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Charles Maclay (1822 or 1823-1890), a Methodist minister and politician in both the CA State Senate and House, founded this eponymous seminary in San Fernando, CA, in 1885. Many of his family members worked as missionaries or educators. His nephews, the lawyer Robert Maclay Widney (1838-1929) and physician Joseph Pomeroy Widney (1841-1938), served as a founder and second President, respectively, of the University of Southern California (USC), Los Angeles, CA. Ten years after Charles Maclay's death, the school became affiliated with USC, a connection that lasted until 1957, when the school, moved to a new location in Claremont, CA, and became known as the "Claremont School of Theology." This eclectic, two-story brick building was sold to a local church in 1902.

The Maclay School Building had a heterogeneous Victorian stylistic character. It had irregular, picturesque massing, in which the exterior appearance reflected the varied rooms sizes and purposes of the interior. It had stylistic details pulled from various sources, including Romanesque arches, a Second Empire widow's walk, and a fanciful tower, vaguely Gothic in character.

PCAD id: 17943