San José State University is the first
public institution of higher education on the West Coast. San José State began
as Minns’ Evening Normal School
in San Francisco in 1857. This city school became a state school - the
California Normal School, created by the California legislature in 1862. In
subsequent years, several cities attempted to get the School to relocate and
San José was selected by the California legislature in 1870. The cornerstone of
the new school building at the Washington Square site donated by the City of
San José was laid on October 20, 1870. That building was completed in 1871 and
the students and faculty moved from San Francisco to San José . The
building was destroyed in a fire in 1880 and a replacement building was built
at the site and completed in 1881 which was used until it was deemed unsafe
following the 1906 earthquake.