Iron Eyes Cody’s Secret Katherine Yamada, longtime columnist for the Glendale News Press, does a wonderful weekly Glendale history column called “Verdugo Views.” I’ve been reading her column faithfully for years now, as I hope you have. She and I have collaborated many times, even before I started this column, exchanging info about local history. […]
We have several small tucked-away communities in the lush canyons of the Verdugo Mountains, such as Mountain Oaks and Whiting Woods, and each of them seems to have its own unique and fascinating history. Glenwood Oaks, across the street from La Crescenta Nursery at La Crescenta and Shirleyjean is another such place. When I talk […]
Jewish Life in Old CV The early settlers of CV were mostly wealthy Midwesterners, along with immigrants from Germany, Italy and other European countries. All white, and predominantly Protestant or Catholic. Those of differing color, ethnic background or faith had problems being accepted, and early people of the Jewish faith faced just that problem in […]
John Steinbeck’s Life in Montrose I wrote previously about the amazing discovery that one of America’s greatest writers, John Steinbeck, spent a few months living on Hermosa Avenue just east of Rosemont in a little shack that still exists as a rental unit behind some apartments. Since then, my former CV High School teacher, now […]
Montrose’s Most Spectacular Architecture is Hidden In the 1920s, Southern California was booming. Money was easy, and businesses paid to be conspicuous in their wealth. Banks were some of the biggest participants in their opulent displays, which were most extravagantly evident in the architecture of their buildings. Banks at that time were massive temple-like structures, […]
The Fabulous Castle of La Crescenta Dr. Benjamin Briggs, the founder of La Crescenta, was a wealthy man, and many of his rich friends and family followed him to his newly found paradise, La Crescenta. One such relative was his niece, May Gould, daughter of George Briggs, who had brought the raisin industry to California. […]
“It’s A Wonderful Life” – Filmed in La Cañada The classic 1946 Frank Capra film “It’s A Wonderful Life” consistently ranks as one of America’s favorite Christmas movies and is on many lists of the best movies of all time. In the film, the Bedford Falls’ hometown hero George Bailey (played by Jimmy Stewart) tries […]
The Spring at Indian Springs Still Flows Many old timers remember the Indian Springs swimming pool that was just east of Montrose on Verdugo Road. The big pool was wildly popular to the youth of the valley between its 1929 opening until its closure in the mid-’60s. It was then that the little canyon the […]
As I outlined in last week’s column, Whiting Woods, one of CV’s most sedate neighborhood, had its origins in vice and crime and was the stage for perhaps CV’s only racially charged murder. The story is given to us in an autobiography of Perry Whiting, founder of the Whiting-Mead building supply company, still in business […]
Remembering the Thick Pine Forests in our Mountains The south face of the San Gabriel Mountains that loom over our valley are stark and majestic. In the late afternoon when the slanting sunlight brings out the pinks and oranges of the rock faces, our mountains look very much like desert mountains, bare and rocky like […]