The Origins of the University Park Campus

The information on this microsite (http://www.usc.edu/community/upcmasterplan) reflects archival data last updated in 2008. For the most accurate current information on the University Village Specific Plan, please visit village.usc.edu.

When USC opened its doors to 53 students on October 6, 1880, the University Park campus consisted of a single building on a seven-and-a-half-acre parcel of land. It was located in an area known as West Los Angeles, near the intersection of today?s Exposition Boulevard and Vermont Avenue.

The previous year, three civic leaders ? Ozro W. Childs, a Protestant horticulturist; former California governor John G. Downey, an Irish-Catholic businessman; and Isaias W. Hellman, a German-Jewish banker and philanthropist ? had donated 308 lots to the trustees of the university. Some of these lots had been reserved for the actual campus, while others were sold to create an endowment for the fledgling institution.

As enrollment grew, the trustees considered moving USC to a more rural area with room for a larger campus as early as 1905. This debate continued until 1917, when George Finley Bovard (USC president from 1903 to 1921), declared that the university was committed to solving the problems of the city, and that USC would remain "a city institution."