A lot of advertisements for the Phillips Tract were run in local papers during the first couple of years of land sales.
This was the first ad ever, printed only days after the official opening of the new development. Like almost all real estate ads of the time, it tells some untruths, especially when it says "A Town Located on the Land." In that first month, all that comprised Covina was J. S. Phillips' own house, a one-room schoolhouse, a small general store "downtown," and a simple shack across Badillo Street which housed a newspaper that basically had no readers yet.1 Civilization, Ho!
Los Angeles Times, Wednesday, January 21, 1885.2
This large and undoubtedly expensive ad started appearing in papers about a year later. Land sales were starting to slow, and Phillips probably hoped this would give things a jump-start. The town was much more substantial by this time. Though not mentioned in the ad, Covina even boasted a roller-skating rink on Citrus Avenue!1
Los Angeles Herald, Friday, April 9, 1886.2
This is the prettiest ad. Unfortunately, it told a fib, too. No railroad was coming; not then at any rate. Covina would have to wait another decade before the Southern Pacific Railroad finally opened a spur line through town in 1895.
Pomona Times-Courier, Saturday, April 17, 1886.2
No more ads after 1887. The real estate market basically collapsed at that time. The "Land Bust" of the Eighties had begun. Even Covina founder J. S. Phillips would end up losing his shirt in the crash.
References:
1 Pflueger, D. H. 1964. Covina: Sunflowers, Citrus, Subdivisions. Castle Press, Pasadena, California, 372pp.
2 Newspapers.com
The last ad said people would be "conveyed from Puente Station by hack" meaning that they picked them up at the Puente station and then on horseback the rest of the way - a warning to be prepared for a bit of roughing it. I'm supposing Puente Station would have been in Baldwin Park - near Puente Ave. Somewhere near the current MetroLink station.
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