Los Angeles Pacific College
Los Angeles, California
1904-1965
E-Travel
Ancestry.com has placed digital copies of three L.A.P.C. yearbooks online. The Herman community has a website covering the history of the area. I was able to purchase the 1938 Yucca, source of the ad (right)
History
The 1929 Yucca asserts that Los Angeles Pacific College resulted from the “thought and plan of God.” A group of nine men, headed by Clyde B. Ebey, incorporated Los Angeles Free Methodist Seminary in July of 1903. A mission-style school was completed and classes began for 70 students on September 6, 1904. Initially the seminary was a primary school, a grammar school and a high school, and so it remained until 1915 when a junior college was added. In 1922 it took the name Los Angeles Pacific Junior College. Then in 1926 a merger with California College was effected. By this time the grammar and primary divisions had been dropped.
The 1929 yearbook celebrated the 25th anniversary of the founding of the college. At that time around 100 students attended—35 in the junior college. L.A.P.C. also had an Extension Division in which faculty and students worked among the Mexican community. After World War II, L.A.P.C. moved toward four-year status with one college senior listed in the 1947 Yucca.
The yearbooks show a tight-knit campus community with many activities involving most faculty and students. For example, here were no fewer than seven music groups—both vocal and instrumental—performing concerts on the campus. Oratory and declamation activities were organized as campus contests with prizes for the winners. Many social events were organized by the Dorm Clubs. Each class seemed to have an organized hike to the top of Old Baldy Mountain.
The religious nature of the campus is shown in activities such as Ashcroft Revival Band and the Missionary Society—both involving large numbers of the student body. The Cosmopolitan Club helped with chapel and prayer activities.
By 1965 financial problems and concerns about aging buildings led to a merger with Azusa College.
Ashcraft Revivial Band was a group of Christian students who visited patients at the County Hospital each Sunday and led the campus noonday prayer service. Image from the 1938 Yucca.
Bricks and Mortar
Ralph Rogers gave the land for the campus, an isolated rural valley in northeast Los Angeles. He provided an additional one hundred building lots to sell for operating funds. Around the campus was organized the community of Herman, largely populated by families whose children attended the school. The website History of Herman notes that it was not until 1926 that a bridge was built across Arroyo Seco, giving the community better access to Los Angeles.
After the merger with Azusa, the Herman campus went to Pacific Christian on the Hill, a prep school similar to LAPC in religious orientation. That school closed in 2004. The campus is now used by Los Angeles International Charter High School.
Administration Building (Ralph Rogers Hall) Image from History of the Free Methodist Church of North America https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.ah5w8n;view=1up;seq=395
Sports
Team name: Panthers
The 1929 Yucca shows that sports operated from the same principle as other campus activities—geared toward participation. Intramural teams in basketball, baseball, and touch football competed for bragging rights. College teams in these sports held contests with the academy and the alumni.
After World War II, L.A.P.C. became a part of the Southern California Christian Conference, now scheduling games with other like schools. The 1947 Yucca notes that this is the second year for L.A.P.C. teams in the conference and that the teams are being successful.
By 1960 the football team had been selected to play against George Fox College in the Crusader Bowl.
The 1946-47 women’s basketball team traveled to Seattle to play Seattle Pacific College
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