ATTENTION LOCAL HISTORY BUFFS!
HISTORIC LOS ANGELES ROADSIDES: Get your motor running and head out on LA’s iconic roadways (nope, not freeways). The open road is liberating, the anticipation of adventure at every turn. Historic Los Angeles Roadsides will steer you to towns and attractions along classic roadways. Step back in time on Route 66, which zigzags through 31 towns from Claremont to Santa Monica. Admire 19th-century architecture in Pasadena, get the scoop on Hollywood history, see the site of a murder-suicide in the Greystone Mansion in Beverly Hills, and walk in the steps of LA’s founders downtown.
You’ll soak up more than ocean views and sunshine as you cruise along Pacific Coast Highway. Take a stroll on the Redondo Beach Pier, channel your inner Zen at the Self-Realization Fellowship Lake Shrine in Pacific Palisades and visit the historic Adamson House in Malibu. The curving, scenic roadways in the Santa Monica Mountains lead to historical ranches along Mulholland Highway, the enchanting Topanga Canyon, and Laurel Canyon, a wild rock and roll scene in the 1960s.
Join journalist and Los Angeles native Mimi Slawoff on a tour of LA’s historical and whimsical roadside attractions along iconic roadways in these California beach towns, mountains, valleys, and deserts.
TEMPLE CITY: Donna Georgino explores the history of Temple City. using photographs from the town’s Historical Society.
When Walter P. Temple’s oldest son, nine-year-old Thomas, discovered oil on the family’s property in the Montebello Hills, Temple used his newfound wealth to purchase 285 acres of the Rancho San Francisquito. Temple, along with his associates Milton Kauffman, George Woodruff, and Sylvester Dupuy, established the Temple Townsite Company in 1923 and began selling plots of land designed to form a new community for the middle class. With a park, a church, a central business district, and an extension of the Pacific Electric Red Car line, the town of Temple soon became a thriving community. In 1928, the town of Temple changed its name to Temple City to avoid confusion at the post office. In 1944, the Woman’s Club initiated the Camellia Festival, an event that is still celebrated today.
Author Donna Georgino grew up in Temple City, attended Temple City schools, and currently serves as the president of the Historical Society of Temple City. The historical society was formed in 1987 by longtime residents interested in preserving Temple City’s history. In 2006, the Woman’s Club gifted/deeded its building on the corner of Kauffman and Woodruff Avenues to the society as a permanent home for the museum.