Concordia College was dedicated as a private academy on Oct. 31, 1891, by a group of approximately one dozen Norwegian pastors and laymen who had recently settled in the Red River Valley. The school was founded on the property of the former Episcopalian Bishop Whipple School, which closed in 1887. English Professor I.F. Grose of St. Olaf College was asked to preside over the academy, which then offered mixed-sex education in English literature, natural sciences, mathematics, piano, and organ. The school opened with three faculty and twelve students.