La Cañada History: Resident sets up animated Christmas panorama; new traffic signal installed

Ten Years Ago

Caltrans began installing a new $275,000 traffic signal at the intersection of Angeles Crest Highway and Starlight Crest Drive near the La Cañada Flintridge Country Club. One of the benefits of a signal there, according to a Caltrans official, would be that drivers traveling southbound on the highway would be able to make a left turn onto Starlight Crest more safely.

Twenty Years Ago

A five-suite, one-story office complex was being built where for decades the Brezean Ceramics business had stood in the 1000 block of Foothill Boulevard. The target date for completion was the spring of 1996.

Thirty Years Ago

Conservative Republican Mike Antonovich, then 46, said in December 1985 he would mount a campaign for the seat held by U.S. Sen. Alan Cranston, a Democrat. Antonovich was in his second term as Los Angeles County supervisor for the fifth district. (This year he announced he’ll seek the state Senate seat occupied by Carol Liu (D-La Cañada Flintridge)).

Forty Years Ago

As had become a neighborhood tradition, a charming animated Christmas scene hearkening to the 19th century was set up in the frontyard of the J. Reese Lewis home on Santa Inez Way. The original 10-foot by 16-foot panorama scene took Lewis more than 2,000 hours to complete and he added small improvements to it each year. In a 1969 interview, he told a reporter that people would knock on the family’s door to thank him for the pleasure he had provided them.

Fifty Years Ago

For the first time since the school first opened in 1963, it was announced that a department chairman plan had been put in place at La Cañada High School. Principal Richard Campion named the new department heads: Carolyn Smith; business education; Margaret Hamilton, English; Jackie Thornton, foreign language; Douglas Coe, fine arts; Fred Hansen, mathematics; Thomas Wilson, social science; Philip Gross, science; Sharon Crosson, girls’ physical education and Richard Caneday, boys’ physical education.

Sixty Years Ago

A 30-year-old La Cañada resident was given a 180-day jail sentence on a burglary charge after he admitted taking $9.91 in coins from a TB Christmas seal dispensary at the La Cañada post office.

Compiled from the Valley Sun archives by Carol Cormaci.