Fr. Henry J. Dumbach, S.J.: Visionary President, Futurist, Expansionist

President Dumbach Purchased Land on Chicago’s North Side and Invented Loyola’s Lake Shore Campus

Completed in 1909, Dumbach Hall is the oldest structure on the Lake Shore Campus (LSC). It is named for Fr. Henry J. Dumbach, S.J., St. Ignatius College president from 1900 to 1908. In 1906, Dumbach purchased the original 19.546 acres of land from the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul railroad. It required great imagination to envision the undeveloped shoreline—a mixture of trees, sand, and water as the future home of an expansive university campus. Although the rechartering of St. Ignatius College to Loyola University became official in September 1909, and LSC classes began in 1912, the completed migration from Chicago’s west to north side would require more than another decade.