President's Message::
Spring Program:
Dear Friends,
THE LINDBERGH FLIGHT -1927
It has been most satisfying to see our membership grow so much these past few years. We are people who appreciate the important role history plays in our lives. Whether it is oral or written, it is a discipline that has been with us for thousands of years. Marcus Tullius Cicero, who lived before Christ (106-43 BC), said,History " is the witness that testifies to the passing of time; it illuminates reality, vitalizes memory, provides guidance in daily life, and brings us tidings of antiquity ." In America, it is not only our history but also the telling and retelling of it that is the common thread that binds many diverse ethnic and religious groups together as one People. It brings us together now and carries us, as one nation, into the future. Accurate, unbiased reporting of events is a responsibility that weights heavily on historians. In our own small way we are transferring specific knowledge to the next generation. It must be as clear and truthful a report as possible. I want to thank all our members for making it possible for us to continue our work as a Society whose purpose is the pleasant task of passing on our rich historic heritage. Marilyn Peck President
Thursday, May 14, 1998 7:30 p.m. San Marino Public Library Auditorium 1890 Huntington Drive San Marino Our fourth and final speaker of the season will be Eugene Weisenberg, San Marino resident and nationally renowned historian on the first Trans-Atlantic solo flight. Many little-known details of Charles Lindbergh's famous adventure in the Spirit of St. Louis will be revealed. As always with San Marino Historical Society programs, the public is welcomed and admission is free. Come and bring your friends and neighbors! Planning for next Season : Speakers and programs are now being selected for your Society's 1998-1999 season. Are you curious about a special historic subject in our community? Have you a suggestion for a memorable evening? Your suggestions and comments are warmly encouraged. Please call (626) 299-7030 and share your ideas! Visit our web page to learn about your Society's programs and activities: www.smnet.or2 [Click on "Community Resources"j
SAN MARINO HISTORICAL SOCIETY OFFICERS 1997-1998 President Is' VP, Membership 2nd Ep, Programs Treasurer Corresponding Secretary Recording Secretary Parliamentarian Librarian Veronica historians
Marilyn Peck Kirk Helm Paul Crowley Edward Fryer Marlene Elliott
News letter Newsletter Assistant Curator, White Adobe City Representative Alternate Docent Co-Chman Communications Stoneman Mural Legal Consultant
Emilie Ferry Lillian Campbell Palma-Romero Kenneth Veronda Peggy Winkler Kenneth Veronda Jo Louk Jarnes Elliott Paul Crowley Eugene Dryden GraziellaAlmanza Peggy Winkler Carolyn Waldo Marilyn Peck Gerry Soderberg
Historical Collections and Architectural Survey John Holinstron, Kirk Helm, Sander Peck, Marilyn Peck
Docents GraziellaAlmanza, Katy Benton, Kirk Helm, Judy-Jo Niemec, Dorothy Olson, Veronica Palma-Romero, Marilyn Peck, Carolyn Waldo, Peggy Winkler
Assistants James Elliott, Marlene Elliott, Sander Peck, Susan Peck, Carolyn Wightinan, Vera Wrobel
Adobe Restoration and Preservation Paul Crowley, Eugene Dryden, James Elliott, Kirk Helm
San Marino Net Eugene Dryden Want to volunteer with your Historical Society? Docents, assistants, and other helpers are needed around the wonderful White Adobe on the grounds of SMUS Oral history interviewers and transcribers give important and fascinating help. Assistance with our architectural survey and our historical collections is welcomed. There are lots of ways to help around our group! Call us andvolunteer.
