Time Capsule Tuesday: A Photo of the Homestead, La Puente and the Future City of Industry, circa 1940

by Paul R. Spitzzeri

This week’s installment of “Time Capsule Tuesday” highlights another great photograph showing areas of what became the City of Industry, this one dating to about 1940.

In October of that year, the Homestead, which had been owned by the Bank of California since it foreclosed on Walter Temple and took possession in summer 1932, was sold to Harry and Lois Brown of Monrovia.  The Browns opened El Encanto Sanitarium and likely had this and other aerial photographs taken as part of their efforts to promote the institution.

Taken from about the intersection of Turnbull Canyon Road (then 10th Street) and Don Julian Road, which only existed west of 10th at the time, the view takes in most of the 92-acre Homestead and then provides a sweeping panorama of areas eastward.

With respect to the Homestead, the northern boundary is clearly defined by the rows of walnut trees that surrounded the historic structures and cemetery, with those trees also extending to the eastern boundary at Hudson Road, later renamed Hacienda Boulevard.  About where the airplane was located would have been the western line at 10th Street, while the southern boundary was San José Creek, just outside of the right edge of the image.

Both main driveways to the property are clearly made out, with the northern road heading left of center out towards Valley Boulevard and what the Temples called “Evergreen Lane” because of deodar trees that lined the road coming in from 10th.  The Workman House, La Casa Nueva, and Water Tower, which all survive, are in view, as are two of three buildings constructed as wineries by William Workman in the mid-1860s.  Towards the right center edge of the photo is El Campo Santo Cemetery, which has existed for over 160 years.

The sanitarium operated in the existing ranch buildings from 1940 to the mid-1960s, when a new, modern facility opened just to the left of La Casa Nueva and the Workman House and the institution, now El Encanto Health Care and Habilitation Center, abuts that northern boundary of the ranch.  Meanwhile, other portions of the ranch are now commercial buildings within the City of Industry.

As to areas further to the east, a significant portion of La Puente, known from its 1885 founding as “Puente” until the city incorporated in 1956, is towards the upper left of the photograph along with much of what was known as Puente (or “P”) Hill.  Outside of the small town, however, most of the land was devoted to farming and ranching, including the Ferraro property on the east side of Hudson and south of Valley, where there were quite a few buildings.

Running from the left center edge towards the top right and curving gently as it paralleled the Southern Pacific railroad track is Valley Boulevard, the oldest route through the region.  Called as early as the 1850s the Colorado Road, because it linked with other roads to take travelers to the Colorado River at the California-Arizona state lines, the route was used by early migrants such as the Workmans and Rowlands when they arrived here via the Old Spanish Trail, the Pony Express, and the Butterfield Stage, among others.

Many sections along Valley today fall within the City of Industry, as well as the City of La Puente and unincorporated county areas as the road extends east towards West Covina, Walnut, and Pomona.

Check back next Tuesday for the next installment in the “Time Capsule Tuesday” series.