The Marymount Colleges are a group of colleges founded by the Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary (RSHM), an institute with French origins which was founded on February 24, 1849. When the institution expanded to the United States, its members founded a series of parochial schools, called the RSHM Network of Schools, with the name "Marymount".
Of the American colleges founded by RSHM, Marymount College, Tarrytown, was founded first, on December 8, 1907. Marymount School, a women's Catholic high school in Manhattan, was founded in 1926. In 1936, an extension of Marymount College, Tarrytown, was formed in Manhattan. It later became the co-educational college now known as Marymount Manhattan College.
The original Marymount College, Tarrytown, was consolidated with Fordham University. In fall 2005, Fordham University announced that it would close the college in June 2007. Thus, the last graduating Marymount class was the Class of 2007. In August 2007, Fordham announced, to the disappointment of many alumnae, that it would sell the Marymount campus. The University indicated that the unjustifiable and disproportionate cost of campus maintenance was the reason for closure, and that the University had already expended more on the maintenance and repair of the campus than it was even likely to recoup from its sale. On February 17, 2008, Fordham announced the sale of the campus for $27 million to EF Education, a chain of private language-instruction schools.
In 1923, Marymount School of Los Angeles was founded. An extension site was founded at Palos Verdes, which exists to this day as Marymount California University. Other California schools were established at Santa Barbara, Studio City, Montebello and San Jose. The four year tract of Marymount College of Los Angeles merged with the Jesuit Loyola University in 1973 and currently exists as Loyola Marymount University. Marymount High School in Los Angeles also traces its roots to the Marymount School of Los Angeles
In 1950, Marymount College of Virginia was founded in Arlington. The College became co-educational in 1972 and gained its University status in 1986. It currently exists as Marymount University.