The Official Site of the City of Sierra Madre: Timeline

Roughly 500 A.D.	Tongva Indians, the original inhabitants of the Los Angeles Basin, arrive from the Mojave area. Their name has been translated to mean “People of the Earth”. Their main language is a Uto-Aztecan Shoshonean tongue, displaying roots in the Aztec empire and ancient Mexico.
1500	About 25 Tongva villages exist in what will become Los Angeles County. The population is about 300-500 people.
1769	The first Spanish settlers arrive in the region, encountering an estimated 5,000 Tongva living in 31 villages.
1771	Mission San Gabriel Arcangel is founded in modern-day Montebello, causing the Tongva communities to fall into rapid decline. Many Tongvas were assimilated into mission culture, and the tribe became known as theGabrielinos.
1864	Benjamin (Don Benito) Wilson builds the Mount Wilson Trail with the aid of Mexican and Chinese laborers.
February 1881	Nathaniel Carter purchases the original 1103 acres that comprise Sierra Madre – 845 from “Lucky” Baldwin; 108 from the Southern Pacific Railroad Company; and 150 from Levi Richardson.
1882	First schoolhouse is built – Sierra Madre’s first public building.
October 10, 1882	Sierra Madre Water Company files articles of incorporation as a mutual, non-profit organization.
1882	First burial in Sierra Madre Pioneer Cemetery.
1885	New schoolhouse is built at what is now Kersting Court.
1885	Sierra Madre Cigar Factory established.
1886	Episcopalian Church of the Ascension is built.
July 1886	Sierra Madre Library founded.
1887	Pinney House built on N. Lima Street.
1887	Town Hall is constructed. It houses the original post office, the town’s first grocery store, and Emile Deutsch’s cigar factory, and also serves as a meeting place for a number of religious groups.
1887	Sierra Madre Dramatic Club is formed.
Summer 1887	First library building is completed.
1888	Santa Anita railroad station is built.
1888	Episcopalian Church of the Ascension is rebuilt after original building was destroyed by a windstorm in 1887. It is later registered as a National Landmark in 1971.
March 17, 1888	Publication of The Vista begins, Sierra Madre’s short-lived first newspaper.
1890	Original Congregational Church building is completed; since 1886 the congregation met in the Town Hall and the library.
December 1893	S. R. Norris is appointed as the City’s first postmaster.
April 1894	Now-famous wistaria vine is purchased by Mrs. Brugman from a Monrovia nursery for seventy-five cents.
Summer 1898	Sturtevant’s Camp opens to public.
1900	First street signs are erected, marking 18 streets.
1904:	Nathaniel Carter dies at age 64.
1905	Jewish families in Sierra Madre form the Temple Beth Israel, later to become the Foothill Jewish Community Center.
January 1, 1906	Pacific Electric Railway begins Red Car passenger service to Sierra Madre.
1906	Third schoolhouse is built on West Highland Avenue between Auburn and Hermosa.
Spring 1906	Located at the mouth of the Little Santa Anita Canyon, Carter’s Camp opens.
October 1906	First electric lights in Sierra Madre are installed by Edison Electric Company.
October 11, 1906	The first installment of Sierra Madre News is issued, printed in the home of Mr. R. T. Cowles.
December 1906	First telephones are installed – 250 of them – by the Home Telephone Company of Monrovia.
1907	Baldwin Avenue is paved.
February 2, 1907	First citywide election held; citizens vote 71-25 to officially incorporate Sierra Madre, population 500.
February 20, 1907	Sierra Madre becomes incorporated as a California city. Charles Worthington Jones serves as first mayor.
February 23, 1907	Women’s Club established.
1908	Hoegee’s Camp opens.
1908	First Mt. Wilson Trail Race. (The race was discontinued during WWII and reestablished in 1966.)
July 1, 1909	Woman’s Clubhouse completed.
1910	Sierra Madre Public Library is brought under the domain of the city government.
1910	Construction of the first chapel of St. Rita’s parish, founded by Father Barth in 1908, is completed.
1910	New York filmmaker D. W. Griffith, of the American Biograph Moving Picture Co., begins producing motion pictures in town, using townspeople as extras.
April 1911	First Flower Festival, sponsored annually by the Woman’s Club until they began organizing the Wistaria Fete in the 1920s.
1913	Carter’s Camp is sold and subdivided.
1914	After a long legal battle, the city acquires title to all water rights, lands, and distributing systems of the Baldwin Estate and the Sierra Madre Water Company.
1916	Fern Lodge opens.
January 1, 1917	Sierra Madre makes its first entry in the Pasadena Tournament of Roses parade.
1918	Wistaria grounds open for public viewing. First Wistaria Fete sponsored by the Sierra Madre Chapter of the American Red Cross.
