Out There: Redlands

Stephanie Batson carries a hot tray of sourdough bread from the oven at the Farm Artisan Cuisine restaurant on State Street in downtown Redlands.  (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)

Even the cobblestone curbs on Olive Avenue are a reminder of the old days in Redlands. Ernie Vallicella parked his 1953 Chevy 3100 pickup in front of his friend’s 100-year-old house while doing yard maintenance. Vallicella has been in Redlands for 35 years.  (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)

State Street has seen vacant storefronts -- like this one that had housed a pet shop -- pop up, even as rents have doubled in the last five years.  (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)

Master jeweler Javier Reyna crafts a custom ring at his workbench on the second floor of Emerson & Farrar Fine Jewelry on State Street in Redlands.  (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)

A freight train chugs past an old orange grove in the valley below the 1890 Morey Mansion, now a bed and breakfast. The history of Redlands is anchored in the fruit industry and the railroads that hauled the harvests. Today, most groves are housing tracts and shopping centers.  (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)

Tracks that took residents and their goods from Redlands to anywhere in the nation sit rusting next to the unused passenger station. At one time the town was flush with money from the fruit growing and packing industry.  (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)