History & Tradition

In 1928, Charles Voorhis, an automotive pioneer and an early executive of the Oakland Car Company (today the company is known as General Motors), opened the Voorhis School for Boys. The school was established for underprivileged boys.  The school operated as a private school for 10 years. During this time, Voorhis' son, Jerry, became a U.S. Congressman. Jerry helped support the students by acquiring Pell Grant funding. The evolution of California State Polytechnic University, Pomona began in the summer of 1938 when the Voorhis' family donated 153 acres of land in San Dimas, California to the State of California.  The site had been the former location of the Voorhis School for Boys.  In the fall of 1938, a Southern California branch of Cal Poly College in San Luis Obispo opened for men studying agriculture.

In 1949 the foundation created by breakfast cereal magnate W.K. Kellogg deeded 813 acres of land three miles south of the Voorhis campus to the State of California for use in the expansion of Cal Poly's Southern California program.  The property was the site on which Kellogg, in 1925, constructed a family home, manor house, Arabian horse stables, and several ranch buildings of Spanish-style architecture.

It was here that Kellogg also carried out a lifetime dream to develop purebred Arabian horses.  He purchased the first horses from a herd in Indio, California and added others from Arabia, Egypt, England and Poland.  The Kellogg Arabians soon became the third largest collection of Arabians in America, and the Kellogg Ranch one of the attractions of Southern California.  In 1926, Kellogg opened the ranch for Sunday Arabian Horse Shows and the horses and ranch became popular with dignitaries, Hollywood stars, and the general public.

When the W.K. Kellogg foundation gave the property to the State of California in 1949, the deed agreement specifically stipulated retention of the Arabian horse breeding and training program, and continuance of the Sunday horse shows.  This tradition continues today on the first Sunday of the month, October through May.

In 1956, 550 men and 30 faculty members moved from the original Voorhis site to the Kellogg campus.  All classrooms, administrative offices, and bookstore were housed in one building, known today as Science Building 3.  The first on-campus residence halls opened in the fall of 1960 and in the fall of 1961, 322 women were enrolled for the first time.

In 1966, twenty-eight years after its founding, Cal Poly Pomona separated from the San Luis Obispo campus to become California's 16th state college.  When university status was granted in 1972, Cal Poly Pomona officially became known as California State Polytechnic University, Pomona.