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La Cañada History: Storm floods Oak Grove Park baseball field

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Ten Years Ago

The Wall Street Journal reported that the real estate market in La Cañada Flintridge was one of the hottest in the nation, having seen a 23.4% increase in values during 2002 over the previous year.

Twenty Years Ago

City planning officials were given a look at a plan that would bring an eight-screen United Artists movie theater to La Cañada, to be built on the site of the former J. Craig Chevrolet dealership at 1919 Verdugo Blvd.

The developer was Gary Zentmyer.

Thirty Years Ago

Gilbert H. Smith, beloved by many in the community, especially the children he coached and cheered on as the director of the Youth House, died at the age of 77. Known around town as “Smitty,” he had been a recreation leader since 1933 and was considered to be the father of La Cañada Junior Baseball Assn.

Forty Years Ago

Oak Grove Park across the street from La Cañada High School was under water, flooded by a fierce storm that dropped 5 1/2 inches of rain on the weekend of Feb. 10 and 11, 1973. On the opposite side of town, residents in the upper Ocean View Boulevard neighborhood of Paradise Valley were digging out from mudslides.

Fifty Years Ago

Community members were asked to make suggestions to name the town’s new intermediate school, which would open at the same site operated for years as La Cañada Junior High. The new school, which was scheduled to open in the fall of 1963, would serve sixth, seventh and eighth grades. Among names proposed for what eventually became Foothill Intermediate School were “Lanterman School,” after the pioneering family, and “Rafferty Tech,” a nod to the controversial superintendent of schools, Max Rafferty.

Sixty Years Ago

Bank of America announced it had received a charter that would allow it to operate a branch in La Cañada.

The news was welcomed by local business and civic leaders, as all banking at that time had to be done outside of the community, with the closest banks in Glendale, Montrose and Pasadena.

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Compiled from the Valley Sun archives by Carol Cormaci.

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