Located on the ancient Native American trail from Rock Island to Detroit, the town had its first log cabin in 1834. Established in 1836 as "Portersville", county seat of Porter County, it was renamed to Valparaiso (meaning "Vale of Paradise" in Old Spanish) in 1837 after Valparaíso, Chile, near which the county's namesake David Porter battled in the Battle of Valparaiso during the War of 1812. The city was once called the "City of Churches" due to the large number of churches located there at the end of the 19th Century. Valparaiso Male and Female College, one of the earliest higher education institutions admitting both men and women in the country, was founded in Valparaiso in 1859, but closed its doors in 1871 before reopening in 1873 as the Northern Indiana Normal School and Business Institute. In the early 20th century, it became Valparaiso College, then Valparaiso University. It was initially affiliated with the Methodist Church but after 1925 with the Lutheran University Association (which has relationships both with the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, and with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America) and expanded significantly after World War II.