Photo Sleuthing

Whenever I find a picture of old Covina that I've never seen before – like this one from a postcard – I enjoy trying to figure out exactly when it was taken.

Looking north on Citrus Avenue from its intersection with Badillo Street. The original canopy of the Covina Theatre can be seen at right.
Click on image for a larger view.

Just eyeballing the cars and the star-spangled bunting hanging over Citrus, my first thought was the photo might be from a 4th of July in the late 1920s. The postcard was mailed April 28, 1930, so obviously the photo couldn't have been taken any later than that.

I also recognized signage seen in this earlier post showing Citrus Avenue in the mid-Twenties (below) – in particular the McPeake cigar sign at 125 N Citrus – so I knew I had to be looking at sometime between 1925-1929.

North Citrus Avenue in 1925.

Looking more closely, I noticed a distinctive roof line, just barely visible in the distance. Known as the Logan-Stead Building in my day, this was the earliest view of Citrus I could remember seeing it there.

So when was it built? Searching the online archives of the Covina Argus, I found out that site-clearing for what was originally known as the Oddfellows Building had commenced in July, 1929,¹ so that ruled out Independence Day of that year. Then I thought it might be Armistice Day – what we now call Veterans Day – but that didn't become a national holiday until 1938. So if it wasn't July 4th or Armistice Day, why all the patriotic decorations?

This called for a much closer look. Examining my 1200dpi scan, I could make out some diagonal LETTERS near the top of the center banner:

A-ha! Seeing "DEDICATION" there brought to mind one of the first photos of old Covina that I ever added to my digital collection, also of that same building:

No date on it, but it clearly shows the dedication ceremony of the new Oddfellows Building, and there, strung across Citrus, can be seen banners identical to those in the original postcard photo!

So now I feel virtually certain that my mystery picture was taken during the first week of December, 1929, immediately prior to the official opening of the Oddfellows Building on December 7:² 94 years ago today.

Covina Argus, November 29, 1929.

Some additional history on this once-important downtown edifice.

The Oddfellows Building was purchased by Thomas P. Logan and Sam Stead in 1941.³ For many years thereafter, it housed Logan Hardware and several other retail businesses, and was a meeting place for a number of fraternal organizations and service clubs.

The Logan-Stead Building in the mid-Sixties. Source: Facebook, I Grew Up In Covina; photographer unknown.

In its final years, the structure fell into disrepair and was ultimately abandoned. It was destroyed by arson and the site cleared in the early Nineties.⁴

The northeast corner of Citrus and Italia today:

Photo by J Scott Shannon, March 20, 2023.

I really must apologize for the long hiatus. There were so many things I had in mind to write about Covina history this year, but the business of life has kept me almost continuously occupied. I hope to do better in 2024.

References:

¹ Covina Argus, July 12, 1929, p.1.
² Covina Argus, November 29, 1929, p.1.
³ Covina Argus-Citizen, November 29, 1946, p.1.
⁴ Bob Findley on the "I Grew Up In Covina" Facebook group.
Newspaper clipping courtesy Newspapers.com.