Who would guess that Covina, in its...

Who would guess that Covina, in its heyday as a thriving San Gabriel Valley farming community early in this century, had, according to historians, the highest per-capita automobile ownership in the United States?

And what better opportunity for its residents to show off their horseless carriages than in a Fourth of July motorcade along Citrus Avenue--then and now--Covina’s main street.

A 1908-vintage photograph captures the lively scene against a backdrop of commercial buildings in the center of town that included the San Gabriel Valley Milling Co., a thriving business owned and operated by Lambert L. Ratekin from 1900 well into the 1940s.

Ratekin chose an unpretentious life style and no one knew how wealthy he had become as the major supplier of feed and grain to Covina farmers until his widow willed close to $500,000 in 1954 for the establishment of a Ratekin scholarship at Pomona College.

To date, more than 400 students have benefited from the fund.

The same view of Citrus Avenue today, looking south and west from College Street, shows the San Gabriel Valley Milling Co. building and its original service alley, still in use as the site of a travel agency and a Chinese restaurant.

Roof embellishments that once provided a distinctive facade were deemed too fragile and dangerous to remain following the 1933 Long Beach earthquake.