Marymount California University’s roots on the Palos Verdes Peninsula go back to 1960

Recent news that UCLA has purchased the closed campus of Marymount California University in Rancho Palos Verdes and its housing annex in San Pedro warrants a look back at the school’s history.

Its earliest roots lie in Westwood at 10643 Sunset Blvd. near UCLA, where Marymount was founded by the Religious of the Sacred Heart order in 1932 as an all-girls high school before later becoming a two-year college.

It holds the distinction of being the first Catholic junior college to be established in California. In 1948, the school expanded into a four-year university.

Its road to the Palos Verdes hills began with a March 1951 announcement that its new campus would be built on a hilltop near the intersection of Crest Rd. and Palos Verdes Drive East in Rancho Palos Verdes.

Palos Verdes Corporation President Frank Vanderlip Jr. granted 45 acres of land for the purpose of housing the $250,000 original campus. The 1,000-foot-high site overlooks the western San Pedro and Portuguese Bend coasts, with Catalina Island in the distance.

The architectural firm Welton Becket and Associates designed the first buildings for the school. The plan was to open an elementary and high school first on the site for approximately 200 students, which would later be transformed into a four-year college. 

Its first students graduated from the high school in 1955. Actual construction of the full college campus began in June 1959. That October, Los Angeles Archbishop Timothy Manning conducted a ground-blessing ceremony for the $7.5 million project.

It was a star-studded affair. Hotel magnate Conrad Hilton delivered the keynote address. Attendees included parents of students at all eight Marymount schools in California. Celebrities June Allyson, Dick Powell, Tom Harmon, Van Heflin, Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Bob Hope, Pat O’Brien and Danny Thomas were among the estimated 3,000 people present.

Initial registration for the new Marymount College began in June 1960, and it opened its doors to its first 200 students, all women, on Sept. 12, 1960. Enrollment was limited at 350 at first, with plans to expand eventually to more than 1,000 students. (The high school returned to Westwood with the opening of the college.)

In 1961, Associated Press Hollywood columnist James Bacon revealed the identity of a mysterious $100,000 donor to the college: Frank Sinatra. The college also announced its accreditation by the Western College Association after just one year of operation.

Additional buildings were added to the campus during the next few years. In addition, its management structure underwent some changes. In 1967, the decision was made to move the four-year college operation to Loyola University, which opened in Westchester in 1929. The two-year junior college would continue to operate on the RPV campus.

The merger between the schools became complete in 1973, with Loyola became Loyola Marymount University. Things looked rocky for the renamed and newly coeducational Marymount Palos Verdes College in 1973; it had only 120 students and a budget deficit.

Its financial situation became dire enough to warrant the sale of its original 1960 campus site to the Salvation Army, who has used it ever since to train its officers. Marymount then moved its campus to the smaller Marymount Prep School site nearby, which closed to facilitate the move.

The college carried on at its new site, and by 1985, its financial problems had eased and its enrollment had reached 650, some of whom lived on the school’s satellite 11-acre housing site in San Pedro.

The school’s next few decades would be filled with similar ups and downs. Maintaining its enrollment and funding while operating as a two-year commuter college proved difficult.

For years, Marymount had tried to build on-campus dorms in order to become more of a residential college, and a new such initiative was launched in 2002. The school gave up on the effort in 2009 after seven years of contentious dealings with opposed local residents and RPV city planners.

Instead, the school announced plans in 2009 to once again become a four-year institution offering bachelor’s degrees after more than three decades as a two-year school. In 2012, Marymount opened its Waterfront Campus in a former Northrop Grumman office building in San Pedro.

That same year, it awarded its initial bachelor’s degrees to its new crop of four-year students, with former Los Angeles Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda giving the commencement address. In 2013, 50 more students received their B.A. degrees.

Earlier in 2013, the college changed its name to California Marymount University and announced plans to open a satellite campus in the northern California town of Lucerne, in Lake County. Enrollment at the main CMU campus had reached 1,000 students.

But the school continued to struggle with falling enrollment and financial difficulties over the next few years. Rising costs and fewer students, combined with the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic, led to the school’s permanent closure as of Aug. 31, 2022.

On Sept. 27, UCLA announced that it would pay $80 million for the two Marymount sites in an effort to ease overcrowding and expand enrollment. The school also operates satellite campuses in Culver City and downtown Los Angeles.

UCLA Chancellor Gene Block told the Daily Breeze the move would help strengthen its connection to the greater L.A. region, and that academic offerings at the newly purchased facility could begin as early as 2023.

Sources:

“About Marymount California,” Marymount California University website.

Daily Breeze archives.

Los Angeles Times archives.

Palos Verdes Peninsula News archives.

“UCLA expands with new sites in the South Bay,” by Bill Kisliuk, UCLA Newsroom website, Sept. 27, 2022.