A Ghostly Wife Leads a Grieving Husband to Her Lost Corpse As we delve into the records of the Ananda Ashrama, we find yet another tale of the supernatural. This one involves Phillip and Ruth Reihl, a La Crescenta couple in their 30s who were followers of Swami Paramananda. They had both been involved in […]
The Miracle of La Crescenta – Fireproof Ananda Ashrama Nov. 21, 1933 It was a quiet Tuesday evening at the Ananda Ashrama after a long hot summer. In the cool solitude of the 120-acre spiritual retreat at the top of Pennsylvania Avenue, the Ashrama sisters read, sewed or meditated. A mile away in Pickens Canyon […]
Ananda Ashrama Today – Part 3 La Crescenta’s Ananda Ashrama went through some changes after its founder and leader Swami Paramananda died in 1940. Vedanta, a branch of Hinduism and Ananda Ashrama’s philosophical base, had its parent order in India. Although it was a gender inclusive philosophy – both sexes are ordained – traditional Indian […]
Ananda Ashrama – Part 2 Last week I wrote about Swami Paramananda coming to America from India, his establishment of the Vedanta Centre in Boston, and then his expansion to California in 1923 with the purchase of a ranch in La Crescenta. Swami Paramananda and his philosophy of Vedanta already had a good following from […]
Ananda Ashrama – Part 1 Of the many “treasures of the Valley” that I write about, there are few as intriguing, as beautiful and, to most CV residents, as mysterious as the Ananda Ashrama. The Ashrama is a 120-acre spiritual retreat that lies hidden in the heart of CV, sandwiched between a residential neighborhood and […]
Glendale’s Tomas Sanchez – One of L.A.’s Greatest Sheriffs I recently visited the Casa Adobe de San Rafael in Glendale, one of two local remnants of the Spanish and Mexican eras in Glendale (Catalina Verdugo Adobe is the other). The site is gorgeous, located in a residential neighborhood between downtown Glendale and the Verdugo Mountains. […]
Soon To Come – The Arroyo Verdugo Bike Path Historically, trails and roads have followed waterways. In our own valley, some of the earliest trails followed Verdugo Creek, curving along the base of the Verdugo Mountains and down through Verdugo Canyon. Today, there’s a growing movement to turn that ancient pathway along Verdugo Creek into […]
Scott Cook – Crescenta Valley’s Own Bill Gates If you use Quicken for your home finances or TurboTax for your income taxes, you use one of Scott Cook’s products. Scott Cook founded Intuit, which produced Quicken, QuickBooks and TurboTax. Scott Cook is one of the richest men in America, with a net worth of almost […]
The Touching Story of Descanso Gardens’ Famous Camellias The colorful Descanso Gardens camellias are world famous, and constitute the largest camellia collection in the U.S., attracting tens of thousands of visitors to La Cañada. But the backstory on these beautiful flowers is truly fascinating, and has its roots (literally) in one of the great American […]
Webster Wiley – CV’s Legacy to Great Architecture I noted the passing of local architect and developer Webster Wiley in July, and was saddened to see that it received little news coverage. For anyone who grew up here in the ’60s, Wiley’s Westerner Homes was a familiar development company, and the distinctive look of Wiley’s […]