Oxy History

April 20, 1887

Occidental College is incorporated

Oct. 8, 1888

Forty students enroll at Occidental's Boyle Heights campus

June 21, 1893

First degrees awarded to Maud E. Bell and Martha J. Thompson

Jan. 13, 1896

Fire destroys Occidental's only building

Sept. 13, 1898

Fifteen students enroll at Occidental's new Highland Park campus near Avenue 50 and Figueroa

1900-1910

Faculty building new homes create what now is known as Professors’ Row in Highland Park

1907

Clarence Spalding '07 is named Occidental's first Rhodes Scholar

1909

Occidental considers, and rejects, a merger with Pomona College

1909-1910

Architect Myron Hunt drafts first master plan for the Eagle Rock campus

March 25, 1911

Teddy Roosevelt visits Occidental

March 27, 1914

Swan, Fowler, and Johnson Halls are dedicated

1916

Patterson Football Field is opened

1924

Clapp Library is opened

1925

• Orr Hall (now the Weingart Center), Occidental's first women's dorm, opens
• Hillside Theater, a joint college-community project, is dedicated

Nov. 7, 1928

Freeman Student Union is opened

1929

Occidental has three dorms and 12 fraternities and sororities

1931

Student Aid Fund established

1932

Depression forces faculty salary cut, suspension of building program

1935

Myron Hunt creates an updated master plan for campus

1937

Landscape architect Beatrix Farrand landscapes the central Quadrangle

1940

Haines and Wylie halls open – the last campus buildings designed by Hunt

July 1943

A Navy V-12 unit is established at Occidental

1946

Veterans housing is built next to Patterson Field

Aug. 5, 1948

Sammy Lee '43 wins the diving competition at the London Olympics, becoming the first Asian-American gold medal winner

October 1949

First night game under the lights is played at Patterson Field

1955

Anderson baseball field is opened

Dec. 20, 1958

Seniors John Paden and Aaron Segal win Rhodes Scholarships

July 27, 1962

Time  magazine calls Occidental “a little giant” in a story on the college's rise to national prominence

Oct. 8, 1964

Herrick Chapel is dedicated

Summer 1966

Upward Bound program, one of the country's first, is established at Occidental

April 12, 1967

Martin Luther King speaks at Thorne Hall

1969

First coed dorms established

1979

Gilman Fountain is installed

1984

Stearns residence hall is built; future residents include Ben Affleck '95

1986-87

For the first time since World War II, women students outnumber men

1987

Upper and lower soccer fields are built

1993

Most recent master plan for campus drafted

Oct. 12, 2003

Hameetman Science Center is dedicated