Occidental College - La Encina Yearbook (Los Angeles, CA)

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night, for these? Cultivation of the love of beauty is what college is for. To heighten the sensibilities, to create a keener appreciation of the beauties of the world-this makes life a joy. lilooks do their share, but the student who sees only books has lost half, yes, more than half the good of living. What the whispering' pines of ljowdoin were to Longfellow and lolawthorne, will be the hills and pleasant seclusions of Occidental to her students. This is the aesthetic side, Practically, the location midway between Los Angeles and Pasadena is a decided ad- vantage. Upon the scenic route of the Mt. Lowe railway, Uc- cidental is brought to the at- tention of the sojourners in the .lp ft ' The Library 61 . T -'sr .AN The Arroyo after a Rain Land of Sunshine, and Occi- dental claims them as her friencls. Los Angeles is becom- ing increasingly popular: Pas- adena likewise. lloth attract the cream of the East and thus Occidental claims the c1'eam of the East as her friends in ad- dition to her circle of local friends. And Occidental merits their attention and their inter- est. The years of struggle- the anxious years of careful thought and planning' for each move in the making of Occi- dental made by our trustees, to whom we dedicate this volume -have not been unavailing. The opportunities of the past were not the opportunities of the present, and the days of hardship, misfortune and dis- 16

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In Sycamore Grove

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couragement have only made possible these succeeding years of increas- mg prosperity and the hope for greater years. Strong men have given their best efforts, their thoughts, their time, their lives, and looking upon the result, they may say that it has not been in vain. 1 ln the winter of 1885-6 there was a meeting of a few men who were interested in the forming of a new institution of higher education in Los Angeles. The' result was embodied in the following resolution of February 15, 1886: That it is the sense of this meeting that steps should be taken at once looking toward the establishment of a Presbyterian institution of learning in the cityf, That was the beginning of Occi- dental College. There were necessarily many preliminary steps to be taken before the school actually began work. Its site was in .Doyle Heights. It was, in those first years, a boarding school and occupied but one building. This building stood for eight years, 1888 to 1896. On the thirteenth of january, 1896, the building burned and the trustees were forced to face a crisis. They met it bravely. Undaunted, they made greater plans. The school continued its work in temporary quar- ters up town. Meanwhile a new location in Highland Park was decided upon, and the building now occupied by the Academy was erected, and in 1898 the new Occidental opened, the one building accommodating both College and Academy under one roof and one faculty. That was the beginning, eleven years ago. The rest is the story of rapid growth and marked improvement in all lines, The first new building, the Hall of 1- . ,Q-A 1- ., VB ,lvgy vi 1,1 , -- V . 5,4 'lv '.f 1 , --.f A . - ' .,1 . L . . ,.,, , 1 ,, ,..- , ,,3.,, . I . ?'+'Jev ?i V 1' - The Old College Building, Boyle Heights Destroyed by tire, January 13, 1896 17 '