George Marston Correspondence Collection
Jamie Weber and Marjorie Harth
Special Collections, Honnold/Mudd Library
© 2021
800 North Dartmouth Avenue
Claremont, CA 91711
Phone: (909) 607-3977
Email: specialcollections@claremont.edu
URL: https://library.claremont.edu/scl/
The Claremont Colleges Library. All rights reserved.
Title: George Marston Correspondence
Collection
Dates: 1910-1950
Collection number: PC.0017
Creator:
Marston, George W., 1850-1946
Extent:
0.4 Linear
Feet
(1 document box)
Repository:
Claremont Colleges. Library. Special Collections, The Claremont
Colleges Library, Claremont, CA 91711.
Abstract: This collection contains correspondence
between George Marston, a founding trustee of Pomona College, and Pomona College presidents,
James Blaisdell, Charles Edmunds, and E. Wilson Lyon. Correspondence covers a variety of
topics including board of trustee meetings, fundraising, and campus planning projects.
Physical Location: Please consult repository.
Language of Material: Languages represented in
collection: English.
Administrative Information
Collection open for research.
All requests for permission to reproduce or to publish must be submitted in writing to
the Archives.
[Identification of item], George Marston Correspondence Collection (PC-0017). Pomona
College Archives, Special Collections, The Claremont Colleges Library, Claremont,
California.
Provenance/Source of Acquisition
Transfer from Crookshank Vault, 2012.
Additions to the collection are not anticipated.
Processed by Jamie Weber in 2012.
Biography / Administrative History
Born in Wisconsin and educated at Beloit College and the University of Michigan, George
White Marston had moved to San Diego, established a successful dry goods business, and
become a respected member of that community when, in 1887, he became a founding trustee of
Pomona College. The youngest member of the fledgling college's board, he was to serve for
a remarkable 59 years, 26 of those as president. His impact on Pomona was as lasting as it
was long.
The College's first decades were dominated by financial problems. In 1895, Marston was
one of three board members called upon to help manage a budget crisis; his leadership and
personal monetary contributions played a significant role in minimizing its impact and
that of others that followed during the period E. Wilson Lyon, sixth president and
historian of the College, termed "the years of crisis."
Marston had an abiding interest in landscape architecture, and maintained a large garden
at his home in San Diego; many of his gifts to the College involved improvements to the
grounds. He was, for example, largely responsible for inspiring the 1905 acquisition of a
64-acre parcel of land to the east of the campus. Bringing in a NY landscape architect, he
helped persuade fellow Trustee Nathan Blanchard to purchase the land as a gift to the
College, which in turn pledged $2500 to develop a park and an annual amount for
maintenance. Blanchard Park ("The Wash") remains today one of the best-loved areas of
campus. Three years later, when architect Myron Hunt's 1908 campus plan was approved, it
was Marston who funded the creation of the green that centered Hunt's design. Marston
Quadrangle, which took form between 1919 and 1923, was the first work of Ralph Cornell
'14, a graduate of Harvard School of Landscape Architecture and the first landscape
architect to set up practice in Los Angeles. Subsequently, Marston also funded the
landscaping of Carnegie Library.
In 1929, funds for Frary Hall, the Clark campus refectory, were provided by Marston;
insisting on anonymity, he requested the hall be named for Lucien Frary, the
congregational minister who had followed Charles Burt Sumner, Pomona's first
administrator, as pastor of Pilgrim Congregational Church in Pomona. And in 1930, it was
Marston who made it possible to prepare the east end of the Quad for Bridges Auditorium
("Big Bridges") given by Appleton Shaw Bridges, who had also donated Bridges Hall of Music
(1915). The site chosen for the auditorium was, at the time, occupied by an unsightly
heating plant, complete with tall smokestacks. This was removed and, at the same time, the
original Renwick gymnasium moved farther east. Marston, who was a friend of the Bridges
family, believed that: "Since this would inevitably be a very massive building it should
have an ample foreground, and with Bridges Hall of Music the companion building nearby, a
location east of the large open quadrangle framed in a vista and trees and shrubs seemed
ideal." Along the way, Marston also played a significant role as one of the initial
trustees of the Claremont Colleges consortium, incorporated in 1925-6, supported the cost
of improvements to Pearsons and Blaisdell halls, and donated land for Harper Hall at
Claremont Graduate University.
