Built in 1917 by Nebraska Wesleyan University, Van Fleet was designed to be the model training school for the University’s education department; however, several rooms were immediately leased to University Place Public Schools. When University Place was annexed in 1927, this arrangement was continued and Van Fleet became a Lincoln Public School until 1940 when the lease was dropped.
The building was named for Rev. Peter Van Fleet, an early NWU alumnus. Van Fleet had heen a missionary in Puerto Rico and when he returned to Nebraska he served as District Superintendent of the Nebraska Methodist Conference and as pastor of Lincoln’s St. James M. E. Church. In 1909, Rev. Van Fleet was appointed “Special Field Secretary” to raise money for NWU and was so successful at it that the building he enabled to be built, was named after him.
LPS never owned the Van Fleet Building. It was razed by NWU in 1977
