Link Paola’s Custom Cars and Custom Car Terminology In the years that Link Paola had a custom car shop in Montrose, between 1939 and 1951, he probably produced hundreds of these sleek rolling works of art. I’ll describe a couple of them to give you a feel for what sculptural genius was being performed […]
Twelve Oaks Lodge – A Tale of Charity, Betrayal and Resurrection Twelve Oaks Lodge, a retirement home located at 2820 Sycamore Ave., has a dynamic story that started way back in the 1930s. It all started with James and Effie Fifield. James was a successful attorney, businessman and publisher in Minneapolis, and his wife […]
A Week of Crime in 1955 Reading old newspapers is a great way to get interesting perspectives on the past. We often imagine that things were better in the past [with] less crime. But sometimes newspapers from the past remind us that there was just as much crime, perhaps even more, when one considers that […]
Palm Trees – The Oddest ‘Trees’ in CV Most of the trees we view as typical Southern California trees, such as pepper trees and eucalyptus, are not natives. Another non-native tree that is viewed as a typical California tree is the palm tree. The image of the palm tree has become an icon of […]
Benjamin Briggs’ 49er Diary – Part 1 Dr. Benjamin Briggs is considered the founder of La Crescenta. He came here in 1881 because of the healthful clear air and purchased the entire Crescenta Valley. He named it La Crescenta, and divided it into saleable lots. What many don’t know is that Briggs originally came […]
CV’s First Inhabitants – Life After the Mission The plan the Spanish missionaries had first laid out for California was to establish the missions, Christianize the natives and, after 10 years, hand the missions and their lands over to the natives. That would free the missionaries to move further north and east and establish more […]
CV’s First Inhabitants – Life at the Mission I have written for several weeks about the life of the Native-American village of Wiqangna, located near La Tuna Canyon, most likely on the land that is now the (defunct) Verdugo Hills Golf Course. After hundreds, perhaps thousands, of years of existence, the village and its […]
CV’s First Inhabitants – The Abandonment of Wiqangna As I’ve written before, we know next to nothing about our local Native-American village other than it did exist. I’ve been using William McCawley’s fine book “The First Angelinos” as reference, and filling in some blanks with my own scattered knowledge. When the Europeans first touched […]
CV’s First Inhabitants – Toypurina’s Revolt It’s obvious from history that, although the Tongva people were eventually subjugated by the Spanish, they didn’t go down easy. There were several revolts, both small and large, throughout the lifespan of the Mission system, but none was so dramatic and poignant as “Toypurina’s Revolt” in 1785. The Mission […]
CV’s First Inhabitants – Conflicts With Mission San Gabriel As I had said in previous columns, the Tongva people, although friendly and generous, could also be fierce and deadly warriors. So why were they so easily dominated by the handful of Spanish that came north? Germs and steel. Like native peoples all across the […]