The building which now houses the Core Program and the Department of Art was originally constructed in 1925 as Bertha Harton Orr Hall, the College's first residence for women students. The donor, William Meade Orr, native of Pittsburgh engaged in manufacturing before coming to Southern California, was an Occidental trustee from 1923 until his death in 1926, including several months as Board president. His gift was in memory of his wife who had died a few years previously. In 1986 the building was converted into academic use, with remodeling costs provided by the Weingart Foundation.

Ben Weingart and his wife Stella established the Weingart Foundation as a nonprofit California corporation in 1951. Originally called the B. W. Foundation, the name was changed to Weingart Foundation in 1978.

Mr. Weingart, a native of Atlanta, who died in December 1980 at the age of ninety-two, was self-taught after attending school only through the eighth grade. He arrived in Los Angeles at the age of eighteen and got a job delivering laundry with a horse and buggy to downtown hotels and boarding houses. His entrepreneurial spirit, motivation, and foresight moved him forward into a career as a real estate developer and investor. In addition to amassing holdings of hotels, shopping centers, and apartment buildings, in the 1950s he became a principal developer of an agricultural site of 3,500 acres into the new community of Lakewood.

The Weingart Foundation through the years has focused its grants toward projects that serve the needs of the under-served and the general community, supporting with millions of dollars a variety of Southern California social services, educational, and community programs.

By Jean Paule