Harry Carr Los Angeles City of Dreams (Illustrated by E.H. Suydam), D. Appleton-Century Co.: NY, 1935, 402 pp.
Chapter XXVII The Athens of America
"The University of Southern California was an inspiration of two brothers-Robert M. Widney and Dr. Joseph P. Widney. The first named was one of the early gringo judges and built the first street-car line.
"The land upon which St. Vincent's was located at Sixth and Broadway was the gift of a Protestant-O.W. Childs, who also built the first real theater of the pueblo. The land for the University of Southern California (although it was a Methodist college) was given by a Jew, a Catholic and again O.W. Childs. The donors were Isaias W. Hellman, a pioneer Jewish banker, Ex-Governor John G. Downey, a Catholic, and Childs, a Protestant. The university is still on the land they gave.
"The corner-stone was laid on September 4, 1880, the ninety-ninth anniversary of the founding of the pueblo. Its [p. 377] first president was Marion McKinley Bovard, a young graduate of De Pauw, who had come west to do missionary work among the Indians. Today it has sixteen colleges, not to speak of a football team of mighty prowess. The earnings from this prize-winning team have been so huge that the team not only supports the other athletics but has built a very handsome Student's Hall. E.L. Doheny supplied the money for a building that houses the work of the specialists in archeology-especially of the Mesopotamian period. With Dr. Rufus B. Von KleinSmid as president, this univeristy has done notable work in the field of international friendship and understanding. Dr. Von KleinSmid has been the recipient of more foreign decorations than perhaps any other American.