Early Days
Early Days | Rapid Growth | Community Partnerships | University Housing | Student Demand
Langsdorf, then head of Pasadena City College, took his family to those orange groves to make his decision on whether to become founding president of what is now Cal State Fullerton. Whatever he envisioned in those hundreds of orange trees convinced him to take the job.
The first year, classes were held in six classrooms at Sunny Hills High School while plans were made for constructing a campus expected to serve as many as 15,000 by the 1970s and 20,000 full-time-equivalent students by 1983.
In 1960, Langsdorf moved the fledgling campus’s administrative staff to Mahr House—the largest of three buildings on the site (the other two structures were the Hetebrink House, built in 1884, which now houses athletics offices as the Titan House; and a barn that was later torn down). His office was set up in the master bedroom of the 1928 Spanish Colonial Revival-style home, while office supplies were stored in a bathroom. Faculty offices were in the dining room, while the living room served as admissions, advisement and counseling central.
Today, renovated and renamed through the generosity of alumnus George G. Golleher, Golleher House serves as a center for alumni activities and some university events.
Also in 1960, one-story bungalows were installed on the northwest side of the site as “temporary” classrooms. Those “temporary” facilities for the most part remain to this day and serve as the physical plant, carpentry and automotive shops, headquarters for University Police and the CSUF Children’s Center.
Three years later—1963—the university reached a milestone with the completion of the Letters and Science Building, which housed classrooms, the library, administrative and faculty offices. With nearly an acre of space on each floor, the building was among the largest facilities of its kind in the country.
As the university’s first permanent building, Letters and Science featured a number of interesting and notable distinctions. The seven-story building, with basement, was built with escalators that went up only to the fourth floor—state regulations at the time prohibited their installation beyond that level. It also was an official nuclear fallout shelter and emergency disaster facility. Finally, its sides were marked distinctively with a chevron-shaped, brutalist design that would appear over and over again on other campus buildings, most notably those surrounding the Quad.
The building was renamed Miles D. McCarthy Hall on Sept. 21, 1984. It was in honor of the founding chair and professor of biology who created and led the Health Professions Committee, who served not only stints as department chair, dean and vice president for academic affairs but, for nine months in 1981, as acting university president.
