Local Historic Landmarks – Disappeared, Threatened and Saved

I want to bring you up-to-date on some recent developments regarding local historical landmarks. As a local historian, I’m well aware of what happens to these landmarks. Sadly, I’m not at all good at working to save the threatened ones. I don’t have the stomach for the hard, bitter fights that take place around landmarking properties. 

Anyway, here are six that have come up recently.

May Lane Motel – Now known as the La Crescenta Motel, it’s the one survivor of a string of quaint 1940s-era motels in the valley. The property at Foothill Boulevard and Briggs Avenue was sold to a developer to be demolished probably 20 years ago but every deal has fallen through. Who knows if the current one will fly?

Briggs Water Tower – The old water tower Dr. Briggs built in the late 1800s at the top of Briggs Terrace has slowly evolved into a small home. The tiny structure at 5875 Freeman retains the distinctive look of a water tower. The house is under 800 square feet but it sits on a half-acre lot with a million-dollar view. Nothing protects it, so who knows how long before a mansion is built there.

John Steinbeck House – Hard to believe but the great American author John Steinbeck lived in Montrose in 1932/33. His tiny wooden shack sat behind an apartment at 2527 Hermosa Ave. all the way up until last year when it was quietly torn down for a larger apartment.

Rockhaven Sanitarium – The sanitarium was built in 1923 as a haven for women with mild mental illness. It was a place where they would be treated with dignity and respect. It was the last sanitarium of what had been several in our valley. In 2006 the sanitarium was closed and the property went up for sale for multi-family development.

In 2008, the City of Glendale stepped in and bought the property intact for use as a park and cultural center. However, the economy crashed resulting in years of neglect by the city. The property was not maintained and began to degrade badly. The group, Friends of Rockhaven, was formed to push for the city to do something with the historic property. The Friends even secured an $8 million grant for restoration and got it listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Still the city neglected the property. Finally, in frustration, the Friends sued the city to force it to work on Rockhaven. As a result, it is now using the $8 million and that work can now be seen happening, along with some minimal upkeep. However, the city holds a grudge and the Friends of Rockhaven are no longer allowed to be part of the future planning for the property. We’ll see where this goes.

Pickens Cabin – This one’s quite sad – bad timing. The first permanent structure in the valley, a one-room cabin, was built in 1875 on Briggs Terrace by pioneer Theodor Pickens. In the 1960s the owners of the old cabin donated it to the LA County Fire Dept., hoping it would be better cared for. It was hauled up to Henniger Flats, halfway up Mt. Wilson, where the fire department had a small museum. After the recent Altadena Fire I wondered if it survived. There was a rumor going around that it was still intact. I happened to be talking to the son of the family who donated it to the fire department and a family member offered to pay for it to be hauled back to the Crescenta Valley as a museum.

Sadly, the rumor that it survived was false. The cabin has burned.

Mountain Oaks – I’m ending with a happy story. Mountain Oaks was a high-end speakeasy in the Verdugo Mountains in the 1920s. The ruins of the old resort sits on many acres of beautiful wild land, along with a handful of private homes. It’s been targeted by unscrupulous developers for decades but the land has always escaped by the skin of its teeth, constantly facing another development scheme. Last year the developable land of Mountain Oaks was purchased by the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy and will now be preserved.