Compromise Line Road

I hope my dozen or so regular readers will pardon me if I write about someplace other than Covina just once. ;-)

Although I was born and raised in Covina, I lived my first five years on East Foothill Boulevard in Glendora, so consequently, the history of our neighbor to the north is a natural area of interest to me.

The subject is not far out of bounds geographically, either, as both Covina and Glendora share partial origins in a historical Mexican land grant called Rancho San José Adición (aka Rancho Addition to San Jose) which just happens to be the broader topic of this article. Most of Covina's Charter Oak neighborhood lies within Adición's borders, so I'm not really straying too far afield here.

Anyway, even as a child, I had a keen interest in roads and maps which really took off after I discovered my dad's Renie Atlas around age 12 (same time as my interest in Covina history, hmm!). Probably not long after that, the name of one street in particular from my Glendora years aroused my curiosity: "Compromise Line Road." Always wondered what that meant. Somewhere in my early readings of local history, I did learn that it involved a dispute over a northern boundary of Rancho Addition to San Jose, but I never could find out much more than that.

Compromise Line Road in Glendora. Source: Renie Atlas of Los Angeles City and County, 1965 edition.

Recently I was contacted by an old classmate who asked about Compromise Line, and desiring to know more than the basics I'd heard long ago, I decided to do a deep-dive into the subject. Obvious first stop reference-wise was Donald Pflueger's Glendora (1951), but unfortunately his mention of Compromise Line Road was so nonspecific as to be no help at all. Then I searched the newspaper archive, and that was a similar dead-end.

But really, what better source for explaining a line on a map than a map itself? And what's the best source for historical local maps? The Huntington Digital Library, of course (for free ones, anyway). So a quick search there, and immediately I got a relevant hit, one entitled:

MAP
showing the County Road along the Compromise line of the Rancho Addition
to San Jose, and Roads Contiguous there-to;
Los Angeles County, Calif.
Surveyed by Harry T. Stafford,      
County Surveyor,   
March 1891.¹
Exactly what I was hoping to find!

The Stafford Map of Compromise Line Road, 1891.¹
Source: The Huntington Digital Library, San Marino, CA. Click on the image above to view an enlargement. Link to full-res image.

Unfortunately, the Stafford map doesn't have an explanatory legend, but the creation of the compromise line is plain enough to discern simply by examining the cartographic details.

Let's start with the boundaries of San José Adición itself. Historical rancho boundaries were typically defined by physical features of the land: trees, boulders, hills, streams, promontories, what have you. These markers were called "stations" by surveyors. In the case of Adición, its "Station 1" was an ancient tree known locally as "El Encino del Tenaja,"² or the "Jar Oak." It was actually the point of intersection of three land grants: Rancho La Puente, Rancho San José, and San José Adición. But I digress. Thence following Adición's patented (legally-defined) boundary clockwise from the Tenaja oak, we eventually come to its northernmost Station 4. And, as the Stafford map makes clear, here we can see the precise point of dispute.

Detail of The Stafford Map of Compromise Line Road, 1891.¹ Source: The Huntington Digital Library, San Marino, CA. Link to full-res image.

Note above that there are two different points on the map labeled “Sta. 4 Rancho Add. San Jose,” and both of them have reverse question marks before the “Sta. 4.” This indicates there was disagreement about which of those natural features was the “real” Station 4. Was it the "Black Oak" (which defined the patented boundary line), or the "Mound" to the south of that? Although it's not known who insisted the Mound was the actual Station 4, it was obviously enough of a point of contention that a cartographic compromise had to be devised. The solution was straightforward: the surveyor simply measured the distance between the two disputed stations, and then fixed a point 4.75 chains^* precisely equidistant from each.

Detail of The Stafford Map of Compromise Line Road, 1891.¹ Source: The Huntington Digital Library, San Marino, CA. Link to full-res image.

Then, from that midpoint, a new mete was extended easterly to Adición's Station 5—another old tree known as the Botello Oak—and the now-legendary compromise line of the San José Adición was born.

Detail of The Stafford Map of Compromise Line Road, 1891,¹ showing the location of the Botello Oak.
Source: The Huntington Digital Library, San Marino, CA. Link to full-res image.

So, now that we know the true and correct cartographic basis for the compromise, what was it really all about? Was it about drawing a new northern boundary for San José Adición? I tend to think not, because on cadastral maps from later decades, the original northern boundary of Adición remains in its patented location, some distance to the north of Compromise Line Road, as can be seen below.

County Map of Glendora, 1926 (detail). Prior to 1929, Compromise Line Road, so-named, extended from Valley Center to its intersection with Foothill Blvd.
Source: UCLA Library, Henry J. Bruman Map Collection.

Consequently, I'm inclined to believe that the compromise line was actually created by the county to determine exactly where to place the road itself. If the adjacent landowners disagreed about the location of Adición Station 4, a road built along either line connecting the respective Station 4s to Station 5 would severely encroach onto one or the other's land. In that case, the only really fair thing to do would be to build the road halfway between the two disputed points such that each adjacent landowner would be made to suffer a precisely equal encroachment onto their claimed lands.

Even if that explanation were true, though, it would only be a partial one. The Stafford map only answers "how" and "where" the line was created, not the "who" or "when" of it, and without knowing those latter specifics, the broader and more important question of "why" remains unanswered. But at least now I believe the exact basis for the cartographic compromise itself has been satisfactorily demonstrated.

Excavation for the widening and realignment of Alosta Avenue in 1928 removed all traces of the Adición's disputed Station 4 "Mound."
Source: U. C. Santa Barbara Library, Geospatial Collection.

Perhaps someone with way more knowledge of Glendora history than me can place these new findings on a timeline, and find out exactly who the disputing parties were, too. Here's hoping we can soon solve this local mystery once and for all!

Returning to Covina, my discovery of the Stafford map was by no means my most important find on the Huntington Library website that night. I found a document only minutes later that had me picking my jaw up off the floor. It's a catalog item that I had to order, so I haven't had the opportunity to read it yet, but if it turns out to be what I suspect it is, almost the entirety of Covina's Hollenbeck-era of history may have to be rewritten. Stay tuned, because this could be a real historical blockbuster!

References/Notes:

¹ "Map showing the County Road along the Compromise line of the Rancho Addition to San Jose, and Roads contiguous there-to; Los Angeles County, Calif." Harry T. Stafford, County Surveyor, March 1891.
² "Map of the exterior boundaries & official locations of Ranchos San Jose, Addition to San Jose & Azusa." Compiled by G. H. Thompson, C.E. & Surveyor, April, 1877.
^*1 chain = 22 yards or 66 feet.