With funding from newspaperwoman and philanthropist Ellen Browning Scripps, Scripps College for women opened in 1926. Claremont College (later Claremont-McKenna) opened in 1946, with the goal of training future leaders through a liberal arts curriculum. Harvey Mudd College opened in 1957 as a liberal arts school focusing on STEM fields. With Pitzer College (1963), Claremont Graduate University (1925) and Keck Graduate Institute (1997), the Claremont Colleges now consist of five undergraduate colleges and two graduate schools, all within one square mile. In addition to being the heart of the city, they are, by a factor of four, its biggest employer.
Source: latimes.com – Los Angeles Times