History of The University of Redlands - Founding The University

Founding The University

The University of Redlands had its roots in the founding of two other Baptist institutions, California College in Oakland (not to be confused with the founding institution of the University of California, but a Baptist college founded with a $28,000 endowment on a site donated by Mrs. E. H. Grey) and Los Angeles University, first proposed in 1883 by Charles Button, a preacher who convinced an association of Southern California Baptist churches to raise funds for what became Los Angeles University. Both institutions were opened in 1886, but LAU never became financially solvent, soon ceased functioning as a university, and incurred massive debts. The Baptists appointed an education commission in 1905 to raise funds to cancel the debt and reopen the university as a high school. After the San Francisco earthquake of 1906 damaged the finances of California College, the commission began exploring the liquidation of both institutions to develop a new institution in Southern California.

After the Baptist education commission tentatively accepted a proposal to join with Congregationalists to make Pomona a strong interdenominational college, Jasper Newton Field, a new Baptist pastor at Redlands, persuaded the Redlands Board of Trade to pursue the college at Redlands, California, and the Southern California Baptist convention to reject Pomona's offer.