UCLA’s First Home

UCLA’s First Home. LACC. , Los Angeles State Normal School , Founded in 1881, Los Angeles State Normal School played a vital role in the educational development of California. Alumni of the two-year teacher training program taught children all over the state. By 1917, enrollment had risen to 1,671 students, a majority of whom were women, making it the largest teacher training institute in California. In 1914, the Normal School moved from downtown to a newly built 25-acre Italian Romanesque-inspired campus on Vermont Avenue. , Two Men With a Dream , During the 1910s, Edward Augustus Dickson, editor at the Los Angeles Express and member of the University of California Board of Regents, realized that Los Angeles needed a public university. "There was no visible evidence of the University of California in this area," he recalled. "There did exist, however, a growing demand for higher educational facilities, and I early came to the conclusion that this need must be met." Dickson found an ally in Dr. Ernest Carroll Moore, president of the Normal School. The two devised a plan to take over the campus and transform it into the "Southern Chapter" of the University of California. Although other members of the UC Board of Regents opposed the idea, Dickson and Moore worked tirelessly to make their dream a reality. On May 23, 1919, Governor William D. Stephens signed Assembly Bill 626, creating the Southern Branch of the University of California. , A Campus Takes Life , On September 15, 1919, the Southern Branch of the University of California welcomed students "out in the weeds and wildflowers of Vermont." Within weeks the student-run Cub Californian editorialized: "A good beginning has been made. We have a yell leader, and we have the beginning of a football team to yell for. We have a weekly paper, and before long we will have the activities of a full-fledged university." The campus soon had an unofficial mascot, a floppy-eared dog named "Rags". In 1925, the Southern Branch awarded its first Bachelor of Arts degrees to 100 women and 24 men. , Moving Day , Enrollment expanded so rapidly that by 1925 the university had outgrown its 25-acre Vermont Avenue campus by 3,000 students. A new location was selected in an undeveloped 383-acre area just west of Beverly Hills (later called Westwood) and in 1927, construction of a new campus began. , That year, the institution's name was changed to the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). On "moving day," May 31, 1929, more than 500 cars decorated in school colors and carrying campus equipment caravanned 10 miles west from the old site to the new. That September undergraduate classes were held for a student body of 5,500. The first football game between long-standing rivals, the UCLA Bruins and USC Trojans, also took place in 1929 , with the Bruins losing 76-0. , From UCLA to the City’s College , After UCLA relocated, the Los Angeles Board of Education purchased the Vermont Avenue site for $700,000 with plans of establishing a community college. On September 9, 1929, the Los Angeles Junior College opened with an inaugural enrollment of 1,300 and a staff of 54 teachers. College-level classes, as well as technical and professional courses were offered. The school changed its name to Los Angeles City College in 1938. Many notable people have studied at LACC over the years, including actors Mark Hamill and Lawrence Fishburne, actress and swimming star Esther Williams, actor/director Clint Eastwood, producer/screenwriter Gene Roddenberry, dancer and choreographer Alvin Ailey, jazz musicians Chet Baker and Charles Mingus, writer and poet Charles Bukowski, architect Frank Gehry, recording artist MC Hammer, baseball umpire Emmett Ashford, and Congresswoman Diane Watson, to name a few.