North Grand Avenue, late 1950s. Although this particular location is in Glendora, it is very much typical of the way Covina's streets looked during the transition from citrus to suburbs. After a block of new houses, the road narrows to its original two lanes as it passes an orange grove. To the left is a row of tall Washingtonia robusta fan palms and another housing development; this one with a separate feeder road running parallel to the arterial street. (Covina had a ton of those.) And, in the midst of all those modern homes stands an old two-story grove house: a lone survivor of rural times now past.
Even into the 1970s, there were still several roads in and around Covina that suddenly narrowed to two lanes like this. The last ones that I can remember were northbound Grand Avenue between Cypress and Covina Blvd., and Vincent Ave. just south of Arrow Highway. The former was widened to four lanes around 1971, and the latter as late as 1980.
This shows the postcard location in the present day. If you jump forward a little in the street view, you can see that the old grove house at left is still standing today.
1 comment:
Responding to a really old post, but I'm just old enough to recall the streets narrowing to two lanes in several places. I grew up on E. Bellbrook Street right where Barranca narrowed to two lanes. Can't recall the year it was widened, but it was about the time the church at the corner of Barranca and Covina Blvd was built.
Recall, too, that Barranca turned into Ben Lomond north of Arrow Hwy, I think.
Post a Comment
To post a comment, you must login to this page with the Google Chrome web browser. That is the only way that works now.