Raymond M. Alf Museum of Paleontology located on The Webb Schools campus,
Claremont, CA. Webb is the only high school in the United States with a nationally accredited museum, and the only high school in the world with a paleontology museum on campus. inspired additional fossil-hunting trips in the western United States with student groups. Alf continued his pursuit of paleontology by earning his master's degree from the
University of Colorado. The fossil hunting continued when Alf returned to Webb and he subsequently created a small museum in the basement of Jackson Library to house his collection of thousands of fossils. As the collection eventually outgrew the shelves in Alf's classroom and the library basement, the museum moved to its own campus building in 1968. Today the museum is curated by Mairin Balisi, and is accredited by the
American Alliance of Museums. The museum features one of the largest collections of
fossil animal footprints in the world. The Alf Museum continues to sponsor paleontology field excursions over the summers and has contributed to the discovery of new species like
Gryposaurus monumentensis, in the
Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument in southern Utah. The fossils were removed and identified in collaboration with the
University of Utah and the national monument.
Vivian Webb Chapel Fascinated by
California missions, Thompson Webb took the mission at
San Juan Capistrano as the inspiration for the Vivian Webb Chapel, a monument to both his religious faith and his love for his wife. In 1937, with the help of a small
cement mixer and two hired workers, Thompson began making
adobe bricks. After a year of turning out more than 10,000 mission-style bricks and drying them in the sun on the school's tennis courts, he began building the chapel's foundation in 1938, and laid the chapel's first brick in 1939. He built the walls of the chapel with the help of students, parents, visitors, prospective students and the governor of Tennessee. Near completion of the structure, Webb learned that
sculptor Alec Miller was in the United States because of World War II and lacked the funds to return to his native Scotland. Miller was well known in England because of his carvings for the cathedral at
Coventry.
Thomas Jackson Library The parents of Thomas Jackson donated the Thomas Jackson Library to the school as a memorial to their son, who graduated from Webb in 1930 but died of a heart attack while in his sophomore year at the
California Institute of Technology. The library, dedicated in 1938, was designed by acclaimed architect
Myron Hunt, who also built the
Rose Bowl, the
Pasadena main library, and Thompson and Vivian Webb's campus home. The building, in a
Mediterranean style with small balconies on the second floor and a
mezzanine balcony around the interior, won an Honor Award from the
American Institute of Architects soon after its dedication. ==Notable alumni==