The City Motto

In January, 1922,¹ the Covina Chamber of Commerce held a contest for a slogan to represent the city to the broader world. Two months and dozens of submissions later, it was announced that a Mrs. F. E. Wolfarth won the $20 prize with her entry, "One Mile Square And All There."² The official motto as subsequently adopted by the CCoC would change the "One" to an "A,"^3,4 however, thus becoming the saying that a lot of us young latter-day Covinans were taught in school: "A Mile Square And All There."

But let's pause a moment for a fact check. Was Covina actually "a mile square?" Turns out not quite.

In teal, the original "mile square" 1901 city limits of Covina: Hollenbeck on the west, Barranca on the east, on the south an E/W line halfway between Puente and Rowland, and on the north an E/W line halfway between the SP tracks and Cypress (with a little bite out of the NW corner).
Map source: Los Angeles County Dept. of Public Works.

By my reckoning, the area thus enclosed was 0.87 square miles, just a bit shy of a full section. It was claimed at the time of the slogan's adoption that Covina was the smallest incorporated city in the country by area,² but a subsequent more accurate statement described it as "the smallest sixth class city in the state."⁵

In 1926, the Chamber adopted a new motto on the suggestion of its Secretary, Julius Jorgenson: "Covina–The City of Flowers."⁶ That didn't quite capture the public imagination, though, and gradually everybody reverted to using the old "mile square" phrase, even after 1938 when the city finally started expanding beyond its original city limits.⁷

Then in 1955, the CCoC held yet another contest for yet another new motto, and Mr. Mel Haller won with "Covina–The Country City With Charm, Character and Contentment."⁸ However, that saying never really caught on, either, likely because Covina in the mid-Fifties was rapidly turning into very much the opposite of a "country city."

After that, to the best of my knowledge, Covina never adopted another official motto, and to this day, the only one people really remember is the catchy original "Mile Square And All There." So congratulations and thanks, Mrs. Wolfarth!

References:

¹ Covina Argus, January 20, 1922, p.8.
² Covina Argus, March 17, 1922, p.1.
³ Covina Argus, April 7, 1922, p.6.
⁴ Covina Citizen, March 17, 1932, p.6.
⁵ Covina Argus, May 2, 1930, p.1.
⁶ Covina Argus, May 7, 1926, p.1.
⁷ Pomona Progress-Bulletin, July 22, 1938, p.8.
⁸ Covina Argus-Citizen, May 5, 1955, p.1.