Favorite Places : CLAREMONT VILLAGE

“I used to come almost every day to do homework in the coffee shops. It’s fun to look down the street-- there’s a ‘50s-looking grill, then a barber shop, then next to it the folk music store. It’s a creative place. People seem to be expressing themselves, building their own little businesses. It’s a quiet town that seems almost surreal sometimes. You can look up and see snowcapped mountains. It’s so different from the Midwest where I grew up. When I got off the plane from Minneapolis last vacation, it was 80 degrees warmer!”

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Claremont Village began in 1887 as a depot for shipping citrus by rail. Today it’s a college town known as the “Oxford of the Orange Belt” because of the highly regarded Claremont Colleges of Pomona, Harvey Mudd, Claremont McKenna, Pitzer, Scripps and Claremont Graduate School. The village was redesigned to encourage walking, sitting and people watching. The village is located about 35 miles east of Downtown, north of the I-10 freeway. Metrolink serves the Spanish Colonial Revival train depot weekdays; buses operate daily. For information, call (909) 624-1681.

Favorite Places columnist Jane Spiller welcomes suggestions for places that are publicly accessible and free. Contact her c/o Voices.