Old Neighbor Remembers

I'll be frank—I don't generally care for oral histories. Reason being, people's memories of past events tend to be embellished or even just plain mistaken; my own being no exception. However, every once in a while, I chance upon an oral account that's really interesting and even compelling in its particulars, and this one—published for the city's 51st anniversary commemoration—is one I believe worthy of historical preservation, in spite of its anonymous authorship. So, with no further ado...

From the Covina Argus of October 18, 1935:

The Hollenbeck Palms

Recently, I added this very early C. W. Tucker photo postcard to my Covina ephemera collection.

Click on the image above to view a clean enlargement.

Although the view looks very different today, and the palms are way taller now, I doubt someone who grew up in Covina would have too much difficulty recognizing where this picture was taken.

But, just in case not, we are looking north on Hollenbeck Avenue from only a few feet north of its intersection with Badillo Street.

And the year? Well, let's play history detective and see what we can come up with!

Covina Past at 100

For this blog's 100th post, I thought a little retrospective might be in order. There've been quite a few changes here at Covina Past since I created this account in 2012. Suffice it to say, it's a very different site now versus what it used to be.