Los Angeles was very much a frontier town in the early part of the 1870s, when a group of public-spirited citizens headed up by Judge Robert Maclay Widney 1st thought of establishing a university in the area.

It took nearly ten years for their dream to become a reality, but in 1879 Widney formed a board of trustees and obtained a donation of three hundred and eight lots of land from 3 prominent members of the Los Angeles community — former California governor John G. Downey, Omr W. Childs, a Protestant horticulturist; an Irish-Catholic pharmacist and businessman; and Isaias W. Hellman, a German-Jewish philanthropist and banker. The gift provided land for a college campus as well as a source of endowment.

The Institution's University Park campus, situated in the heart of LA's Downtown Arts and Education Corridor, is home to the University's College of Letters, Arts and Sciences and many professional schools. The Health Sciences campus, situated N/E of downtown LA, is home to the Keck School of Medicine of USC, the School of Pharmacy, three major teaching hospitals and programs in Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy, and Biokinesiology and Physical Therapy.