1921	A disastrous bakery fire at Windsor Lane and Montecito Court prompts the official organization of the Sierra Madre Volunteer Fire Department.
1920	First general hospital opened on N. Baldwin by Dr. George Groth and Dr. Mary Groth.
1921	Building begins on the First Church of Christ, Scientist, which has met since 1911 and was officially organized in 1916.
January 1, 1922	Dedication of Bethany Temple, the domed cobblestone church designed and built by nearly-blind Louis D. Corneulle.
1922	St. Rita’s Catholic Church parochial school opens.
1924	Nazarene Church purchases original Congregational Church property on Sierra Madre Blvd. and begins services.
ca. 1925	Sierra Madre Japanese Language School opens at 231 N. Grove St.
1925:	Sierra Madre Masonic Temple (Lodge #408) is dedicated.
1925:	Second St. Rita’s structure is completed, designed by W. J. Schiltz.
January 20, 1928	First official City Hall building formally opens.
1928	Canyon Dam is completed for $68,229.18 by the Los Angeles Country Flood Control District.
1928	The new Congregational Church structure is completed at 170 W. Sierra Madre Ave. The Romanesque Revival building was designed by Marsh, Smith, & Powell.
1928	Gordon MacMillan inaugurated as first Chief of Police, beginning the city’s police system as we know it today.
1928	Sierra Madre Kiwanis Club is established.
July 1929	Sierra Madre Canyon Pool opens. Built by the City with special area taxes, the pool held approximately 175,000 gallons of cold water.
1930	Fourth Sierra Madre Elementary School is built on same W. Highland site. Classes move in on November 28.
1931	Temple Beth Israel purchases land at the corner of Lima and Laurel and acquires a portion of the third Sierra Madre School buildings, which are moved to this site.
1931	Mater Dolorosa Monastery’s first permanent structure is built.
April 21, 1931	First meeting of the Sierra Madre Historical Society takes place, in conjunction with the City’s fiftieth anniversary celebration.
September 1931	British Home opens.
December 1935	City completes spreading grounds and settling basin project; cost $71, 500.
January 8, 1936	A City ordinance officially changes the name of Central Avenue to Sierra Madre Blvd.
1937	Town Hall building is demolished to be replaced by an oil station.
1938	Sierra Madre Arts Guild is established; first meeting is held at Alfred James Dewey’s Old Adobe Studio on East Montecito.
1938	Flood!
1939	City purchases 760 acres of land in San Gabriel Mountains near Orchard Camp to avoid contamination of water supply.
1941	The Great Man’s Lady is filmed at the Pinney House, starring Barbara Stanwyck, Joel McCrea, and Brian Donlevy.
May 14, 1942	The whole of Sierra Madre’s Japanese population is required to depart for the assembly center at Tulare.
1944	Mama Pete’s Nursery School opens at 71 Suffolk Ave.
1944	Sierra Madre Civic Club is founded.
1946	Sierra Madre Lion’s Club is organized.
1947	Sierra Madre Community Nursery School is established. Arnold’s Hardware Store opens. Episcopal Church of the Ascension starts a parish school.
1949	New retreat house is built and dedicated at Mater Dolorosa Monastery.
January 13, 1949	Heaviest recorded local snowfall blankets Sierra Madre, covering the town with 3-4 inches overnight.
January 20, 1949	Sierra Madre Civic Club begins Toy Loan program
June 1949:	First Pioneer Days Parade.
1950	Annals of Early Sierra Madre published by the Sierra Madre Historical Society.
October 6, 1950	Last Pacific Electric train leaves from Sierra Madre.
1951	Sierra Madre Search and Rescue Team established by Larry Shepherd and Fred LaLone.
1952	First Aqua Fair in Sierra Madre Canyon Pool.
1953	Sierra Madre United Methodist Church is established.
1954	Sierra Madre Rose Float Association is founded.
1954	Sierra Mesa School is built on Canon Ave.
1954	Eddy Foy and the Seven Little Foys is filmed at the Pinney House, starring Bob Hope and Milly Vitale.
January 1954	Floods and mudslides tear through Sierra Madre Canyon, damaging hundreds of homes and businesses and depositing up to 8 feet of silt on city streets.
1955	New library facility is constructed, replacing original structure.
1955	Friends of the Library organization is founded.
1956	The Invasion of the Body Snatchers is filmed in town, starring Kevin McCarthy, Dana Wynter, and Larry Gates.
1956	Cobblestone Church demolished to make way for Bethany’s new edifice.
September 1957	Sierra Madre Canyon Pool closes.
