History of the University of California, Berkeley

The history of the University of California, Berkeley, can be traced to the establishment of the private College of California and its merger with the Agricultural, Mining, and Mechanical Arts College to form the University of California in 1868.

In 1866, the land that comprises the current Berkeley campus was purchased by the private College of California. Because it lacked sufficient funds to operate, it eventually merged with the state-run Agricultural, Mining, and Mechanical Arts College to form the University of California. The university's charter was signed by California Governor Henry H. Haight on March 23, 1868. Professor John Le Conte was appointed interim president, serving until 1870 when the Board of Regents elected Henry Durant, the founder of the College of California.

The university opened in September 1869 using the former College of California's buildings in Oakland as a temporary home while the new campus underwent construction. In 1871, the Board of Regents stated that women should be admitted on an equal basis with men. With the completion of North and South Halls in 1873, the university relocated to its Berkeley location with 167 male and 22 female students. In 1874 the first woman to graduate from the University of California was Rosa L. Scrivner with a Ph.B in Agriculture.

Starting in 1891, Phoebe Hearst, mother of William Randolph Hearst, made several large gifts to Berkeley, endowing a number of programs, sponsoring an international architectural competition, and funding the construction of Hearst Memorial Mining Building and Hearst Hall. Levi Strauss was another notable donor in 1897. In 1899, the University came of age under the direction of Benjamin Ide Wheeler, the University's President until 1919. In 1905, the "University Farm" of Berkeley was formed near Sacramento, ultimately becoming UC Davis. UC Berkeley's reputation grew as President Wheeler succeeded in attracting renowned faculty to the campus and procuring research and scholarship funds. The campus began to take on the look of a contemporary university with Beaux-Arts and neoclassical buildings, including California Memorial Stadium (1923) designed by architect John Galen Howard; these buildings form the core of UC Berkeley's present campus architecture.

...
Wikipedia