Caltech Campus in the early 1900s

Caltech Archives and Special Collections tweeted a couple of interesting photographs on their @CaltechArchives account this morning. 

The photo on the right is Pasadena Hall that served as the focal point of the campus for a number of years. The image on the left is a drawing from a 1908 campus master plan that proposed additional buildings.

Cal Tech was founded as Throop Polytechnic Institute in 1891. Classes were initially held in a four story building on the Wooster Block of downtown Pasadena. After moving in 1910 the institution transitioned to become a school of engineering and it became Throop College of Technology in 1912 and California Institute of Technology in 1920.

There is also a link you can follow for an interesting YouTube video, "The Greater Throop": Planning and Building a New Campus, a presentation where archivists discuss the growth of the campus from 1910-1930.