Santa Monica Junior College was established in September 1929 with 7 faculty members and 153 students in classes held on the second floor of Santa Monica High School. Attended primarily by high school students, it was originally part of the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District. Despite the ensuing Wall Street Crash of 1929 and Great Depression, the school's enrollment increased to 355 in 1930 and 600 in 1931. In 1932, the College moved to the vacant brick Garfield Elementary School building on Michigan Avenue. The building was declared unsafe following the 1933 Long Beach earthquake and classes moved to tents and bungalows on the Garfield site, which students nicknamed Splinterville.