Blog: UCLA, CSUDH Almost Came to Palos Verdes

A section of 1,000 acres was originally set aside by the planners of the Palos Verdes Project for a University campus. In 1921, a proposal was made for the relocation of the southern branch of the University of California (which later was renamed UCLA), which was then located on Vermont Avenue in Los Angeles (built in 1914 and home to Los Angeles City College since 1929). The proposed site was in the center of the Palos Verdes Peninsula, where Peninsula High School, the Peninsula Shopping Center, and the Promenade on the Peninsula Shopping Center are located. The proposal, in addition to the donated 1,000 acres, included other inducements. These inducements included $1 million, the construction of a model grammar school and a model high school to be run by the University's Department of Education, a marine biological station and public aquarium, an art museum, a theatre seating 1,500, a boathouse at Portuguese Bend and a football stadium to seat 90,000. After considering 17 other sites, UCLA held classes on their new Westwood campus in 1929.

In 1963, Great Lakes Property, Inc., had planned to sell 107 acres of land near the intersection of Hawthorne Boulevard and Crest road at the top of the Palos Verdes Peninsula as a site for what was originally named South Bay State College and then renamed California State College at Palos Verdes (CSCPV). The State of California had allocated funds to acquire this land and had actually begun classes for 27 freshmen and 14 juniors in a bank building in the Peninsula Center area in September 1965.

After extensive planning and beginning eminent domain acquisition of the site, due to rising land values this site was abandoned for consideration in mid-1965. Three other sites on the Palos Verdes Peninsula were then considered, including one on the northern slopes of the Peninsula, including the Chandler gravel pit and the County sanitary landfill on unincorporated land between Crenshaw and Hawthorne boulevards, as well as on land overlooking Palos Verdes Drive South in Rancho Palos Verdes adjacent to San Pedro. Other potential sites included Fort MacArthur in San Pedro and Dominguez Hills.

After the Watts riots in South Central Los Angeles in August 1965, however, one of the issues raised by civil rights leaders was the lack of access to colleges in the area. In response, the California legislature decided not to approve the Palos Verdes sites and the campus was located in Carson as the California State University, Dominguez Hills.

For more South Bay History, visit my website at maureenmegowan.com or go directly to my history pages at southbayhistory.com.