The Colorado School for the Deaf and Blind (CSDB) is a Preschool-12th grade residential school with post high school education, located just east of downtown Colorado Springs, Colorado. Colorado was still a territory when “The Colorado Institute for the Education of Mutes” was founded by Jonathan R. Kennedy in 1874. With an appropriation of $5000 from the Territorial Legislature, Kennedy opened the school on April 8, 1874. The school began in a rented house in downtown Colorado Springs with seven students, three of whom were Kennedy's own children.
In 1895, the school was renamed the Colorado School for the Deaf and the Blind. Today, CSDB serves more than 700 students on campus and statewide. The current location was granted for the school by Colorado Springs' founder William Jackson Palmer. He granted land for several institutions in Colorado Springs, including the Colorado School for the Deaf and the Blind.