The 39 Freeway

Among the material I collected at City Hall during my interview with Mayor Frank Haven in January, 1971, was a then-current Chamber of Commerce road map of Covina.¹ Of particular interest to me was the vicinity map on the reverse which showed a proposed freeway passing through the city limits of both Covina and West Covina.

This map detail shows only one of several possible routings that were under consideration at the time.

Beginning at the Foothill Freeway and following State Route 39 all the way to its southern terminus, the project was first referred to as the La Habra Parkway² then later the Huntington Beach Freeway.³ It was part of a master plan adopted in 1958 by the Metropolitan Transportation Engineering Board³ which ultimately aimed to create a grid of freeways located roughly 4 miles apart.⁴ Had the 39 Freeway been completed as shown above, its intersection with I-10 today would be about 5-1/2 miles between I-605 and SR-57. Close enough!

Map of the 1958 Master Plan,³ courtesy of Arturo Salazar on the Freeways of Los Angeles Facebook group.

The intent of the 4-mile grid was of course ease of access to the freeway system, which sounds good on paper, but we know now that urban highways that bisect communities can have deleterious social effects on neighborhoods and negatively impact the quality of city life in general.⁵ All things considered, then, it was assuredly for the best that the proposal to build the 39 Freeway through the Covinas was eventually abandoned.

References:

¹ Official Covina Street and Vicinity Maps, Covina Chamber of Commerce. Published by Western Map Company, 1970.
² Map of Master Plan of Freeways. The Regional Planning Commission, County of Los Angeles, July, 1947, revised June, 1953.
³ Map of Master Plan of Freeways and Expressways. The Metropolitan Transportation Engineering Board, adopted February 28, 1958.
⁴ The ghosts of L.A.’s unbuilt freeways, Los Angeles Times, June 7, 2022.
⁵ Aiello, M. L., et al. 2025. Urban highways are barriers to social ties. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 122, No. 10, e2408937122.

 

Covina Town Center, 1968-1972

Probably not many people now remember (or maybe never even knew) that in the late Sixties, the City of Covina proposed a major redevelopment project that would have essentially wiped out the old downtown as we know it.

It was called the Covina Town Center, and had it gone through as planned, almost everything lying in the area bounded by San Bernardino Road, Second, Fourth, and even areas south of Puente would have either been demolished and repurposed, or expanded in some way. It also called for condemning whole neighborhoods of single-family homes to be replaced by high-density housing and offices, rerouting thru traffic away from Citrus over onto Second, and all of it crowned by a new administrative Civic Center complex with a concert hall-sized Civic Auditorium.¹

Source: Covina Chamber of Commerce.¹ Click on the image to view an enlargement.

Despite vocal opposition, the Town Center proposal actually passed a vote of the City Council and was set to break ground in February, 1971. The month previous to that, I wrote a 19-page report on the project for my high school civics class, the research for which included an in-person interview with Mayor Frank Haven (in office 1968-1972), who was basically the Town Center's principal proponent.²

I was away at college when the Town Center plan was finally scrapped, so I never heard why none of it ended up happening, but I'm sure glad now that it died on the vine. (If anyone can fill me in on the details of why the proposal ultimately failed, I would surely appreciate it.)

References:

¹ "Covina's New Town Center," Covina Chamber of Commerce, 1970, 2pp.
² "Should the City of Covina Have a New Civic Center?," A Civics Project by Scott Shannon & Terry Dunn, January 20, 1971, 19+2pp.

 

Impermanence

*sighs* It looks like I'm going to have to write a book, after all...

All these years, I've been operating under the assumption that, even if I died, my blog would remain hosted on Blogger indefinitely, but it turns out that's not true. I recently discovered that, if my account is not logged into on a regular basis, after a certain period of time, my blog will be automatically deleted.

This on top of the fact I always knew that, after I passed, at least the images here would soon disappear, because all of those are on my private hosting, which would terminate after my credit cards were canceled. Gone right there would be half my blog's informational content, but I assumed that at least the text of it would remain. Nope. Even that would eventually vanish forever, too.

