in 1858 to serve the German-speaking population in what was then the frontier state of Illinois. In 1860, they founded the institution as St. Francis Solanus College, receiving a formal charter from the state in 1873. The college proved to be an excellent site for the training of young Franciscan priests, and in 1917 the name was changed to the Quincy College and Seminary. In 1932, women were admitted to the college for the first time. Until the 1960 – 61 school year and the construction of Centennial Hall, they were housed several blocks south of the main campus, in converted Victorian mansions that still exist today, though no longer owned by the school. (Stillwell Hall is now the Quincy Museum, and Bonfoy Hall is privately owned.) In 1970 the seminary portion of the school was closed and the school renamed to simply Quincy College.