47 years later: a look back at De Anza College’s origins and infancy

Matthew Shamshoian
June 19, 2015

Hundreds of students gather for a meeting following the assassination of Martin Luther King in the main quad in a photo published on April 19, 1968. The familiar fountain is at center, with the forum buildings at left and Administration office at right.

An old winery and rows of trees once called the land that De Anza College sits on home.

Not so familiar sight: flat plot of land in 1959. The Flint Center has since taken the place of the tree on left, and the original Beaulieu Winery building can be seen far right, owned by the Baldwin family. The building was renovated and currently serves as the printing and financial aid and faculty services building.

Following the end of World War II, Santa Clara Valley saw an explosion in population, and construction on the college started in 1960 and completed in 1967 for $15 million.

Round arches are easily seen through the skeleton of the under-construction library in 1968. Officially named the A. Robert De Hart Learning Center, after founding president Robert
De Hart.

De Anza’s land had been an orchard, vineyard, and winery owned by Charles and Ella Baldwin.

What is now the California History Center was once the Baldwin home.

De Anza as seen in 1959. The swimming pool was remodeled into a fountain in the Sunken Garden, and the orchard in the background has since become the college library. The space behind the photographer would later become the Flint Center.

Other structures that remain include the original winery which now serves as faculty offices and print center, and the Sunken Garden, whose pool has since been transformed into a fountain.

Hundreds of students gather for a meeting following the assassination of Martin Luther King in the main quad in a photo published on April 19, 1968. The familiar fountain is at center, with the forum buildings at left and Administration office at right.

Over the years De Anza has changed drastically, from its humble roots as a quiet orchard to its transformation into the bustling high tech community college that it is today.

De Anzans relax in the campus center, still adorned with chandeliers study in a photo published in 1968. The campus center was later renamed the Marjorie L. Hinson Campus Center, in honor of De Anza’s first associate dean of student activities and campus center director from 1967 to 1976 who died in 1980.

Despite knew additions and renovations, much of the original structures from De Anza’s early days still stand as they did before, seen in these photos as the backdrop to 47 years of history since De Anza officially opened in 1968.