Concordia's roots
In 1974 Concordia grew out of a merger of Loyola College and Sir George Williams University, two institutions with a proud history of providing education in Montreal.
Loyola
Loyola College grew out of the English-language program of Collège Sainte-Marie, a Jesuit college founded in 1848. Loyola College became a separate institution in 1896. Loyola was first located at Bleury and Ste-Catherine then on Drummond south of Ste-Catherine before it built on land it acquired in 1900 in the west end. The College moved into the three original buildings on the current Loyola Campus in 1916.
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Sir George Williams
Sir George Williams University originated in the evening classes offered by a YMCA Educational Program that began in 1851 and continued in various YMCA facilities in downtown Monteal. The program became a co-educational college in 1926, introducing university-level courses in 1929. The first university degrees were conferred in 1936 and the University Charter under which Concordia currently grants degrees was received in 1948.