The LACC campus was originally a farm outside Los Angeles, owned by Dennis Sullivan. It is one of nine separate college campuses of the Los Angeles Community College District. When the Pacific Electric Interurban Railroad connected downtown Los Angeles and Hollywood in 1909, the area began to develop rapidly. In 1914, the LA Board of Education moved the teachers' Normal School to the site. The Italian Romanesque campus became the original campus of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in 1919. In need of more space, UCLA moved to its present location in Westwood in 1929. On September 9, 1929, the campus opened its doors as Los Angeles Junior College with over 1,300 students and 54 teachers. The campus changed its name to Los Angeles City College in 1938.

The California State University, Los Angeles (Cal State LA) was founded on July 2, 1947 by an act of the California legislature and opened for classes as Los Angeles State College (LASC) on the campus of Los Angeles City College. As president of LACC, P. Victor Peterson also became the acting president of the state college.