The institution began in 1870, when the first unmarried female missionary of the
Dutch Reformed Church in Japan,
Mary Eddy Kidder began teaching at a facility established by Clara Hepburn, wife of
James Curtis Hepburn. The Hepburns had established their girls' school in 1862. and the country's first higher learning institution for women. The school was named "Isaac Ferris Seminary" (フェリス･セミナリー
Ferisu Seminarī), after the head of the Reformed Church Board of Foreign Missions
Isaac Ferris, in 1875. That year, its school and residence facilities were built at 178 Yamate. It was renamed to
Ferris Waei Jogakkō (フェリス和英女学校
Ferisu Waei Jogakkō; "Ferris Japanese-English Girls' School") in 1889. During the
Great Kantō earthquake of 1923 the headmistress, Miss Kuyper, died, and school buildings were destroyed. A building in the Yamate Campus named after Kuyper, Kuyper Memorial Hall, opened in 1929. It was renamed Ferris Girls' School in 1951. ==Notable alumnae==