My Favorite Stories In Local History

Recently I was asked to take a group of high school and college students on a tour of historical sites in the valley. 

I’m always impressed with the current young generation. They were eager to learn, receptive to an “old fart” telling stories and, most of all, they were intensely curious. Several times I was asked what my favorite stories were, what interesting crimes happened, what things are still a mystery today. Let’s go through what I told them.

You readers know me – I love true crime stories. What’s my favorite crime? It has to be the big oil swindle of 1927. Oil wells were sprouting up all over Los Angeles in the 1920s. Why not La Crescenta, too? A couple of local realtors hired a “geologist” to “find oil” in the valley. He found several vacant lots that happened to be for sale where oil was “found” bubbling to the surface. A big community meeting was held where he told of his findings. Lot prices went through the roof with lots of buyers. Ultimately no one found any oil and the “geologist” quietly disappeared, leaving the realtors much enriched.

What’s the most amazing story? It’s that famous American author John Steinbeck lived in Montrose! In 1933, Steinbeck was on the cusp of fame, but still struggling financially. Montrose was a place where cheap rent could be had (yes, that’s amazing too). He and his wife rented a shack on Hermosa Avenue and lived there for several months until they completely ran out of funds and moved on. While here he was writing “To A God Unknown” and “Tortilla Flats,” his first literary success, and he mailed the manuscripts from the Montrose Post Office. He tried to get a job writing human interest stories for the local paper but astoundingly they turned him down. The shack they lived in on Hermosa was there until last year when it was torn down for an apartment.

The most beautiful story? Rockhaven Sanitarium. At the turn of the century, a nurse who had been working in mental hospitals was horrified by the treatment of women in mental institutions. They were caged, demeaned and sexually and physically abused. In 1923, she started Rockhaven Sanitarium in Verdugo City. With an all-female staff, she treated only women, showing them dignity and respect – a relatively new concept. The sanitarium was a hit and attracted powerful women and Hollywood stars. It lasted until 2006 when the City of Glendale purchased it. It is currently under renovation and will feature a museum and walkable gardens.

The stories that are the most fun? That has to be the spat of UFO sightings over Tujunga, Glendale and the Crescenta Valley in the 1950s and ’60s, including some alien abductions. 

The weirdest story? It’s the rise of the wild parrot population locally. 

The creepiest murder? The relatively recent Santa Claus murders. A seemingly stable guy finished his Christmas Eve duties as an usher at his church then went home, put on a Santa costume, grabbed a gun and a can of gasoline and went to his ex-wife’s house where he killed her and her family and burned down the house. 

The craziest story was that in the 1800s local leaders drafted a plan to dam the Verdugo Canyon, creating a lake that would have covered much of the valley. 

The saddest story? In 1922 a vivacious mother of two young kids came down with incurable tuberculosis. She moved into a tent in the yard to keep from infecting her husband and children. She could hear them crying for her but didn’t dare touch them. Eventually she went to a sanitarium in Tujunga where she died alone.

And finally, the biggest mystery. I toured the young group through the ruins of the Verdugo Lodge, a high-end speakeasy from the ’20s tucked into a local canyon. In the basement of the speakeasy ruins is a wall where a door has been cemented over. The kids were excited and enthralled! What’s behind it? Why was it closed off? Can we break it down? No, I told them. That, I’m afraid, will have to remain a mystery for now. 

Better that way. Food for future historians.