The Triumph of Our Local Libraries We are fortunate to have some of the best local libraries in the L.A. area, but our good fortune has been the result of hard work by our community to make it so. The history of CV’s libraries is nearly as convoluted as the history of our various water […]
The Man for Whom Mount Lukens is Named The namesake of the peak above the Crescenta Valley is Theodore Lukens, one of the founding citizens of Pasadena. He made a fortune in real estate in the late 1800s, was elected mayor of Pasadena, and was the president of the Pasadena National Bank. They named a […]
Historic 1927 Winter Wildfire Current drought conditions have made our hills drier than they have been in decades. Our “normal” fire season, typically summer and fall, is now year-round, and even this winter may see some big wildfires. But we have had major conflagrations outside of our normal fire season in the past. In the […]
Los Angeles Wine Who knew that when someone spoke of California wines in the 1800s they were speaking of wine from Los Angeles? Or that during that era, the two largest wine producing regions in the United States were Los Angeles and sections of Missouri? Who would have thought that perhaps the first commercial […]
Gender Equality in High School Sports Started Here I think parents with daughters here in CV would agree that the athletic opportunities afforded to girls are on par with those offered to boys. Today’s girls play on soccer teams, basketball teams, baseball and softball. Save for the last bastion of football, girls growing up in […]
San Gabriel Mountains: Huge Federal Restrictions by Presidential Edict The President, without consulting Congress, grabbed a huge swath of public lands in the San Gabriels for so-called “Federal protection.” He bowed under pressure from special interests in L.A. – a wealthy and influential group of elite environmentalist do-gooders – to restrict access to the mountains […]
The Beginnings of the CV Town Council The Crescenta Valley never really got serious about becoming its own city. There were a couple of half-hearted attempts in the first half of the 20th century, but nothing stuck. When a big drought hit in the late ’40s, our valley was left waterless and at the mercy […]
The Saga of Tujunga’s Weatherwolde Castle Both Crescenta-Cañada Valley and neighboring Sunland-Tujunga have long traditions of castle building. There were several built here in our early years, about half of which still survive, notably La Cañada’s Pink Castle and Tujunga’s Blarney Castle. But the most compelling story comes from Tujunga’s Weatherwolde Castle on Commerce Avenue, […]
The History of Foothill Boulevard, Part 1 In a regional sense, today’s Foothill Boulevard is one of the major streets of Los Angeles, stretching 60 miles from San Bernardino to Newhall. But locally, we consider “our” Foothill Boulevard to be the portion that runs straight as an arrow from the Arroyo Seco to just beyond […]
Historical Highlights for Your Tour of La Crescenta For those who take part in Friday’s Celebrate La Crescenta 91214 tour, here’s some interesting history tidbits to make some of the stops on the tour just a little more compelling. The first stop is Rosemont and Fairway where a memorial was dedicated to those who died […]