Mitra Institution, one of the heritage schools of Calcutta, was founded on the 5th day of January 1898 in a commodious building, located at 6B Mirzapur Street, subsequently renamed Surya Sen Street. The founder of the school, Babu Bisweswar Mitra, was neither an academician nor an educationist, he was only a clerk in the Dum Dum ammunition factory, who gave up the job, as it did not suit him. The school started modestly with only 5 boys on its rolls and began to progress steadily under the efficient guidance of its founder.

Gradually, the institution attracted the attention of many renowned public figures of the day, including Bipin Chandra Pal, Gopal Krishna Gokhale, Sir Bhupendra Nath Bose, Amrita Lal Bose, Rai Bahadur AL Chatterjee and others, who were pleased to visit the school and inspired the students, as well as the teachers. The moral support and encouragement from those famous persons acted as a booster and helped the institution to spiritedly proceed on its journey of development. In 1901 Raja Peary Mohan Mukherjee of Uttarpara agreed to become the first President of the school and with the services of one of the most efficient teachers of the day, Satish Kumar Banerjee, as the first Headmaster of the school, the success of the whole undertaking was ensured.

Along with Ashutosh Mukherjee, Sir Alexander Pedlar, the then Vice-Chancellor of the Calcutta University, inspected Mitra Institution in 1904 and at their initiative the school was granted the affiliation of the Calcutta University, even before the inception of the Entrance class in the school. Nevertheless, the first batch of students of Mitra Institution appeared at the Entrance Examination in 1906 and since then thousands of students have passed out of its portals.

In the meantime, at the instance of Sir Ashutosh Mukherjee, a branch of the school was founded by Bisweswar Mitra on 16A, Balaram Bose Ghat Road, in Bhawanipur area in the year 1905, which as well was crowned with the famous figures like Kabi Sekhar Kalidas Roy, mathematician Keshab Chandra Nag and others to achieve fame and popularity.

Today, the main branch of the school also provides conditional accommodation to two other wings, a co-educational primary school and a girls school up to class X, which run in the morning hours in the same premises at 60B Surya Sen Street. Mitra Institution teaches and guides students from grade one to twelve under the West Bengal Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education. Following the footprints of the founder of the school, the teachers of the heritage institution have always worked towards a common objective to nurture the young talents to become responsible, bright, confident and enthusiastic citizens of India.