Kemper Hall was an Episcopal girls school for day and boarding students which recognized 1870 as the year of its official founding. The predecessor to Kemper Hall, the Kenosha Female Seminary, was chartered by the rectors, wardens, and vestry of St. Mathews Episcopal Church in 1855, but the school did not open until 1865. Mrs. H.M. Crawford operated the school as St. Claire's Hall for a short time. The school's founders purchased the home of Senator Charles Durkee and nine surrounding acres of land on the Lake Michigan shore in Kenosha. The Durkee mansion served as the school's central classroom and administration building throughout the school's 105-year history.
Bishop Jackson Kemper was elected trustee of the female seminary in 1866. Following Kemper's death in 1870, his successor, Bishop William Armitage, made an urgent request to the Milwaukee Diocesan Council to redeem and secure the school as a living monument to Bishop Kemper. At that time, the school was renamed Kemper Hall. The Reverend George M. Everhart served as the school's first headmaster from 1870 until 1878. The first graduating class celebrated commencement in the school's new chapel in 1876.
In 1878 a group of women from the Sisters of St. Mary, an Episcopal women's order located in Peekskill, New York, arrived in Kenosha to administer the school and to return it to financial solvency. Among the sisters was Mother Mary Clare who became the first headmistress in 1883 and served in that capacity until 1918. Mother Mary Ambrose, who joined the school in 1911, served as headmistress from 1931 until 1967. Other headmistresses included Sister Sarah, 1878; Sister Edith, 1879-1883; Mother Mary Maude, 1918-1920; Sister Celestine, 1920-1922; Sister Flora Therese, 1922-1931; and Sister Margaret Jane, 1967-1969. Anna J. Morse was influential in shaping the curriculum and academic policies of the school, serving as director of studies from the early 1930s until the early 1960s. A lay Board of Trustees assisted the Sisters of St. Mary with the school's administration and most of the teachers were lay persons. Several wealthy benefactors contributed to the financial support of Kemper Hall including Zalmon G. Simmons, who donated eleven acres of land to the school; Charles W. Nash, president of Nash Motors Company, who donated his home to the school in 1938; and James T. Wilson, banker and Nash Motors Company executive, who donated Wilson House, a mansion across the street from the school.
In 1969 the Sisters of St. Mary turned the school over to a Board of Trustees and the Reverend Raymond Gayle became the second headmaster. In 1970 a co-educational program for students in grade one through grade nine was initiated, accepting boys as day students only. The Reverend Russell Ingersoll succeeded the Reverend Mr. Gayle as headmaster in 1972. Kemper Hall closed in June 1975 due to financial problems. During the school's 105-year history, 1,625 students attended. A peak enrollment of 140 students was reached shortly after World War II.
