Citrus Industry Ephemera

Some of my first Covina collectibles were orange box labels that I purchased around 1978 at Dick's Antiques next to the Covina Theatre. They were so new-looking at the time, though, that I assumed they were reproductions, but I now know they are all genuine—they only looked new because they were never used. What I didn't have until just this past week was a citrus label that had actually done service and been carefully removed from its box and preserved.

This PREFERRED label is said to date to c.1918. The PREFERRED that I bought almost 50 years ago (which lacks the Sunkist trademark) is from the 1930s.¹

The Covina Orange Growers Association was organized in 1899,² and was disestablished in 1953.³

Another recent acquisition is this stock certificate from the Covina Citrus Association, which was in operation from 1895-1955.^4,5 These are actually fairly common, but this particular specimen is in exceptionally nice condition, and is also signed by one of the early pillars of the Covina citrus industry, Herbert Elmanson Chesebro (1864-1951).^6,7

Edgewood Freshman High School

Most locals rightly associate Edgewood High School with West Covina, but few today remember that its original home was actually in Covina.

Edgewood High School was established in 1958 at old Covina High.

By 1957, the Covina Union High School District was bursting at the seams. Not one, not two, but three new high schools were needed to keep up with surging enrollments.¹ Covina High had moved to its new home on Hollenbeck Avenue in 1956,² but the district already needed two more secondary schools to serve Covina: one for Charter Oak, and another in the northern and western portions of the growing community.¹ Likewise, West Covina got its first high school campus in 1957,³ but it too opened at capacity, and a second one was needed ASAP.¹