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45 Years of Excellence and Innovation The History of College of the Canyons | 1969-2014

The first campus at the quarters were arranged at Hart High School. It was there, in a Newhall
The program for the college’s first graduation ceremony in June 1970 listed 15 of the 16 graduates. The ceremony permanent site was Avenue bungalow, that College of the Canyons officially opened on Sept.
was held at Hart High School, the new college’s first but temporary home. A reception followed in the high school’s composed of a collec-
cafeteria. tion of temporary 22, 1969, welcoming its first class of students. Rockwell expected about 600
modular buildings people to sign up for the fall quarter. But, in a precursor to the years that
holding 99 classrooms.
maps in the first place. The college needed a permanent home. Although much vacant land The buildings of the so- would follow, demand was under-estimated as 735 students showed up.
called “instant cam-
existed in 1969, a significant portion of it was owned by one company, Newhall Land. Administrative offices were located several blocks away, at 24609 Arch
pus” sat roughly on the
The college identified some 45 possible properties on which to build, including land that location of the pres- Street, in a strip-mall storefront just over the railroad tracks at San Fernando
ent-day softball field.
Newhall Land and Sea World planned to transform into a major theme park. That place Road (now known as Main Street). The college organized its first-year
would open on May 29, 1971 as Magic Mountain and quickly become a regional land- schedule around the quarter system, with the winter quarter starting Jan. 7,
mark, but only after Newhall Land made college leaders an offer they couldn’t refuse. 1970 and the spring quarter commencing April 8, 1970. There was no sum-
Not wanting its land acquired through eminent-domain proceedings, Newhall Land mer quarter.
made the college district a generous offer. The company would sell the district more than Courses of instruction were comprehensive for such a new institution.
150 acres along Interstate 5 near Valencia Boulevard for about $10,000 an acre, then More than 150 classes were offered in anthropology, art, astronomy, auto-
return 10 percent of the purchase price as a gift. Now, all the district needed was the motive technology, biological sciences, business, chemistry, communica-
money. tions, economics, engineering, English, French, geography, geology,
With hundreds of prospective students eagerly awaiting their new college, temporary German, health education, history, home economics, library technology,

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