Caltech Gets Its Start in Old Town Pasadena

Caltech got its start as a vocational school founded in September 1891 by Pasadena philanthropist Amos G. Throop (pronounced "troop"). Housed in the rented Wooster Block building at the southeast corner of the intersection of Fair Oaks and Green Street, the school—then called Throop University—opened its doors with 31 students and six faculty members. Throop University became Throop Polytechnic Institute in 1897, featuring vocational and elementary education. In 1907, after George Ellery Hale joined the Institute's board of trustees, he persuaded school officials to discontinue the elementary school, the business school, the teacher-training program, and the high school, leaving only a college of science and technology that conferred Bachelor of Science degrees in electrical, mechanical, and civil engineering. The grade school program eventually became the independent Polytechnic School, which is now a K–12 academy located just southwest of campus. In 1910, Throop Polytechnic Institute moved from its crowded quarters in the center of Pasadena to its current location. The Institute's name changed to Throop College of Technology in 1913 before becoming the California Institute of Technology in 1920.