"Founded by the Sisters of Loretto, under the direction of Mother Pancratia Bonfils, the college began as Loretto Heights Academy, a Catholic boarding school for girls. The campus, situated on high ground in southwest Denver, enjoys a commanding view of the mountains to the west. Frank E. Edbrooke & Co. designed the 86-room Romanesque style main building which opened in November 1891. The walls are of heavy red sandstone and the irregular plan of this imposing three-story structure includes a raised basement and an attic level. The gabled roof, with multiple dormers, is steeply pitched. On the façade, a central entry tower rises to a height of more than 160 feet." (from (
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"At the end of the 19th century, Mother Pancratia (Mary Louise Bonfils 1852-1915), of the Sisters of Loretto, had the vision to educate women in the Rocky Mountain region. In 1886, Loretto Heights Academy was founded as a Catholic girl's high school in the building now used as Colorado Heights University's Administration Building.
The landmark Administration Building is a Romanesque six-story structure, designed by one of Denver's premier architects, Frank E. Edbrooke (1840-1921), the same architect who also built the famous Brown Palace Hotel in downtown Denver.The Administration Building was built from red sandstone and has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1975.
Over the years, the school became a college and expanded to include teacher education programs, nursing programs, business, dance and more for both men and women. The campus now has almost 20 structures, including a 1,000 seat theater, an interfaith chapel, a swimming pool, cafeteria, residence halls and even an 18-hole regulation disc golf course.
In 1989, Teikyo Loretto Heights University (TLHU) opened on the campus of the former Loretto Heights College. TLHU focused on international students.
Then, in 2009, Colorado Heights University opened. Colorado Heights University is owned by the Teikyo University Group, a multinational educational foundation based in Japan that operates many undergraduate and graduate universities with more than 70,000 students spread across 46 campuses world-wide." (from (
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