University of Southern California

University of Southern California. Widney Hall. , The First Trojan, Before There Was A University , Amid the ivy-covered brick buildings and towering palm trees of the University of Southern California, there survives a two-story white clapboard building, a relic and a link not only to the university's founder but to Los Angeles itself. , Built in 1880, Widney Hall, now Widney Alumni House, was the school’s first building, created by one of 19th-century Los Angeles’ unusual characters: a land promoter, engineer, attorney and judge who was also a deadly pistol shot and the man who began USC. , Robert Maclay Widney was an Ohio farm boy who left home at 16 with nothing more than an axe, a knapsack and a rifle. He hooked up with a wagon train, walking all the way to Northern California in 1857. , The farm boy worked odd jobs to pay tuition at Santa Clara’s College of the Pacific, where he graduated with a degree in engineering and taught math and geology while he studied law and courted college mate Mary Barnes. , With a hundred dollars in his pocket and his bride on his arm, Widney arrived in Los Angeles in February 1868. He hung out his legal shingle on a downtown adobe. , But when he realized that the land beneath him was worth more than legal advice, he made himself into the town’s first attorney-real estate salesman. , Widney’s foresight served him well. When land baron Abel Stearns went bankrupt, he hired Widney, and instead of legal fees, Widney accepted payment in land. In time, that property and land he later bough became whole towns, among them Long Beach, Ontario, Pacoima, San Fernando and Victorville. , Even his office bespoke the real estate mantra of “location, location, location.” It was conveniently near the popular Bella Union saloon, where Widney ocassionally conducted business, but never drank. , One day, Widney stood at the saloon door, watching some liquored-up men try shoot out a knot of wood in the wall. When they missed, their mood got ugly, and they turned on Widney. “Run that damned teetotaler out of town,” one of them shouted, unholstering his gun to try to force Widney to take a drink. , “I don’t drink,” Widney snarled, and drew his own gun and fired three shots, dead-center, into the knot of wood. , “You win!” the drunk conceded. , An Idea Takes Form , The businessman who was willing to take a risk was also willing to take a stand. In 1871, as deadly anti-Chinese riots raged through town, ultimately massacring 18 Chinese immigrants, Widney drew his Colt revolver once again, and plunged into the murderous mob, escorting several Chinese to safety. , Three months later, Widney was appointed a federal judge. Soon, 37 indicted rioters stood in his courtroom. Eight were convicted of manslaughter. , By 1879, Widney had championed such improvements as a horse-drawn trolley line, bringing the Southern Pacific Railroad to Los Angeles, and electric streetlights. , Now he presented Methodist Episcopal Church elders with his idea of building a university. Widney’s idea won them over. The three men who donated the land were a Protestant, a Catholic and a Jew, and their diversity underlay the new university’s mandate that “no student would be denied admission because of race, color, religion or sex.” , Named for the man who made it possible, Widney Hall opened its doors on Oct. 6, 1880, a two-story Georgian-Victorian-style building with 53 students studying classical arts, philosophy and science, and each paying $12 to $15 in tuition fees. , The Bell Tolls And Returns , Ten years later, on Halloween night 1890, the Sigma Chi fraternity members snatched the bell from Widney Hall. The ringleader sped off with the bell in his late-model buckboard, and the bell stayed with the fraternity for a hundred years. The bell the fraternity finally returned was a duplicate; the original had probably been melted down in some scrap-metal drive. , The university itself had been Widney’s idea, and he came to the university’s assistance again in 1892, during an economic panic, by giving USC enough land to sell to see it through tough times. California repaid its debt. In 1955, when the university celebrated its 75th anniversary, Widney Hall was designated a state historical landmark.