Back to the Stone Age : Bolton Hall tells Tujunga’s history. McGroarty Arts Center displays work by students, teachers and professionals

Taking a trip back to the Stone Age is easier than you think. It doesn’t require a time machine, rather a quick trip to Sunland-Tujunga, where about 200 homes are fashioned from stones gathered from the Tujunga Wash and local fields and hillsides.

This tour targets two of the larger, well-known buildings--Bolton Hall, built in 1913, and the McGroarty Arts Center, constructed in 1923 as the home of Rep. John Steven McGroarty, a Democrat. Bolton Hall was built as a meeting house by the Little Landers, a settlement and social movement that believed in self-sufficiency through farming. Little Landers founder William Smythe named the hall after a writer friend.

1 p.m.: Three stone homes along the route to Bolton Hall make a good prologue to this tour. Begin at 10620 Samoa St., near the corner of Summitrose Street. Built in 1923 of local rock and field stone, the two-story structure has a curious past.

Elmer Reavis, a blind man, built the house himself. No doubt he chose the box architectural style to simplify construction. “He used a system of pulleys and ropes,” said Mary Lou Pozzo, vice president and librarian of the Sunland-Tujunga Little Landers Historical Society. “And I’m told he hoisted a 1,500-pound stone above the fireplace using that same system.”

Drive west on Summitrose for four blocks and turn right on Tujunga Canyon Boulevard. Within the next block, look for 10428, the Livingston home. It was built by the father of Chan Livingston, 94, who was present at Bolton’s opening in 1913 and is a member of the Little Landers Historical Society. Built in 1923, the house features a stone veranda, stone columns and a fortress-like roof.

Farther south at 10217 Tujunga Canyon Blvd. (at the intersection of Valmont Street), a scaled-down replica of Ireland’s Blarney Castle guards the corner. Built in the early 1920s, the building was the home of Virginia Smith, a local physician. The cement tower on the north side of the house was added in the 1950s.

1:30 p.m.: To find Bolton Hall, turn left on Valmont, head east for two blocks and turn left on Commerce Avenue. You’ll spot the museum on the right. As you enter the front door, look for a tobacco-stained stone that juts out from the wall on your right. It was used by early colonists to clean out their pipes when the building was used as a church, one of its many incarnations.

Inside, you’ll find a main meeting room wreathed with exhibits showcasing Tujunga’s early history, as well as Indian artifacts that go back 10,000 years. Metate stones, used for grinding corn, are displayed, along with woven mats used by the Gabrielino tribe.

Dozens of items from Tujunga’s early days as a city (it was incorporated in 1926) are also here: A fireman’s hat, police badge, city ledger, a gavel used at Bolton Hall town meetings and, even older, an 1890 tin of Sunland Olive Oil. Many photographs of Tujunga families are posted and, not to be missed--a yellowed copy of the Tujunga city song: “Tujunga--See What You’ve Done for Me,” written in the 1950s.

Of special note is a 1913 photograph of a determined farmer standing in front of Bolton Hall. He’s pictured tending his struggling bean fields amid Tujunga’s Godforsaken soil, which is known for pushing an endless quarry of stones to the surface.

Also on display are kitchenware from the 1800s and early 1900s and wood carvings by William Nicholson, an early grocer in the area. Tools used by George Harris, a self-described “nature builder,” an architect who preferred using natural materials in his creations (which included Bolton Hall), also are featured.

Harris’ structure “is built to stand for ages,” reads a 1913 article from the Los Angeles Tribune. Indeed, Bolton Hall weathered the 1971 Sylmar and recent Northridge earthquakes without a crack. The building had been closed for earthquake retrofitting over the past two years, reopening in March.

Examples of Harris’ tools include trowels, a hammer, nails and an old wheelbarrow. The rough-hewn benches and tables scattered about the room are also Harris’ work. Look for his signature brand, an encircled “GH” etched into the edge of his work. Harris also built the immense stone fireplace that is the room’s centerpiece, along with a 10-foot-long mantel, beneath which Harris inscribed: “To the Spiritual Life of the Soil.”

Other interesting highlights include a tiny jail cell, (“It housed mostly drunks--no murderers,” Pozzo said), now used as storage for bound volumes of the Foothill Leader newspaper dating to 1933. A library near the cell houses dozens of California books dating to the 1890s, covering such subjects as costumes, textiles, historical homes, antiques and agriculture. A gift shop sells Bolton Hall T-shirts, books that detail the area’s history, genealogy kits, postcards and tapes of the Tujunga city song, sung by local musician Ralph Younger.

3 p.m.: McGroarty Arts Center is about one mile from Bolton Hall. Drive west on Valmont Street to Plainview Avenue; turn left and travel about half a mile until the road turns into McGroarty Terrace. Follow the road around the park and turn right up a steep driveway to the center.

The center’s main room is used for piano lessons. Off the living room is an art gallery that features work by students, instructors and professionals associated with the center’s art programs.

To see McGroarty’s study, you need to make an appointment. The upstairs room was restored and dedicated in 1974 as the John Steven McGroarty Memorial Archive-Library. McGroarty was named California’s poet laureate in 1933, and he worked for 40 years as a journalist for the Los Angeles Times. On display are a 200-year-old hand-carved chest, a hat and sword of the order of St. Gregory that were gifts from Pope Pius XI, McGroarty’s books and a first-prize silver cup won for his float in the 1922 Pasadena Tournament of Roses Parade. McGroarty wrote 11 books and seven plays, and was most known for his Mission Play, which depicted early California history. He died in 1944.

The room is now used by various civic groups, including the McGroarty Writers Circle, which occasionally gives readings at the center. A wide range of classes are also held, including ones in ceramics, painting, watercolor, drawing, piano, tai chi , stitchery, dance and Chinese brush painting.

WHERE AND WHEN

What: McGroarty Arts Center, 7570 McGroarty Terrace, Tujunga.

Hours: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays and Fridays, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesdays through Thursdays.

Call: (818) 352-5285.

What: Bolton Hall, 10110 Commerce Ave., Tujunga.

Hours: 1 to 4 p.m. Tuesdays and Sundays.

Call: (818) 352-3420.