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# Key dates in Santa Monica College history
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/key-dates-in-santa-monica-college-history/
- Published: 2004-09-10T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T05:01:55.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Education, Pico, #archive-import

Sept. 10, 1929: Santa Monica Junior College opens on second floor of Santa Monica High School with 153 students. 1932-33: SMJC moves to old brick building at Garfield School site at Seventh Street and Michigan Avenue, but the 1933 earthquake renders the building uninhabitable; college moves to tents and bungalows on site, affectionately called “Splinterville”). 1952: Classes start on new campus, which continues to be SMC’s main campus at 1900 Pico Blvd. 1975: SMC’s Emeritus College, the widely acclaimed program for older adults, opens. 1988: SMC’s first satellite campus, located at Santa Monica Airport, opens. 1989: SMC’s second satellite campus, the former Madison Elementary School on Santa Monica Boulevard at 11th Street, opens.

February 1993: President Clinton visits SMC in his first visit to California since his inauguration the month before.

January 1994: The Northridge earthquake hits SMC hard, causing millions of dollars in damage.

March-April 1997: Marking a first for SMC, the theatre arts’ production of “Once on this Island” is selected from more than 900 plays at colleges and universities throughout the United States for the prestigious Kennedy Center/American College Theater Festival.

June 1997: The renamed John Drescher Planetarium opens after a major facelift and installation of a state-of-the-art projection system.

September 1998: SMC holds dedication ceremony for its new Academy of Entertainment & Technology, a then-unique program to prepare students for careers in the entertainment industry, particularly new technologies.

Sept. 11, 2001: The SMC family suffers losses in the 9/11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in New York. Student Emily Aoyama’s father is killed on American Airlines Flight 11, as is SMC alumnus Edmund Glazer.

July 2002: The Santa Monica Swim Center, a new municipal aquatics complex on the northwest part of the campus, opens.

Winter-Spring 2003: SMC faces biggest budget crisis in history, prompted by historically high state budget deficit. The budget crisis, which includes mid-fiscal-year cuts, continues through 2002-03 and the early part of 2003-04.

October 2003: SMC’s Emeritus College for older adults moves into its new headquarters in downtown Santa Monica. The new 24,000-square-foot building was purchased for $8.65 million.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on September 10, 2004.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/091004.pdf?ref=smdp.com)