[6] Located in Hamilton Heights overlooking Harlem in Manhattan, City College's 35-acre (14 ha) Collegiate Gothic campus spans Convent Avenue from 130th to 141st Streets.

[8] Other primacies at City College that helped shape the culture of American higher education include the first student government in the nation (Academic Senate, 1867);[9] the first national fraternity to accept members without regard to religion, race, color or creed (Delta Sigma Phi, 1899);[10] the first degree-granting evening program (School of Education, 1907); and, with the objective of racially integrating the college dormitories, "the first general strike at a municipal institution of higher learning" led by students (1949).

It was one of the early public high schools in the United States following earlier similar institutions being founded in Boston (1829), Philadelphia (1838), and Baltimore (1839).

Founder Townsend Harris proclaimed, "Open the doors to all… Let the children of the rich and the poor take their seats together and know of no distinction save that of industry, good conduct and intellect."

[21] Even in its early years, the Free Academy had a framework of tolerance that extended beyond the admission of students from every social stratum.

In 1854, Columbia University denied distinguished chemist and scientist Oliver Wolcott Gibbs a faculty position because of his Unitarian religious beliefs.

[30] The college's curriculum under Webster and Webb combined classical training in Latin and Greek with more practical subjects like chemistry, physics, and engineering.

[26] Phi Sigma Kappa placed its then-sixth chapter on the campus in 1896; alumni provided scholarships to new students entering the CCNY system for generations.

[31] Delta Sigma Phi, founded at CCNY in 1899, claimed to be the first national organization of its type to accept members without regard to religion, race, color or creed.

The founding of Zeta Beta Tau at City College in 1898 was Richard Gottheil's initiative to establish a Jewish fraternity with Zionist ideals.

[33] Education courses were first offered in 1897 in response to a city law that prohibited the hiring of teachers who lacked a proper academic background.

In the years when top-flight private schools were restricted to the children of the Protestant establishment, thousands of brilliant individuals (including Jewish students) attended City College because they had no other option.

"[35] Irving Howe claims that when the Morris Cohen, the later philosopher, was a student at CCNY at the turn of the century, the faculty was "not very glittering" and the school was considered "at once grubby and exalted.

[40][41] Being part of a political debate that began in the morning in alcove 1, Irving Howe reported that after some time had passed he would leave his place among the arguing students in order to attend class.

The Philosophy Department, at the end of the 1939/40 academic year, invited the British mathematician and philosopher Bertrand Russell to become a professor at CCNY.

In a long précis that detailed Russell's accomplishments including medals awarded by Columbia University and the Royal Society and faculty appointments at Oxford, Cambridge, UCLA, Harvard, the Sorbonne, Peking (the name used in that era), the LSE, Chicago, and so forth, Russell added, "Judicially pronounced unworthy to be Professor of Philosophy at the College of the City of New York."

[45] About the same time, William C. Davis of the economics department was accused by students of maintaining a racially segregated dormitory at Army Hall.

[19][48] A 2023 documentary film directed by Greta Schiller and Andrea Weiss, The Five Demands, provides historical coverage and interviews with students who led the 1969 protests.

Since this decision, all CUNY senior colleges, especially CCNY, have begun to rise in prestige nationally, as shown by school rankings and incoming freshman GPA and SAT scores.

[54] Students and neighborhood residents who used the center for community organizing against issues of racism, police brutality, and the privatization and militarization of CUNY faced opposition from the City College administration for years.

Postal Service issued a postcard commemorating CCNY's 150th anniversary, featuring Shepard Hall, on Charter Day, May 7, 1997.

[74] Shepard Hall, the largest building and the centerpiece of the campus, was modeled after a Gothic cathedral plan with its main entrance on St. Nicholas Terrace.

The buildings remaining on the South Campus at this time were the Cohen Library (later moved into the North Academic Center), Park Gym (now the Structural Biology Research Center (NYSBC)[101]), Eisner Hall (built in 1941 by Manhattanville College of the Sacred Heart as a library, later remodeled and housed CCNY's Art Department),[102] the Schiff House (former President's residence, now a child care center), and Mott Hall (formerly the English Department, now a New York City Department of Education primary school[103]).

[111][112][113][114] Designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates, the ASRC—serving visiting scientists and the whole CUNY system—and the Center for Discovery and Innovation occupy the Herman Goldman sports field's site.

In the early 1900s, after most of the Neo-Gothic campus had been built, CCNY President John H. Finley wanted the college to have a stadium to replace the existing inadequate facilities.

When it closed in the 1940s, the building was used by City College to house members of the U.S. Armed Forces assigned to the Army Specialized Training Program (ASTP).

[135] Other distinguished alumni and past faculty in the field are Mark Zemansky, Clarence Zener, Mitchell Feigenbaum, Myriam Sarachik and Leonard Susskind.

The design of the three-faced college seal refers to Janus, the Roman god of beginnings, whose two faces connect the past and the future.

[150] The collection includes works by Edwin Howland Blashfield, Walter Pach, Charles Alston, Raphael Soyer, Louis Lozowick, Stephen Parrish, Paul Adolphe Rajon, Mariano Fortuny, Marilyn Bridges, Lucien Clergue, Elliott Erwitt, Andreas Feininger, Harold Feinstein, Larry Fink, Sally Gall, Ralph Gibson, Jerome Liebling, Robert Mapplethorpe, Mary Ellen Mark, Joel Meyerowitz, Dorothy Norman and Gilles Peress.

[154] The Library Archives Gallery shows artwork from around the world, as well as from the CCNY community, and typically curates an annual Women Make Art exhibition.