Pondering The Truth Of Where I Really Grew Up

As far back as I can remember, my parents kept informing me that the tract of homes I grew up in was the original "Eastview". Well, they and I were not correct. In fact, we were 180 degrees off!

The first photo was taken in 1950 and shows my home and about 214 others in what was the first tract of homes built on the west side of Western Avenue.

The second photo is from Google Earth and you can sure tell times and things have changed.


An Article from The News Pilot dated May 4, 1950:

Harbor Area Project Includes 215 Houses

Two Hundred and fifteen new homes are being erected in county territory above Peck Park as the harbor area continues its residential building boom.

The dwellings, known as Western View Homes, are being constructed by Shinn-Worzburger Building Corp. of Los Angeles.

Two Hundred of the structures are two-bedroom homes with attached garages, while the other 15 are three-bedroom houses with detached two-car garages.

The Price range of the smaller structures is $7200 to $7650. The three-bedroom houses are being offered for $8950.

Forty of the dwellings have been completed and several families already have moved into the project. Pioneer families in the area include those of M.O. O'Brion, James J. Prendergast, R. A. Marcoux and F.T. Veazey.

Three new streets have been created by the project-Highmore Ave., Jaybrook Dr. and Homeworth Dr.

The Shinn-Wurzburger firm built 55 new houses in Walteria in 1948 and has also done large-scale housing construction at Hawthorne, Monrovia, Arcadia and Fontana and in the San Fernando Valley.

The Western View project was started last December. One hundred homes are expected to be completed before the end of this month.
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My dad told me he signed papers for his home while it was still only a foundation with wood framing on top.

When the house was finished, he and my grandmother moved into the brand new home with my mother joining them when my parents married.

Our home and yards look quite different now. Our house is pictured as the fifth house above Western Avenue on the left side of Trudie. The first house above Western has a Highmore address.

Our house has sort of a gray shading on its side and the two poles behind it basically define the area of our back yard.

No retaining walls, fences, or patio structure exist in the photo.

Thanks to Mr. Fred Crawford for supplying me with the photo and article.

Now for what the area looks like today, see the photo below.

As you can see, there are quite a few more vehicles visible along Western Avenue.

Long gone is the Channel Heights housing project with its apartments and market in the foreground of the older photo.

Of the 215 original homes first purchased at Western View Homes, only the home of Mr. and Mrs Graham has original buyers, to the best of my knowledge. Boy, they have seen a whole lot of change!