Title page of the Cardinal yearbook from 1954: the year I was born in Covina. It shows my home town on the cusp of its transition from citrus-growing capital to suburban residential community, focussing on the campus of Covina Union High School on South Citrus Avenue between Puente and Dexter Streets.
Click for full-res image.
Still more groves than subdivisions at this point, but that wouldn't be the case for much longer.
Time was running out for the old high school, as well. Covina High began transitioning to a new location on Hollenbeck Avenue starting in Fall, 1956. That same year, students from West Covina attended classes at the old campus until their own new high school would be ready in 1957. In academic year 1958-1959, it became an all-freshman high school, where students from all over the district waited for Covina's Northview and West Covina's Edgewood to be completed. In its final years, the main building was repeatedly vandalized, and in June, 1962, the gymnasium was destroyed by arson. The entire campus was subsequently demolished in Summer, 1963.
Covina High quad, 1954. Science Hall annex at left. Click for full-res image.
