War Memorials in CV Like many American communities, we have honored our young men and women who have served their country in our military forces. One of our first war memorials was a “service roll” mounted on the side of a drug store in Montrose near the end of WWII. It consisted of a large […]
The Montrose Town Clock When I visited the new Montrose Trader Joe’s, I happily noted how well they had used the themes of the community in their architecture and interior décor. I wish all new developments would take a clue from the success of this philosophy and let their new structures say something about the […]
The San Gabriels – Our Mother Mountains I wrote recently about the historical name change of the peak above us, Mt. Lukens, and its former life as Sister Elsie Peak. My friend Art Cobery suggested I let readers know that the entire San Gabriel Mountain range above us also went through a similar name change. […]
CV’s Oil Boom of 1927 In the 1920s, Los Angeles was in the grip of oil fever. Oil had always been a part of the natural landscape of Southern California, had been used by the Indians to waterproof their boats and by the Spanish to seal their roofs. It wasn’t until the 1890s that oil […]
How Deukmejian Wilderness Park Got Its Name I recently had the honor to sit down with Nello Iacono who was the head of the Glendale Parks Department from 1988 to 2003, to get the story behind the purchase and development of Deukmejian Wilderness Park. Nello was intimately involved in its purchase and oversaw the park […]
The CV Sheriff Who Gave His Life There’s a new memorial at the CV Sheriff Station on Briggs. The native stone design holds a bronze plaque with the names of two local Sheriffs who died in the line of duty. The memorial, designed and funded from local donations, won’t be dedicated for a couple of […]
Local Alien Abduction Stories Told in “The Tujunga Canyon Contacts” One of the earliest modern stories of extraterrestrial abductions came out of our own Big Tujunga Canyon! These abductions, which began in 1953, predate the more famous Betty and Barney Hill abductions of 1961, but weren’t publicized until 1980 with the publication of “The Tujunga […]
Mount Lukens or Sister Elsie Peak? For those of us that like to hike our local trails or just enjoy gazing at the incredible vistas of the San Gabriels from our valley, Mt. Lukens is a central theme. It’s the highest point in the range above us and it dominates our valley. But the name […]
I think we’ve all done a double-take when heading down the [Glendale] 2 Freeway and seeing the Adopt-A-Highway sign that shows that litter pickup on that stretch of our freeway is done by a group called Atheists United. I’ve been curious about this for some time, and was surprised to find that two of my […]
Spike Jones Market Spike Jones Market was an instantly recognizable landmark in La Crescenta during the ’50s and ’60s, thanks to a gigantic neon blade sign featuring a caricature of the very famous comedian/musician Spike Jones. The neighborhood store, located on the southeast corner of La Crescenta Avenue and Foothill Boulevard, was rather small by […]