The beginning of PCC--PJC--PHS

"The history of this [PCC] college is deeply intertwined with the history of the Pasadena school system in general and with Pasadena High School in particular, since the junior college was originally an extension of the high school.
In the fall of 1887, the very first Pasadena High School was established offering a three year academic program taught by nine teachers. It was housed in the Woodrow Wilson Building at the corner of Walnut Street and Marengo Avenue. Three hundred students, including the grammar school , received instruction there. From 1891, when a fourth year was added to the high school, until 1911 attendance continued to grow. The school had moved to the corner of Los Robles Avenue and Walnut Street and had also taken over the abandoned buildings of the Throop Military Academy at the corner of Chestnut Street and Walnut Street.
In 1911, the citizens of Pasadena passed a bond issue to raise funds for a new high school. Eighteen acres of land were purchased on East Colorado Street, the present location of PCC. June 8, 1912 the cornerstone of Pasadena Polytechnic High School, as it was then called, was laid. Seventy-nine teachers and 1529 students started the school year in the fall of 1913.
In order to meet the growing needs of the community, adult education was established in 1915 at the high school.
It was from a reorganization of the Pasadena City Schools in 1924 that PCC evolved. This plan designated a system of junior high schools which were to eventually include the ninth and tenth grades. It also added one year of college to be conducted on the same campus as the high school."

Source: "PCC history dates back to 1887" by Pam Beerer in the folder "Historical data: Pasadena High School & Junior College" [by] R.L. Ashley, June 1955.
Location: Archives Room, History of  PCC--PJC--PHS