Packing House Ladies, c.1900

Just found these pictures on the Huntington Digital Library site. Actually I've seen thumbnails of these pics many times before, but I never took a real close look at them until now. I was more than a little surprised by what I saw...

I knew it was common for women to work in these fruit packing houses, but I did not know they did so dressed in such fancy, fashionable finery!

Workers in the A.C.G. Packing House, Covina, c.1900. C. C. Pierce Photography Collection.
Courtesy of The Huntington Digital Library, San Marino, CA. Link to full-res image.

Could you imagine standing all day being dressed to the nines like this working in a place obviously without any air conditioning or even decent ventilation? It looks like absolute torture. And yet they're pretty as a picture, and appear happy, as well. These ladies were made of hardier stuff than me, that's for sure.

And check these guys out. What's with the tomahawks? Yikes! I mean obviously they're not intended to be weapons, but why are they brandishing them like this? And, more to the point, why are the men sitting down while the women seem to be doing all the work?

A.C.G. Packing House, Covina, c.1900. C. C. Pierce Photography Collection.
Courtesy of The Huntington Digital Library, San Marino, CA. Link to full-res image.

This shot looks like it was taken in a different packing house, and I guess it's winter, as I see some wearing coats/cloaks. Fancy dress here, too, and straw hats, to boot!

Covina Citrus Association Packing House, Covina, c.1900. C. C. Pierce Photography Collection.
Courtesy of The Huntington Digital Library, San Marino, CA. Link to full-res image.

You know, I've often daydreamed about traveling back in time to turn-of-the-last-century Covina, but honestly, if I had to work in a place like this, I don't think it would be too long before I yearned to return to the present.

Been working on a couple big projects lately. One might even be called momentous! Stay tuned!

 

Two Home Towns

Here's something I never thought I'd see: a postcard sent from McKinleyville—my home town of the last quarter-century—to the home town of my birth, Covina, back when both burgs were basically backwoods backwaters that no one ever heard of.

"Ethel" mailed this postcard to "Elvin Gilmore Esq." in Covina in 1909. The somewhat cringe novelty side can be viewed by clicking here.

Let's see if we can figure out the connection between these two home towns of mine!

Facebook Page

I decided to give social media a try and create a Facebook page to hopefully boost this blog's readership. Check it out!

Covina Past on Facebook

Presently, I plan to populate the page with short teasers to my blog's "greatest hits," some of the more interesting vintage photos of Covina I've collected, and links to new articles as they appear here. I'll still update the Twitter/X account with those same new article notifications, but that's about all that site was ever good for. I doubt my blog got a single new reader going that route.

In other news, I've been working on multiple different topics for new posts lately, which unfortunately is actually proving to be more of an impediment to my productivity than anything else. I really should try to stick to just one subject at a time. That's the way I've always been used to working, anyway.

More to come soon! And do please Like and share the new Facebook page! This blog needs all the help it can get. :-)

Old Neighbor Remembers

I'll be frank—I don't generally care for oral histories. Reason being, people's memories of past events tend to be embellished or even just plain mistaken; my own being no exception. However, every once in a while, I chance upon an oral account that's really interesting and even compelling in its particulars, and this one—published for the city's 51st anniversary commemoration—is one I believe worthy of historical preservation, in spite of its anonymous authorship. So, with no further ado...

From the Covina Argus of October 18, 1935:

The Hollenbeck Palms

Recently, I added this very early C. W. Tucker photo postcard to my Covina ephemera collection.

Click on the image above to view a clean enlargement.

Although the view looks very different today, and the palms are way taller now, I doubt someone who grew up in Covina would have too much difficulty recognizing where this picture was taken.

But, just in case not, we are looking north on Hollenbeck Avenue from only a few feet north of its intersection with Badillo Street.

And the year? Well, let's play history detective and see what we can come up with!

Covina Past at 100

For this blog's 100th post, I thought a little retrospective might be in order. There've been quite a few changes here at Covina Past since I created this account in 2012. Suffice it to say, it's a very different site now versus what it used to be.