August 28, 2017
After the opening of our new light rail line last year to the beach, I decided to revisit my old college stomping grounds in the Hills of Westwood to get some good pictures. I’d taken some photos back in my college days like the tourists that showed up on campus, but they were, how to put it, crap.
In 1881 the state decided to establish a Normal School(a school to produce teachers) in the backwater known as Los Angeles. Most of the state’s population and commerce was centered in the San Francisco bay area and they had already established a Normal School in San Francisco(it had moved to San Jose) and the University of California had been established in Berkeley. The Los Angeles Normal School was built in downtown Los Angels where the LA Central Library is now situated(5th Street and Flower Street). In the early 1900’s they had run out of room and need a larger space so they moved to Vermont Avenue in Hollywood(now Los Angeles City College). In 1919 the University of California decided that they needed a campus in the southern half of the state and took over the Los Angeles Normal School for the Southern Branch of the University of California. After a few years the “Southern Branch” became know as the University of California at Los Angeles(UCLA). Another thing had also become evident, they were going to need more room than they had at the Vermont campus so a search was begun for a new campus. Several locations were under consideration(Palos Verdes, Pasadena, Burbank, and Westwood), when the Regents visited to look at each location some real estate developers(the Janss brothers, who also developed my home town) hired the driver to show the various locations with Westwood being the last location. I guess he must have been a pretty good salesman, eh driver, since the regents decided to locate the university at the Westwood location. The first structure built on campus was a bridge across an arroyo to assist in building the new campus. It’s still there but has been covered over and the only clue that it’s a bridge is a sign warning about the maximum load on the “bridge”. Four buildings were built on the new campus(a library, an auditorium/classroom building and two classroom buildings) and the new campus was ready for students in 1929.
Read MoreIn 1881 the state decided to establish a Normal School(a school to produce teachers) in the backwater known as Los Angeles. Most of the state’s population and commerce was centered in the San Francisco bay area and they had already established a Normal School in San Francisco(it had moved to San Jose) and the University of California had been established in Berkeley. The Los Angeles Normal School was built in downtown Los Angels where the LA Central Library is now situated(5th Street and Flower Street). In the early 1900’s they had run out of room and need a larger space so they moved to Vermont Avenue in Hollywood(now Los Angeles City College). In 1919 the University of California decided that they needed a campus in the southern half of the state and took over the Los Angeles Normal School for the Southern Branch of the University of California. After a few years the “Southern Branch” became know as the University of California at Los Angeles(UCLA). Another thing had also become evident, they were going to need more room than they had at the Vermont campus so a search was begun for a new campus. Several locations were under consideration(Palos Verdes, Pasadena, Burbank, and Westwood), when the Regents visited to look at each location some real estate developers(the Janss brothers, who also developed my home town) hired the driver to show the various locations with Westwood being the last location. I guess he must have been a pretty good salesman, eh driver, since the regents decided to locate the university at the Westwood location. The first structure built on campus was a bridge across an arroyo to assist in building the new campus. It’s still there but has been covered over and the only clue that it’s a bridge is a sign warning about the maximum load on the “bridge”. Four buildings were built on the new campus(a library, an auditorium/classroom building and two classroom buildings) and the new campus was ready for students in 1929.
Stained glass window.
This stained glass windows is in one of the campus restaurants, in fact the one I worked in while in college. I always liked it and also spent a lot of time in that room since it was the dining room that allowed smoking.
