Macalester donated a hotel, the Winslow House, as the first permanent classroom building. After a large donation from Charles Macalester, a prominent businessman and philanthropist from Philadelphia, the institution was renamed Macalester College. The college's original name was Baldwin College it was affiliated with the Baldwin School, a Presbyterian secondary school. In leaving the University of Minnesota Board of Regents he desired to build a religious college affiliated with the Presbyterian Church that would also be open to other Christian church members. He went on to found two local churches, was appointed the first Chancellor of the University of Minnesota and became the state's first superintendent of public education.
He became connected politically and socially. Neill had served as a chaplain in the Civil War and traveled to Minnesota Territory in 1849.
Edward Duffield Neill in 1874 with help from the Presbyterian Church in Minnesota.