(626) 299-7030
NEWS NOTES Stoneman Mural: The Intermediate Guild of the San Marino Woman's Club joined us on January 14,1998, in the old kindergarten room at Stoneman School for a tour and lecture about the Stoneman Mural, restored through the efforts of our Society. Members of the San Marino Unified School District Board and other officials of the SMUSD had a tour and program about the mural and its artist, Lucile Lloyd, on January 29. Programs: On January 15ih, 5an Marino Police Chief Frank Wills gave a fascinating program on San Marino Crimes and Speakeasies: "Bodies & Bottles" from the Police Department's point of view. He enriched his talk with many interesting photographs, newspaper articles, and other items. In attendance were four of San Marino's former Chiefs of Police. On Thursday evening, March l9th, we held a program on cLocal Women at War," second in our series Before the Colors Fade." It was a rare oppontunity to hear first-hand what it was like to be an American or British woman in the military or with the Red Cross during World War II. A five-column article with a picture of one of the participants appeared in the Pasadena Star- News two days later. Docent Tours: Historical Society Docents conducted tours of the Michael White Adobe and the Old Mill for six classes of third graders from Carver School on Thursday, November 20, and Friday, November 21, 1997. In November we also conducted a tour for the new teachers of the school district, to make them familiar with the local history and historic landmarks. On Wednesday, January 7, 1998, slide presentations were given in the Carver School Auditorium to two groups of students, 56 boys and girls in each. These tours and presentations are given by our docents and are coordinated through the Talent Bank. We have enjoyed providing these programs, and from the teachers' and parents' reports, the children are most appreciative and interested in what we present.
Streetsign History: NAMES ON OUR LAND San Marino's street names are evocative of the English countryside, of our Spanish hentage, or of local developers and landmarks, but busy drivers and residents may not realize the history in our street names. The Franciscan Friars establishing Roman Catholic missions along El Camino Real, the King's highway from San Diego north, endowed us with some of our earliest place names around San Marino: San Gabriel Archangel, recalled with San Gabriel Boulevard south to the "city with a mission;" Los Robles Avenue, "The Oaks," San Pasqual, recognizing the Holy Week, and the latter's smaller section Pasqualito Dnve, were Spanish place names for the local pueblo and ranchos. Santa Anita was the next rancho to the east, though today's avenue runs north-south and never even makes it to the racetrack. San Marino itself as most have already learned, came from the ancient republic atop Mt. Titano on the Italian peninsula, but indirectly, by way of the Shorb family's appreciation of a plantation in Maryland. The mission friars' attempt to construct a working grist mill along one of the future San Marino's five arroyos - dry washes much of the year, then rushing rivers - give us both El Molino Avenue and the English version, Old Mill Road, today. Early English-speaking settlers named most of their roads rather matter of factly for the destination - Alhambra, Duarte, Lake, Mission, the already-mentioned San Gabriel - or for the ranchers along the way - Wilson, Benjamin D., Don Benito himself Allen, Banning, Rose, the more famous Patton, and the later Urmston families. Pasadena's Lake Avenue was a destination route for the Indiana Colony settlers. Not all came from Indiana, of course; their delicious combination of their birth states of Indiana, Illinois, and Michigan into Michillinda recognized that, though some of their descendents today presume that's a Spanish name. The lake destination? Why, Wilson's Lake, in Lake Vineyard, dried out today and transformed into our gracious city park, Lacy Park, Lacy, not the "Lacey” written in
occasional guidebooks whose authors must imagine the leafy greenery gave the name recognizing our former mayor Lacy, whose home Avonrea is another of our place names. Several of our local street names, as others throughout the world, simply recognize geographic features. A few trees stood out on the chaparral covering this area's original dry land, not only the rabies or oaks already mentioned, but also a few native Sycamore, another variety of oak the Spanish call Encino, towering Palmas, and the striking Twin Palms near today's Sherwood and Lorain roads. Lorain supposedly came from the French Lorraine territory, but the cause of the dubious spelling is unknown. Henry E. Huntington, nephew of one of the Central Pacific's "Big Four" C. P., who later married his widowed aunt Arabella and bought the San Marino Ranch, attached his name to our central Huntington Drive, originally divided by Huntington's Pacific Electric Railway tracks, now a magnificent swath of greenery. But his Huntington Land subdivisions filled our map with more than half our street names as their mules dragged Fresno plows through the dust to create streets and lots in the 1920s. H. F. H.'s Anglophile tastes are reflected today not only in his art and library but also on many of the street signs in town: Shakespeare, Oxford, Stratford, Chaucer, Chelsea, Berkeley, Canterbury, Kensington, Gainsborough, Cumberland, Devonport - a visitor might think from reading these and many more San Marino street names that he was touring the British isles! When Huntington Land Co. went Spanish, the results weren't always geographically perfect. Bonita may be a pretty little avenue, but there's not much of a good view on Buena Vista. We can't drive to the sea on Del Mar, and there's no king's mountain near Monterey, but they did correctly recognize three of those dry-wash arroyos with Granada, Rubio, and Robles. In English, too, Huntington Land's names may show a touch of hyperbole: are there pretty farmlands on Fairfield, or more robins on Robin? Actually, Robin was the daughter of one of the map makers, as was Sharon for that matter. Ridgeway Road follows
