Jewish Life in Old CV
The early settlers of CV were mostly wealthy Midwesterners, along with immigrants from Germany, Italy and other European countries. All white, and predominantly Protestant or Catholic. Those of differing color, ethnic background or faith had problems being accepted, and early people of the Jewish faith faced just that problem in La [...]
John Steinbeck’s Life in Montrose
I wrote previously about the amazing discovery that one of America’s greatest writers, John Steinbeck, spent a few months living on Hermosa Avenue just east of Rosemont in a little shack that still exists as a rental unit behind some apartments. Since then, my former CV High School teacher, now mentor, [...]
Montrose’s Most Spectacular Architecture is Hidden
In the 1920s, Southern California was booming. Money was easy, and businesses paid to be conspicuous in their wealth. Banks were some of the biggest participants in their opulent displays, which were most extravagantly evident in the architecture of their buildings. Banks at that time were massive temple-like structures, with [...]
The Fabulous Castle of La Crescenta
Dr. Benjamin Briggs, the founder of La Crescenta, was a wealthy man, and many of his rich friends and family followed him to his newly found paradise, La Crescenta. One such relative was his niece, May Gould, daughter of George Briggs, who had brought the raisin industry to California.
It was [...]
“It’s A Wonderful Life” – Filmed in La Cañada
The classic 1946 Frank Capra film “It’s A Wonderful Life” consistently ranks as one of America’s favorite Christmas movies and is on many lists of the best movies of all time.
In the film, the Bedford Falls’ hometown hero George Bailey (played by Jimmy Stewart) tries to help [...]
The Spring at Indian Springs Still Flows
Many old timers remember the Indian Springs swimming pool that was just east of Montrose on Verdugo Road. The big pool was wildly popular to the youth of the valley between its 1929 opening until its closure in the mid-’60s. It was then that the little canyon the pool [...]
As I outlined in last week’s column, Whiting Woods, one of CV’s most sedate neighborhood, had its origins in vice and crime and was the stage for perhaps CV’s only racially charged murder.
The story is given to us in an autobiography of Perry Whiting, founder of the Whiting-Mead building supply company, still in business today. [...]
Remembering the Thick Pine Forests in our Mountains
The south face of the San Gabriel Mountains that loom over our valley are stark and majestic. In the late afternoon when the slanting sunlight brings out the pinks and oranges of the rock faces, our mountains look very much like desert mountains, bare and rocky like those [...]
War Memorials in CV
Like many American communities, we have honored our young men and women who have served their country in our military forces.
One of our first war memorials was a “service roll” mounted on the side of a drug store in Montrose near the end of WWII. It consisted of a large board, approximately [...]
The Montrose
Town Clock
When I visited the new Montrose Trader Joe’s, I happily noted how well they had used the themes of the community in their architecture and interior décor. I wish all new developments would take a clue from the success of this philosophy and let their new structures say something about the culture and [...]
