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Georgetown University is a private research university in Washington, D.C. Founded in 1789, it is the oldest Catholic and Jesuit institution of higher education in the United States. Georgetown's main campus, located in Washington's historic Georgetown neighborhood, is noted for Healy Hall, a National Historic Landmark in theRomanesque revival style. Georgetown's law school is located on Capitol Hill and Georgetown has auxiliary campuses in Italy, Turkey, and Qatar.

Georgetown's founding by John Carroll, America's first Catholic bishop, realized earlier efforts to establish a Roman Catholic college in the province of Maryland that had been thwarted by religious persecution. The university expanded after the American Civil War under the leadership of Patrick Francis Healy, who came to be known as Georgetown's "second founder" despite having been born a slave by law. Jesuits have participated in the university's administration since 1805, a heritage Georgetown celebrates, but the university has always been governed independently of the Society of Jesus and of church authorities.