Harvard School
Harvard School, a military school with 42 boys, was established in 1900 by Grenville C. Emery in a barley field at what is now the corner of Western Avenue and Venice Boulevard in Los Angeles. Mr. Emery received permission from Charles W. Eliot, Harvard University President, to use the Harvard name.
In 1911, Harvard School became a non-profit corporation when Mr. Emery transferred ownership to the Episcopal Church. By the mid 1920’s Harvard had outgrown its original campus. A plan to reestablish the school on a site near Westwood was abandoned because of the worsening Depression. With a $25,000 loan for down payment by aviation pioneer Donald W. Douglas, founder of Douglas Aircraft Company, the school moved to the defunct Hollywood Country Club on Coldwater Canyon in 1937 and became an independent, self-governing school.
The end of the ’60s saw dramatic changes in Harvard School. Boarding was discontinued and military training was dropped. In 1969, Christopher Berrisford became Harvard School’s first lay headmaster since Mr. Emery, and its enrollment surpassed 800 by 1987 when Thomas C. Hudnut became Headmaster.
Westlake School for Girls
In 1904, Jessica Smith Vance and Frederica de Laguna opened the doors of Westlake School for Girls on Sixth Street and Alvarado Street, named for its location near Westlake Park in Los Angeles, now known as MacArthur Park.
Westlake moved to a larger site on Westmoreland Avenue in 1917. In 1927, Miss Vance and Miss de Laguna acquired the land at the North Faring Road location from Harold Janss who wanted the School to become an anchor for the development of Holmby Hills. In 1923, the founders had also established Westlake Junior College and later changed the name to Holmby College when Westlake School moved to the North Faring campus. Holmby College, which issued two-year degrees, closed its doors in the early 1940s. Miss Vance and Miss de Laguna operated Westlake until their deaths in 1939 and 1942, respectively. The School was purchased by Sydney Temple, whose daughter, Helen Temple Dickinson ’31, was headmistress until 1966, when Westlake became a non-profit institution. About that time, Westlake phased out its elementary school and in 1966 Nathan O. Reynolds (Harvard School class of 1951) became the first male headmaster in Westlake School history. Enrollment reached 700 during the 1970’s.
Harvard-Westlake School
In October 1989, the Boards of Trustees of the two schools agreed to merge the schools with Mr. Hudnut named as Harvard-Westlake’s first Headmaster. Full coeducation began in September 1991, with an enrollment approaching 1600, grades 7 - 9 at Westlake's North Faring Road location and grades 10 - 12 at Harvard's Coldwater Canyon campus. In the fall of 2008, an expanded and renovated Middle School campus opened at the North Faring Road location.