Meadville Lombard is a result of a merger in the 1930s between two institutions, a Unitarian seminary and a Universalist seminary. Meadville Theological School was founded in 1844 in Meadville, Pennsylvania. Most of the original funding came from Harm Jan Huidekoper, a recent convert to Christian Unitarianism and a wealthy businessman, and from the Independent Congregational Church. Meadville Theological School moved to Chicago and became affiliated with the University of Chicago in 1926. It began construction on its permanent building in 1929, located across the street from First Unitarian Church of Chicago and designed by the same architect. Lombard College was a Universalist institution in Galesburg, Illinois, founded in 1853. From the 1880s to 1913 it was the seat of the Ryder School of Divinity. When the college closed in 1930, the Lombard charter was transferred to Meadville Theological School in Chicago. bringing with it Lombard's privilege of a tax exemption, "one of only three in Illinois granting full tax-exempt status in perpetuity for all college-owned property." The combined institution became Meadville Lombard Theological School.
After 2000
In the first decade of the 2000s, the school implemented cost-cutting measures as its endowment declined in value from $18 million to $12 million, and funding from the Unitarian Universalist Association was reduced. In 2005 Meadville Lombard made public their decision to hold merger talks with the other Unitarian Universalist seminary in the United States, Starr King School for the Ministry, but in July 2006 it was decided that a merger would not be in the best interest of the seminaries. In June 2010, Meadville Lombard and Andover Newton Theological School in Newton, Massachusetts, affiliated with the American Baptist Churches USA and the United Church of Christ, announced plans to create a "new university-style institution" based at Andover Newton's campus with an interfaith model for theological education. Meadville Lombard would have become the Unitarian Universalist college in the new theological university. The two schools, Meadville Lombard and Andover Newton, announced they were seeking additional partners for the proposed institution. They announced their intention to form the new university as a legal entity by June 15, 2011, but the two institutions withdrew from the plan in April 2011, citing issues related to governance and finances. In 2011, the seminary's Hyde Park buildings were sold and the school relocated to the Spertus Institute building in Chicago's downtown Loop.