a prominent ridge, politely ignoring the fact it's really the scarp of the Raymond Hill faultlme. Staats Place memorializes a real estate broker, and Holladay the married name of Huntington's sister. The arroyo rushing down from the Sierra Madres to power that El Molino old mill has two names on our maps: Mill Canyon (we've both a road and a lane for the Mill) and Kewan Drive, recalling the lawyer/politician who lived in the abandoned mill around the time of the Civil War. Many have forgotten that Garfield Avenue saluted not only a fallen President, but recognized her widow, who had moved to neighboring South Pasadena. Our City and our City Schools recognized several ofour own civic leaders, too, with not only Huntington, Patton, and Wilson but good public officials who followed them, such as the school district's Carver, Valentine, and Chandler of the Los Angeles Jinwes. George Stoneman was a Civil War and Indian wars general, California governor, and railroad commissioner who had settled at the westeEost rancho that would form our town, thus giving his name to the public school in that area. His ranch lands were purchased by Louis Filley and Maurice Veronda in 1920; Filley subdivided much of Stoneman's Pasqualito, drawing from his Back Bay Boston heritage to name Plymouth and Winthrop, but conflising things with his choice of La Mirada, not much ofa lookout or viewpoint. Filley chose attractive names for Fleur andCarlaris, though. Veronda founded a prep school in 1924, Southwestern Academy, on the portion of the ranch not subdivided. The school's name came from Charles F. Lummis' vision of a special quality to this southwest section of the United States. Lummis came to dedicate the school and name, then sent a surprise invoice for an extraordinarily large honorarium for using his uncopyrighted "Southwestern" name. San Marino honored Maurice Veronda years later by giving his name to the shortest and most insignificant street in town, the only street where nobody lives! Monterey Road has a complicated history. Running north, then east, then south, it was a stagecoach route through Monterey Pass, towards the community of Monterey Park.
When Monterey Road first entered San Marino from the west, across Garfield, it turned south and ran toward Alhambra, using the flood channel of the dry wash. Meanwhile, Huntington Land Company created another Monterey Road, beginning on Huntington Drive, running north briefly, then turning west to end at Oak Knoll. The Oak Knoll name comes from another subdivision, the district surrounding the Wentworth, then the Huntington, and now the Rita-Carlton Huntington Hotel in Pasadena. Oak Knoll was also the Pacific Electric Railway's designation for the trolley-car route that turned north from Huntington Drive just east of today's Oak Knoll Avenue, then ran north to Pasadena. Only when the Stoneman properties were subdivided did the western Monterey stop running south from South Pasadena, but headed east to join its nainesake at Oak Knoll except for a curve north in the 2900 block, designed to avoid a long-gone magnolia tree and still slowing traffic today. Smaller subdivisions after Worid War II added a few more names created by developers; Alpine, Turn, Alegria, and Shepard and Morgan's Huntley Circle, for example. Klnghurst was another postwar development, running east into the county strip and bordering the old Sunnyslope ranchlands. San Marino's territory is fully developed now, so we shouldn't see new names on our land in the next century. Our city has avoided changing names to honoring political or military heroes of the moment, die Garfield name having been bestowed by our neighbors in South Pasadena. Meanwhile, residents can enjoy the endowment of our romantic street and place names, even as some of these names and the meandering streets they identify may confound public safety workers and visitors to our charming town. STILL AVAILABLE: Sweatshirts, T-shirts, and tote bags with the colorful map of San Marino are still for sale, and make great souvenirs for visitors to your home. All profits are investments in our Society's services to San Marino. Call Marilyn Peck (626-449-4572) or Judy-Jo Niemec (626449-5966).
America was discovered accidentally by a great seaman who was looking for something else; when discovered it was not wanted; and most of the exploration for the next 50 years was in the hope of getting through or around it. America was named for a man who discovered no part of the New World. History is like that, very chancy. ----Samuel Eliot Morison
