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

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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 '

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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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Letters, was built in 1904. Compared with their old quarters the new building seemed luxurious. lt seemed fairly too good to be true that the same year, in addition to the fl.-lall of Letters, the Library was built, a gift of Charles M. Stimson. The square in which those buildings stand was improved, and the grounds made attractive by the planting of lawns and ornamental trees and shrubs. Large-hearted men have helped Occidental by their interest and more substantially by money gifts. New buildings are planned for in the near future and after that the imagination carries one far. lb Large realization IS born of large ideahzation. ,Plans for the Greater Occidental, while on paper and perhaps writ in air, are the foundations through which the real one will be made possible. A new Science I-lall is no longer a possibility, it is a probabilityg it is a neces- sity, and necessity finds a way. VVith increasing size of departments and rapid growth of the student body, the matter cannot meet much delay. The Observatory on College Hill is another plan for Occidental, and one which, in the days of the Greater Occidental, will be founded on hard, substantial fact. A new gymnasium is also one of the soou-to-be- realized factors in Occidental's life. The tools which lie at hand are not idle. The increasing number of students who come to Occidental give ample exercise to all the advantages with which Occidental is blessed. Each year the standard of scholarship is raised. Her students go out with the baehelor's de- gree, men and women who in the smaller school have mounted to the height where they are ready to climb higher. They are trained to appreciate and prize intellectual attainment, to have keener sympathy for the world, and a higher regard for the moral and spiritual. Occidental cannot be justly accused of having as an aim a desire to become a university or in any degree to simulate the work of a university, bearing that name. Occidental would be distinctly a small college. There is a decided field for such an institution, for many of them, in our country, and Occidental endeavors to refieet her interpre- tation of this idea. She should be the place where boys and girls become men and women, rich in intellectual attainment and richer still in having seen the visions of great things which the future may hold in store for them. Occidental is original in lacking the atmosphere of profound ancient learning. She is original in having memories of other sorts. Are the old Spanish fathers forgotten? California's atmosphere is distinctive. She has the story of the heroic lives of humble fathers sacrificed on the altar of their devotion. Southern California's atmosphere breathes of the days of padres, of senor and senorita-days not so long past. It breathes through gentle breezes, among oaks and sycamoresg among olives and old orange groves. Occidental has a wealth of strenuous, exhilirating ambition to in- spire for untiring efforts. ,Youth is hers, she rejoicesiin her youth. Life is before her. History is in the making. The blood tingles at the thought of the world's opportunities. The race has just begun. Occi- dental lb bound to win. V. M.gl1., .10 18