A lithograph of the second "California State Normal School, San Jose" building from the 1880s.

The California State Normal School Bell, forged in 1881, still graces the San Jose campus.

The California State Normal School (today know as "San Jose State") was founded on May 2, 1862, by an Act of the California State Legislature. Although the Act referred to the institution as the "Normal School of the State of California" the institution was commonly referred to as the "California State Normal School". Download high resolution version (699x933, 451 KB)Bell presented to the California Normal School in 1862. ... Download high resolution version (699x933, 451 KB)Bell presented to the California Normal School in 1862. ... San José State University, commonly shortened to San Jose State and SJSU, is the oldest university in what became the California State University system. ...

The California State Normal School was itself derived from the City of San Francisco's Minn's Evening Normal School, a Normal School that educated San Francisco teachers in association with that city's high school system. A normal school is an institution for training teachers. ...

The founding campus of what would become the California State University system, the California State Normal School school moved to San Jose in 1871, and was given Washington Square Park at Fourth and San Carlos Streets to locate its campus, where it remains to this day. The original California State Normal School building, completed in 1872, burned down on February 10, 1880, and was replaced by a second building in 1881 (pictured above). The California State University (CSU) is one of three public higher education systems in the state of California. ...

In 1881 the first branch campus of the California State Normal School was announced, which later became the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). To commemorate San José's identity as the original California State, the bell pictured at right was forged with the words "California State Normal School, A.D. 1881". The UCLA logo since July 2004. ...

In 1887, the California legislature decreed that the San Jose and Los Angeles campuses were to be known as "State Normal Schools". Later on, other (California) State Normal Schools were established in Chico (1887), San Diego (1897) and elsewhere throughout the State of California. This early system of State Normal Schools was the precursor of today's California State University (CSU) system. Chico is either: Places a place in the State of Alabama (see Chico, Alabama) a place in the State of California (see Chico, California) a place in the State of Montana (see Chico, Montana) a place in the State of New Mexico (see Chico, New Mexico) a place in the... San Diego County in the Southwest corner of California. ...

In 1919, the State Normal School at Los Angeles became the Southern Branch of the University of California, now the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

In 1921, the remaining State Normal Schools became the State Teachers Colleges.