So, it appears the only option left to preserve my years of historical research is to turn my blog into a book. (Or, considering the amount of material, maybe even two or three.)

I know right off the bat that I'd have to self-publish, but I have no idea (yet) how to go about that. Anybody have any suggestions?

What I do feel fairly certain about already, though, is what's going to be in that book (subject to change without notice, of course):

• Preface: A Dedication (expanded to include others, as well)
• The San Bernardino Road (rewritten to cover early ESGV history in general)
• Hollenbeck and the Badillas
• The Badilla Foreclosure
• Untold Stories of Hollenbeck and Phillips
• The Tract, Trials and Tribulation of Joseph Phillips
• When Was Covina Founded?
• Who Really Named Covina?
• The Founder's House
• Badillo Mystery Solved?
• The Oldest House/Building in Covina
• Covina Hills Road
• Italia
• The Baseball Champs of '09
• The First Lady of Covina History

• Appendices: Covina History Timeline, Covina Schools Timeline

Plus three in-depth histories I've been working on for a while now:

• The Hollenbeck Ranch
• Mountain View and the Ruddock Family in Covina
• California Preparatory School (including the Theosophical Society and the Baptist Seminary)

That said, you know how I feel about books! Once you set something down in print, it might as well be set in stone, because you can't go back and edit errors or add new information. But, like I said, I really don't have any choice. Gotta bite the bullet now and get 'er done!

 

Covina Farms

Formerly located at 731 North Grand Avenue on the northwest corner with Edna Place, Covina Farms was a shopping staple for many local families for over a quarter century. It began as an open-air produce and meat market in August, 1955,¹ and expanded to a full-service grocery in September of 1956.² Long-time owners Ray and Sumiko Okura bought the store in November, 1957.³

My mom loved Covina Farms. ❤️ She got all our meats there. Not only did they have the best quality in town, their butcher shop had lockers you could rent, then buy meat in bulk and store it in their deep freeze. The fresh fruit and vegetables couldn't be beat, either. My favorite part was the big newsstand where I'd read a Mad magazine or comic book while Mom shopped. 😉

Mr. Okura passed away in February, 1977,⁴ and although I'm speculating here, that could have been what set in motion the eventual end of Covina Farms in July, 1981.⁵ Only a few short months later, Blake Paper Co. took over at 731 N. Grand⁶ and ran a successful business out of that location for many more years. The old building was finally torn down in 2013.⁷ A new Circle K store, gas station and car wash were constructed on the site and opened in 2021.⁷

I wish I had a picture of Covina Farms, but the best I can do is show you this old shopping bag that I found when I was closing up my parents' house in Covina in 1988. (Mom was quite the packrat.) 😊 It's the only memento I have of the friendly little local market where we shopped probably more times than any other.

References:

¹ Covina Argus-Citizen, August 11, 1955, p.3.
² Covina Argus-Citizen, September 13, 1956, p.31.
³ Covina Argus-Citizen, October 31, 1957, p.28.
⁴ Los Angeles Times, February 18, 1977, p.24.
⁵ Los Angeles Times, July 16, 1981, p.207.
⁶ Los Angeles Times, April 25, 1982, p.617.
⁷ Posted comments by Covina residents in the "I Grew Up in Covina" Facebook group.

 

 

Ira Stanton and Kin

The other day, Dave Armbruster of the Covina Valley Historical Society asked if I could help with info about this photo. The caption read, "Ira Stanton Hauling Oranges," and Dave wondered what I could find out about the gentleman.

Built in 1913, the Covina Heights Groves, Inc., packing house was located on the SPRR line just east of the northeast corner of Front and First Streets.
Ira Stanton's brother, Pliny (b.1877), was Manager,¹ and also co-owner of the Stanton grove,² so perhaps Pliny took this picture of his brother atop their wagon.

I discovered a lot about Ira and his kinfolk, but three things stood out as noteworthy:

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