The college was founded in 1935 on the estate of namesake
William S. Hofstra (1861–1932), a lumber entrepreneur of Dutch ancestry, and his second wife Kate Mason (1854–1933). It began as an extension of
New York University (NYU) under the name
Nassau College – Hofstra Memorial of New York University. It became the fourth U.S. college or university named after a
Dutch American. The extension had been proposed by a Hempstead resident, Truesdel Peck Calkins, who had been superintendent of schools for Hempstead. In her will, Kate Mason provided the bulk of their property and estate to be used for a charitable, scientific or humanitarian purpose, to be named in honor of her husband. In the spring of 1934, the estate was offered to be converted into a
sanitarium for those suffering with polio by the Georgia Warm Springs Foundation, specifically offering to President
Franklin Roosevelt, but nothing had materialized from it. Two friends, Howard Brower and James Barnard, were asked to decide what to do with the estate. Calkins remarked to Brower that he had been looking for a site to start an institution of higher education, and the three men agreed it would be an appropriate use of the estate. Calkins approached the administration at New York University, and they expressed interest. The college was founded as a coeducational, commuter institution with day and evening classes. The first day of classes at Nassau-Hofstra Memorial College was September 23, 1935, with 150 students enrolled and an equal divide between men and women. The first class of students was made up of 159 day and 621 evening students. The tuition fee for the year was $375. The college obtained provisional
charter status, and its official name was changed to
Hofstra College on January 16, 1937. Hofstra College separated from New York University on July 1, 1939, and was granted an absolute charter on February 16, 1940. In 1950, Calkins Gymnasium was the site of the first Shakespeare Festival. It was performed on a five-sixths-sized replica of the
Globe Theatre. The festival is now performed on the Globe Stage, the most accurate Globe Theatre replica in the United States. In 1968, a three-bank
Aeolian pipe organ was donated to Hofstra by John T. Ricks and Jane Ricks King, in the name of their late parents, Mr. and Mrs.
Jesse Ricks. The organ was originally located in the former Ricks estate,
Chanticlare, in
Flower Hill, New York. The organ was scheduled to be installed in the Hofstra Playhouse the following fall, and enabled organ music majors at Hofstra to practice on-campus – as opposed to at the nearby Episcopal Cathedral of the Incarnation.
Dutch heritage The university's founder, William S. Hofstra, was proud of his Dutch roots and that is reflected throughout Hofstra University's campus. It is one of several American universities named after
Dutch Americans, also including
Rutgers University for
Henry Rutgers and
Vanderbilt University for
Cornelius Vanderbilt. Hofstra's original logo was a seal created by professor of art Constant van de Wall in 1937. The insignia was derived from the official seal of the reigning house of the
Netherlands, the
House of Orange-Nassau. Used with the permission of the monarch of the Netherlands, the seal also included the Dutch national motto
Je Maintiendrai, meaning "I stand steadfast" in French. Hofstra's flag is modeled after the Netherlands'
Prince's Flag, and its orange,-white-and-blue pattern was altered to feature the school's colors of gold and navy blue. In 1939, the Dutch ambassador to the United States left behind a flag of the
Netherlands before he returned to his country for
World War II, which influenced Hofstra's school colors, university seal and coat of arms. Hofstra also pays homage to its Dutch heritage with a miniature
windmill structure near the admissions building and the planting of thousands of tulips in the springtime. In 1985, the commissioner to the Queen of the Netherlands presented the university with the Hofstra University Tulip, a flower hybrid named after the school. It is a focal point of Hofstra's annual springtime Dutch Festival. An on-campus housing complex is known as "the Netherlands" and features residence halls named after cities in the
Netherlands, including
Delft,
Groningen,
Hague,
Leiden,
Rotterdam,
Tilburg,
Utrecht,
Breukelen and
Amsterdam. Hofstra's athletic teams were known as the
Flying Dutchmen until 2001. ==Campus==