From the Archives: Occidential College’s Robert Freeman College Union

The private liberal arts Occidental College was founded in 1887 by members of the Presbyterian Church. The Robert Freeman College Union was built in 1928.

In 1992, J. Stanley and Mary W. Johnson donated $5 million to help in the building's modernization. Afterward, the building was renamed the Johnson Student Center and Robert Freeman College Union.

This John Malmin photo appeared in the Los Angeles Times on Dec. 25, 1955, as part of the Know Your City photography series. The original caption reported:

KNOW YOUR CITY, NO. 38 — Looks almost like a mosque, doesn’t it? But it isn’t. It is in a building named after a minister at an institution in a community that is named for a boulder.

ANSWER — Scene in the photograph is looking outward from the patio of the Robert Freeman College Union, the building named after a Pasadena minister and which is “at the crossroads of the campus” at Occidental College in Eagle Rock.

This post was originally published on Jan. 3, 2017.