1960	Creative Arts Group started.
1961	Sierra Madre joins the Pasadena Unified School District.
1963	First Art Fair held by the Friends of the Library in Memorial Park, with a net profit of $244.
1964	Permanent post office building constructed, after moving among seven different locations since 1882.
1966	Temple Beth Israel closes its Sierra Madre site and joins with the Foothill Jewish Temple-Center, Arcadia.
1967	Sierra Madre Historical Society begins sponsoring annual bus tours of the town’s historical buildings.
1967	Sierra Madre becomes the first city in Southern California to own a wilderness preserve.
1967	Princess Margaret visits the British Home.
1969	The Cultural Heritage Committee is established by the Sierra Madre City Council for the purpose of “defining cultural and aesthetic landmarks throughout the City of Sierra Madre and to recommend how such landmarks be preserved.”
1969	City purchases the Woman’s Clubhouse to serve as the site of a new City Hall building. The Clubhouse is demolished October 15, 1973.
September 27, 1969	Community Recreation Center is dedicated.
January 1970	Dedication of St. Rita’s third structure, designed by John Gougeon, after the second was demolished in 1968.
January 1971	Sierra Madre Environmental Action Council is formed.
1972	Richardson House restoration project begins.
September 27, 1972	The Woman’s Club holds its first meeting in the recently purchased Essick House, built in 1914.
September 1973	Sierra Madre Church of Christ, Scientist votes to disband. The property is subsequently purchased and occupied by the Gloria Dei Evangelical Lutheran Church.
October 27, 1974	Dedication of Bell Tower in Kersting Court. The bell tower houses the school bell from the 1885 schoolhouse.
1975	The newly-restored Richardson House opens for tours.
1976	Alfred Hitchcock films segments of A Family Plot in Sierra Madre Pioneer Cemetery.
1976	Sierra Madre Vistas is published by the Sierra Madre Historical Preservation Society.
March 19, 1976	Bicentennial time capsule is buried beneath flagpole at the new Fire and Police Department Facility, dedicated on May 8.
July 4, 1976	Lizzie’s Trail Inn is dedicated; opens for tours.
1977	New City Hall building dedicated at 232 W. Sierra Madre Blvd.
1979	The Sierra Madre historical 56-patch quilt, sponsored by the library and funded by CSLA, is completed to celebrate the nation’s bicentennial.
February 24, 1980	Dedication of Senior Citizens’ Center Memorial Park House.
1981	Sierra Madre celebrates the centennial of its founding, complete with a Centennial Royal Court and dance, a special Historical Society dinner, and rides on a Pacific Electric red car brought back to town Independence Day weekend.
February 28, 1983	Queen Elizabeth visits the British Home and greets every resident.
June 28, 1991	At 7:43 a.m., Sierra Madre is the epicenter of a 6.0 earthquake.
October 1993	A massive brush fire started in Eaton Canyon ravages the San Gabriel Mountains and threatens homes in Sierra Madre and surrounding foothill communities.
1998	Hotel Shirley in downtown Sierra Madre restored.
April 24, 1999	The Weeping Wall Veterans’ Memorial, designed by Lew Watanabe, is dedicated in Memorial Park.
October 2001	Youth Activity Center dedicated at Sierra Vista Park. Plaque honoring fallen firefighters from 9/11 is installed in front of Fire Station.
July 2003	MTA begins operation of the Gold line from Union Station to Sierra Madre Villa. Sierra Madre expanded local transit service as part of the new operation. Groundbreaking ceremony for the Senior Housing Project on Esperanza Avenue. The affordable housing project includes 46 units designed by PBWS Architects and developed by the Foundation for Quality Housing.
October 11, 2003	Veterans’ Photo Wall, spearheaded by John Grijalva, is dedicated in Memorial Park.
March 2005	Marilyn Diaz is named Sierra Madre Chief of Police, the first female police chief in Los Angeles County.
2007	Sierra Madre celebrates the centennial of its incorporation as a California City. The planning committee, co-chaired by Toni Buckner and Judy Webb-Martin, plans events throughout the year ranging from a gala ball at Alverno Villa to a community picnic at Mater Dolorosa Retreat Center. Sierra Madre wins All-America City Award. The prestigious award is given by the National Civic League.
June 2007	Paramedic service begins. It is funded by the sale of an unused fire station in the canyon. Sierra Madre is the last city in Los Angeles County to provide paramedic service to its residents.
October 2007	The refurbished World War I cannon in Memorial Park dedicated.
March 26, 2008:	Goldberg Park, located at 171 South Sunnyside, is dedicated. It is the City’s first new park in over thirty years. Santa Anita Fire breaks out burning 584 acres north of Sierra Madre.
June 2008	Mt. Wilson Trail Race centennial celebration. The race had been postponed due to fire damage to the trail.
2009	The Sierra Madre Historical Preservation Society publishes Southern California Story: Seeking the Better Life in Sierra Madre by Michele Zack.