La Cañada History: Man suffers serious burns after fire breaks out at his Gould Avenue home

Ten Years Ago

More than 350 guests turned out at Descanso Gardens for a special fundraising event themed “A Toast to California,” the eighth annual benefit presented by the 52 members of SEEDS (Supporting Education and Excellence at Descanso). The celebrity auctioneer for the evening gala was KNBC weatherman Fritz Coleman.

Twenty Years Ago

A proposed residential subdivision in the Palm Drive area was the subject of a city study session. Architect Jay Johnson explained the existing R-1, 20,000 (square-feet) zoning would allow developer John Mahli to put eight homes there; he suggested the city consider rezoning it to R-1, 15,000 to allow for 10 new homes.

Thirty Years Ago

MacGregor Realty was completing a major expansion of its Foothill Boulevard offices in La Cañada. The work was being done to accommodate 12 additional agents.

Forty Years Ago

Wiring that apparently overheated touched off an $85,000 blaze that completely gutted a home in the 4800 block of Gould Avenue. The owner, Ted Van Woerkom, who was outdoors when the fire broke out, suffered serious burns when he tried to reenter the home. His was one of the first houses built in that neighborhood.

Fifty Years Ago

The Flintridge Riding Club in June 1968 had the largest entry in the Southern California Exposition’s National Horse Show in Del Mar, having entered 60 horses and paid more than $2,600 in fees. About 1,800 horses were expected to compete in the 12-day event.

Sixty Years Ago

The children at La Cañada Elementary School, their teachers, principal and civic leaders gathered in front of the school’s administration building, which then faced Foothill Boulevard, for the enshrinement of the bell that had tolled in the belfry of the town’s first one-room schoolhouse during the 19th century. The bell had been forgotten in the tower of an old wooden school room that in 1958 was serving as a storage shed. The $450 required for the bell’s new shrine came from the children attending all the local public elementary schools, the PTA and gifts from residents. When LCE’s new campus was built on Encinas Drive about a decade after the shrine was dedicated, the bell was moved there.

Compiled from the Valley Sun archives by Carol Cormaci.