The Council of Independent Colleges: Historic Campus Architecture Project

Campbell Residence Hall

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Campbell Residence Hall, Whittier College

Institution Name: Whittier College
Original/Historic Place Name: U.S. Department of Agriculture Entomological Laboratory
Location on Campus: Earlham Dr. east of Painter Ave.
Date(s) of Construction:

1925	original construction

Designer: unknown
Type of Place: Individual building
Style: Other (Glossary)
Significance: architecture, culture, education, history
Narrative: see below
References: see below

Materials:

Foundation: concrete

Walls: reinforced concrete

Roof: red tile

Function:

ca. 1925-1961	other (U.S. Department of Agriculture's Entomological Laboratory in association with Whittier District Fruit Exchange)
ca. 1961-present (2006)	residence hall

Narrative:
The structure that is now known as Campbell Residence Hall was built during the 1920s as the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Entomological Laboratory in association with the Whittier District Fruit Exchange, a cooperative of citrus growers then highly active in the region. In the Mediterranean style, it has concrete foundations and reinfored concrete exterior walls, with red roof tiles. Its mission of studying the insect pests that plagued Southern California's then-booming citrus industry was a public service provided to growers in Southern California until a post-World-War II housing boom in the suburban Los Angeles area made citrus ranching less attractive than housing development, and what had been an agricultural center became a suburban bedroom community. The college received ground rent on the two-acre site on a 25-year lease that was extended until 1961, when the agricultural research station finally closed and the building reverted to the college and was refitted as a dormitory. Today it includes 15 rooms and serves 32 international students, many of whom are studying English in the ASPECT language training program for foreign students that is associated with the college.

References:

Arnold, Benjamin F. History of Whittier. Whittier, CA: Western Print Corporation, 1933.

Carter, Coila. "History of Whittier." B. A. thesis, Whittier College, 1908.

Cooper, Charles W. Whittier: Independent College in California. Los Angeles, CA: Ward Ritchie Press, 1967.

Cooper, Charles W. The A. Wardman Story. Whittier, CA: Whittier College, 1961.

Elliott, Charles, Jr. Whittier College: The First Century on the Poet Campus, a Pictorial Remembrance. Redondo Beach, CA: Legends Press, 1986.

Feeler, William Henry. History of Whittier College. M. A. thesis, University of Southern California, 1919.

Harris, Herbert Eugene. The Quaker and the West: The First Sixty Years of Whittier College. [s.l.:] Whittier College, 1948.

Pearce, Phyllis M., Claire G. Radford, and Mary Ann Rummel. Founders and Friends. Whittier, CA: Rio Hondo College Community Services, 1977.