Starting Down The America 250 Trail

In 1976, as the nation prepared to celebrate its 200^th birthday Jack Wollard had an idea. His grandparents had owned the first shoe store in Tujunga in the 1920s and he had significant memories of the community’s bygone days. He recruited two friends – John Whelan and Tom Theobald – to create a “Journey into the Past: Sunland-Tujunga’s Bicentennial Trail.” As we now prepare to celebrate America’s 250^th birthday, thanks to these three we can enjoy this journey into the past on the aptly renamed Sunland-Tujunga America 250 Trail.

Theobald had grown up in Tujunga and had gone to work for the post office. He was known for his incredible memory and could recall names and addresses from across the valley. Whelan also arrived in Tujunga as a boy. He became a fireman and was a well-liked familiar sight around town. He later served as Bolton Hall Museum’s first director when it opened in 1981. The America 250 Trail includes 25 points of interest. Today we’ll focus on the first three with more to come in the following weeks.

Our starting point is on the western edge of the Crescenta Valley near 10606 Foothill Blvd. This was the location of Mason’s Home-Made Ice Cream Stand in the 1920s and ’30s. Back then, the Sunday drive was popular with Southern California motorists and Foothill Boulevard became a heavily traveled thoroughfare each weekend. Mason’s Ice Cream was the destination of many where homemade ice cream flavored with fresh fruit could be purchased and eaten with never-to-be-forgotten pleasure.

There’s a stone fireplace a little to the west of this location, just sitting in an open field. I’ve heard several theories as to its origins over the years. Mason’s is said to have had a shady grove of trees adjacent to the stand where patrons could sit and enjoy their treats. I was able to go back in time, reviewing satellite imagery from decades ago, which revealed that the fireplace was once in the midst of many trees. Ice cream and fire are a peculiar match and I can’t help but wonder if the two weren’t somehow connected. If anyone out there knows anything definitive about the stone fireplace, please reach out to me.

Continuing east a short distance, you next arrive near 10568 Foothill Blvd. In the rear of the property, perhaps even beneath the path of the 210 Freeway, sat the very first one-room schoolhouse for the children of Sunland and Tujunga, built in 1888. As the school was on the opposite side of the Big Tujunga Wash, any substantial rain would effectively keep the kids at home so it wasn’t long before the powers that be erected a second school right in the heart of Sunland Park. It’s believed that the original school continued to operate into the 1930s and was torn down in the mid 1940s.

Continuing east, our final stop on today’s brief journey is at 9601 Foothill Blvd., the former home of silent film star Francis X. Bushman. By the 1920s, motion pictures had entered their golden era and such names as Charlie Chaplin, William Hart, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks had become world famous. They were closely followed by a host of other internationally known stars. Among these were Francis X. Bushman, who was one of the first and most popular “screen lovers.” 

Bushman starred in the epic 1925 silent film “Ben-Hur.” It has been reported that some of the chariot racing scenes were filmed near this home. I don’t believe this to be true. While filming may not have taken place there, Bushman may have done a little practice charioteering in the flats below this home. There’s no evidence for this; it’s just a thought.

Join me next time as we continue down the trail. Our next stop is Old Rock City.