George Washington had long argued for the creation of a university in the District of Columbia, and in his will, even bequeathed fifty shares of the Potomac Company to it. "I give and bequeath in perpetuity the fifty shares which I hold in the Potomac Company (under the aforesaid Acts of the Legislature of Virginia) towards the endowment of a UNIVERSITY to be established within the limits of the District of Columbia, under the auspices of the General Government, if that Government should incline to extend a fostering hand towards it."[1]  The Congress never acted on this bequest, though.

Aware of Washington's wishes, a group of men, led by Luther Rice, a Baptist minister, later raised funds to purchase a site for a college to educate missionaries and the clergy. A large building was constructed on what is now Meridian Hill and on February 9, 1821, President James Monroe approved the Congressional charter creating The Columbian College. President James Monroe, John C. Calhoun, Henry Clay, the Marquis de Lafayette and other dignitaries attended the College's first commencement exercises in 1824.

The name of the institution was changed to Columbian University in 1873 and to The George Washington University in 1904. The university became one of the first institutions in the United States to grant a Ph.D. in 1888.

Since the 1970s, GWU, under the leadership of presidents Lloyd Hartman Elliott and Stephen Joel Trachtenberg, has became a major undergraduate and graduate institution. It has grown immensely in recent years, and is at present the largest private landowner in the District of Columbia, and second largest overall (behind the federal government).

In June 1999, the university purchased the Mount Vernon College for Women near Georgetown, and it became the George Washington University Mount Vernon Campus.