A $35 million gift from an anonymous donor has given small, private Saint Mary's College of California its largest gift ever to build a new science education center and add two new academic programs, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.

The Moraga, Calif. school receives an average of $7 million a year in donations. The largest previous single gift was $13 million.

The new science center will be a 60,000-square-foot, three-story building named J.C. Gatehouse Hall. The initials were specified by the mystery donor. The center's name refers to its function as a "gatehouse" for learning, the paper reports.

The existing Galileo Hall science building will be renovated and a third story added to it. The Galileo center was constructed in 1929.

Remaining funds will be used to establish environmental science and biochemistry programs at the school.

Saint Mary's is a private Catholic liberal arts school with an enrollment of more than 4,300 students. It is located in a suburb of San Francisco.

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