This is the beginning. This is where is all began … this surfing the net, chatting with friends, upload pictures, downloading music, it all started (more or less) in a room at UCLA in 1969, when Professor Leonard Kleinrock’s lab sent out the first ARPANET message (“lo,” intended to be “login”). A UCLA history PhD named Brad Fidler went looking for Internet birthplace and nailed down the location to room 3420 in Boelter Hall, which was until very recently being used as an ordinary undergrad classroom. UCLA now plans to open the site to the public, and with Kleinrock’s help, the room is being restored it to its 1969 look using historical photos, eyewitness accounts, and original furniture UCLA never threw away.

A grand opening for the Kleinrock Internet Heritage Site and Archive is scheduled for June 1, but here’s a ‘flash from the past’ from our blogger friends at Paleofuture, who was there on a field trip this past weekend.

[Curbed]