OLD ATENEO DE MANILA CAMPUS

The Ateneo de Manila University began in 1859 when Spanish Jesuits established the Escuela Municipal de Manila, a public primary school established in Intramuros for the city of Manila.

Before they set foot in Loyola Heights in Quezon City, the Ateneo Campus is situated in the the corner of Arzobispo St. and Anda St. in Intramuros.

The Escuela eventually changed its name to Ateneo Municipal de Manila in 1865, when it became accredited as an institution of secondary education.

After Americans occupied the Philippines in the early 1900s, the Ateneo de Manila lost its government subsidy from the city and became a private institution. The Jesuits removed the word Municipal from the school’s official name soon after, and it has since been known as the Ateneo de Manila.

When the original campus was destroyed by fire in 1932. The campus transferred in the Manila Observatory in Padre Faura after the fire, with only the Grade School to remain in Intramuros when the site is rebuilt.

Devastation hit the Ateneo campus once again during World War II. But even if the Ateneo campus had been destroyed, the university survived. Following the American liberation, the Ateneo de Manila reopened temporarily in Plaza Guipit in Sampaloc. The Padre Faura campus reopened in 1946 with Quonset huts serving as buildings among the campus ruins.

In 1952, Jesuit Rector William F. Masterson S.J., moved most of the Ateneo units to its present Loyola Heights campus which was donated by the Tuason family patriarch Jose Ramon Tuason for educational purposes.

The lot and ruins of the grade school in Intramuros, the original campus, were made into a warehouse after it was sold to a private firm. The Intramuros Administration bought the lot in 1992.