Marston's beneficence was not limited to Pomona College. In San Diego, he was
instrumental in the preservation of pueblo land (1899) that later became Torrey Pines
State Natural Reserve, and in commissioning a comprehensive plan for Balboa Park (1902).
After unsuccessful bids to become Mayor (1913, 1917), he founded and presided as president
of the Serra Museum in Presidio Park (1928), later donating park and museum to the
City.
Marston retired as president of the Pomona College board in June 1936; named Honorary
President, he remained an active trustee. On Founders Day 1937, the fiftieth anniversary
of the College's founding, Marston was honored, the presentation noting the "graciousness
of spirit that has always distinguished him among his fellow men."
George Marston died in 1946 at age 95. In his history of the College, E. Wilson Lyon
wrote: "Mr. Marston was the embodiment of Pomona's highest ideals, and he left an
incomparable legacy to the college he loved so deeply." Marston was recognized on Founders
Day of that year, and in addition to spoken tributes, the College published a book in his
honor titled the Education of George W. Marston, written by Professor Hubert Herring.
| 1887 | Joins Pomona College's original board of trustees. He is the first president of the board of trustees and remains an active member of the board for more than fifty years. |
| 1899 | With botanists David Cleveland and Belie Angler, persuades the San Diego City Council to pass an ordinance setting aside 364 acres of pueblo lands, which later become the Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve. |
| 1902 | Contributes funds to the San Diego Park Commission for a comprehensive plan for Balboa Park. |
| 1905 | Brings Mr. Cooke of Samuel Parsons and Company to visit the Pomona College campus and meet with the Executive Committee of the Board, leading to the purchase and development of The Woods and Blanchard Park sites (thereafter known as The Wash). |
| 1907 | Purchases Presidio Hill, which he privately develops as a park in order to preserve the site. |
| 1910 | Elected president of the Pomona College Board of Trustees. |
| 1913 | Unsuccessful candidate for mayor of San Diego against Charles F. O'Neill. |
| 1917 | Unsuccessful candidate for mayor of San Diego against Louis J. Wilde. |
| 1919 | Donates $100,000 to Pomona College for the formation and endowment of a central quadrangle. |
| 1928 | Founds and is first president of the Serra Museum in Presidio Park. |
| 1929 | Donates Presidio Park and the Serra Museum to the City of San Diego. |
| Donates land for Harper Hall at Claremont Graduate University. | |
| 1935 | Donates for reconstruction of Pearsons Hall at Pomona College. |
| Donates for the building of Blaisdell Hall, a women's residence hall at Pomona College. | |
| 1936 | Retires as president of the Pomona College Board of Trustees, named Honorary President of the Board of Trustees. |
| 1946 | George Marston died at age 95 at his home in San Diego. |
Scope and Content of Collection
The collection contains correspondence between George Marston, a founding trustee of Pomona
College, and Pomona College presidents, James Blaisdell (1910-1928), Charles Edmunds
(1928-1941), and E. Wilson Lyon (1941-1969). The correspondence covers a wide range of
topics including board of trustee meetings, fundraising, and campus planning projects. Also
included in the collection are news clippings regarding George Marston's death and
correspondence between Anna Marston and E. Wilson Lyon.
Folders are arranged chronologically by date range.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the
library’s online public access catalog.
Pomona College (Claremont, Calif.)
College presidents
College trustees
Blaisdell, James Arnold
Edmunds, Charles K. (Charles Keyser), 1876-
Lyon, E. Wilson (Elijah Wilson)
Marston, George W., 1850-1946
Correspondence
Box 1, Folder 1
Correspondence with James Blaisdell 1910, 1912, 1915-1923
Box 1, Folder 2
Correspondence with James Blaisdell 1913, 1915, 1918, 1920-1925, 1928, 1930, 1932, 1934-1936, 1942
Box 1, Folder 3
Correspondence and clippings 1924-1926, 1946-1947, 1950
Box 1, Folder 4
Correspondence with Charles Edmunds 1928-1941
Box 1, Folder 5
Correspondence with E. Wilson Lyon 1941-1945