Los Angeles Pacific College (defunct)

Los Angeles Pacific College was a four-year, liberal-arts college located on 5732 Ebey Avenue in the Hermon neighborhood of Hispanic East Los Angeles, California.^[1][2]

The school was founded in 1903 to teach children and youth in grades one to twelve, by a group of ministers and laymen of the Free Methodist Church, an Arminian Holiness denomination. The college failed in 1965.

History[]

Female students of LAPC, 1920

The founders of the school were the first developers of the neighborhood of Hermon in the city of Los Angeles, when it was a rural wilderness tucked in the hills. Initially called Los Angeles Free Methodist Seminary, it was not a seminary for the education of ministers, but a school where children of the community could be raised in a Christian atmosphere.^[3]

The Seminary (grades 1-12) opened in the fall of 1904 with 70 students. In 1911, the seminary added a junior college for women, the first in the state of California. As the small community of Hermon grew, a four-year college course was added in 1934 and the school came to be called Los Angeles Pacific College (LAPC). Part of the Free Methodist denomination, it taught the Free-Will System of theology.^[3]

By 1960, males were allowed to matriculate, and in 1961, an instructor created a football team for all male students regardless of ability.^[4]

Following a major Chicago school fire in 1958, the city of Los Angeles' Department of Building and Safety began inspecting schools. Many of LAPC's aging bungalows were not up to code, so the Free Methodist Church sold off the assets. Official copies of student records, transcripts, and diplomas would all be lost when the college was bulldozed in 1965.^[5][3]

The corner lot became a liquor store, catty corner from the hill, which became Pacific Christian High School, carrying on the legacy of the original founders' concept of Christian classes in the Hermon neighborhood. Those lasted until 2004, when they, too, closed due to financial failure.^[3] The site is now Los Angeles College Prep Academy, which has no religious affiliation.

Famous alumni[]

Los Angeles Pacific College's football roster and statistics, from the 1962 yearbook, showing the football record of alumnus John Macarthur.^[4]

• Harry Bidwell Ansted (1893-1955), a United States Army officer, pastor and educator, and the first president of Seoul National University, was an instructor at LAPC.
• Arleta Richardson (March 9, 1923 – July 25, 2004), a Christian children's author and teacher, was the librarian at LAPC.
• Dr. Paul Drummond Cameron (born November 9, 1939), a professional psychologist, is the founder of the Family Research Institute. He graduated from LAPC in 1961.
• Jack MacArthur (March 30, 1914 – June 15, 2005), pastor of Cavalry Bible Church and founder of Voice of Cavalry radio ministries, was awarded an honorary doctorate of literature from LAPC in 1961.
• John F. MacArthur (born June 19, 1939), pastor of Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California was a frequent guest of Larry King Live on CNN until Larry's departure. During his senior year at LAPC, MacArthur played three games of football, catching the ball once.^[4] He graduated from LAPC in 1962. Soon after, all academic records were lost.

References[]

Coordinates: 34°03′44″N 118°17′42″W / 34.062259°N 118.294966°W / 34.062259; -118.294966