The Andersenville school was named in honor of Reverend Paul Andersen. Paul Andersen was born in Norway on August 24, 1821; he came to Chicago in 1843. Rev. Andersen established the Norwegian Evangelical Lutheran Church on the corner of Erie and Franklin and introduced preaching in English to Scandinavian congregations. He served on civic committees and during a cholera epidemic in Chicago he ministered to stricken families. In the summer 1856 Rev. Andersen addressed a group of 800 Chicagoans in support of immigrants’ rights and in opposition to slavery. Reverend Andersen died in La Jara, Colorado on October 11, 1891.