Janss Steps - 87 Steps and a Legend
A stop on UCLA Campus Walk, a free self-guided tour.
Now climb. These are the Janss Steps, 87 broad brick steps built in 1928 and 1929 as a grand entrance to the new hilltop campus. Architect George W. Kelham designed them, and they were named for the Janss Investment Company, the developers of Westwood who sold the land for the campus. In 2020, after reporting on the Janss family's history of racial bias, the student government voted to rename them the Tongva Steps, for the Indigenous people of the Los Angeles Basin, so you'll hear both names.
The steps make a natural amphitheater. In April 1965, a month after the Selma to Montgomery march, Martin Luther King Jr. spoke here to a crowd of more than 4,500 students and faculty.
Then there's the legend. Campus guides tell how Edwin Janss built the steps behind his brother's back and asked to be buried under the sixth step so no one could tear them down. Step on the sixth step, the story goes, and you'll graduate a quarter late. It's only folklore, but count as you climb and watch how many students skip it.
Getting here: The steps rise from the east side of the plaza; start climbing toward the quad.
Did you know?: In 1964 the Beach Boys posed on these steps for the picture sleeve of their single I Get Around.
Photo op: At the top, turn around for the long view down the steps over Wilson Plaza toward Pauley Pavilion.
More on Wikipedia: Tongva · Martin Luther King Jr. · Selma to Montgomery marches
Stops on this tour
- Royce Hall - Two Towers, Not Twins
- Powell Library - Where Fahrenheit 451 Was Typed
- Inverted Fountain - Where the Water Falls In
- Kerckhoff Hall - A Widow's Gothic Gift
- Ackerman Union - The Campus Living Room
- Bruin Bear - Two Tons of Bronze Mascot
- Pauley Pavilion - The House Wooden Filled
- Wilson Plaza - UCLA's Front Porch
- Janss Steps - 87 Steps and a Legend
- Fowler Museum - World Art Behind Brick Arches
- Murphy Sculpture Garden - Masterpieces Under Jacarandas