Putting a Human Face on the La Tuna Canyon Detention Center We’ve heard much about CV’s WWII “Japanese internment camp” over the years. What is now the site of the Verdugo Hills Golf Course was, during the war, an interrogation center for resident Japanese, German and Italians who were perceived as being a possible threat […]
The Classic Hotel Tujunga Lives On in Foothill Retirement Home On the western edge of the Crescenta Valley, just slightly into Tujunga, lies a living piece of Old California. Foothill Retirement home was once the Hotel Tujunga, a health resort in the 1930s, and before that was a place wrapped in legends dating back to […]
An Old Vineyard Trail Reopened in Deukmejian Park Just a couple months ago, the all volunteer Crescenta Valley Trail Crew re-cut an old trail out of the sagebrush on the east side of Dunsmore Canyon. It had previously been called the Boy Scout Trail in honor of an Eagle Scout who created the trail over […]
The Little Hills in Our Valley – Collins Hill Collins Hill is the smallest of the little hills in our valley, nothing more than a bump really, and yet it has the most historically to write about. It’s so small in fact that it’s hard to find. Tiny Collins Hill is bounded on the east […]
The Little Hills in Our Valley – Dunham and Reynolds Hills Unnoticed by nearly everyone are three small hills, only a couple hundred feet high, located oddly on the surface of the valley floor. The most storied of the hills, Collins Hill, I’ll write about next week. This column will talk about Dunham and Reynolds […]
Early CV’s Aum Temple of Universal Truth California has always been a place where alternative religions could take root and flourish. By alternative, I mean outside of the standard Christian faith of Protestant and Catholic. Our valley has been home to three such religious movements: the Ananda Ashrama at the top of Pennsylvania Avenue, founded […]
The Route to the Crescenta-Cañada Valley in 1880 In 1880, the Crescenta-Cañada Valley was beginning to attract settlers. The Lantermans and Williams had been selling lots for a few years in La Cañada. Dr. Benjamin Briggs was soon to buy the Crescenta Valley and open it up for development. So about this period we begin […]
Hindenburg Park Memories My good friend Art Cobery recently gave me copies of letters he received from former CV resident Paul Brown. They’re full of Paul’s memories of our little valley, particularly during the 1930s when he was a boy. One of those letters has to do with Hindenberg Park in the ’30s when the […]
World Famous Goats of the Crescenta Valley In the 1920s, the Crescenta Valley was home to several goat farms for the production of goat milk. Goat milk was then, like now, considered to be a health food. Milk goats were a hot item, particularly in the health-conscious Crescenta Valley where many invalids had moved for […]
More Rockhaven Sanitarium Ghost Stories As most of us in CV already know, Rockhaven Sanitarium is one of the brightest stars in the valley’s history. From 1923 to 2006, Rockhaven provided the absolute best of care to women with mild mental disabilities. Ladies who had often lived lives of great achievement were able to finish […]