La Cañada History: Descanso Gardens Guild prepared for annual Christmas exhibit

Ten Years Ago

The La Cañada Flintridge Tournament of Roses Assn. set up a “floatique” gift center at the Ralphs Fresh Fare market on Foothill at Gould to raise funds for “Cactus Practice,” its 2004 float entry in the Rose Parade. Items for sale included sweat shirts, T-shirts, pins, patches and other unique items depicting the La Cañada Flintridge float.

Twenty Years Ago

The manager of La Cañada’s Pizza Hut was threatened by a knife-wielding robber on a Friday morning in November 1993 as he walked to his vehicle en route to the bank with the store’s deposit. The 30-year-old manager told investigators that he saw the suspect, wearing a black ski mask, walking toward him with a four-inch knife in his hand so he jumped into his vehicle and locked the door. The suspect tried to break the driver’s door window but was unsuccessful. Thwarted, he reportedly fled to a car waiting nearby in an alley.

Thirty Years Ago

It was announced the Jet Propulsion Laboratory was planning a 10-year, $200 million expansion. JPL had commissioned the architectural and urban design firm Archiplan to develop the long range facilities plan for its La Cañada Flintridge campus in a joint venture with Kurt Meyer Partners.

Forty Years Ago

The Descanso Gardens Guild was gearing up for its annual Christmas exhibit, planned for Dec. 1-9, 1973. The event featured holiday displays at the Hospitality House (today known as the Boddy House) and was open to the public free of charge.

Fifty Years Ago

With his immediate family and friends present, an outdoor recreation area at the La Cañada Youth House was dedicated in late November 1963 to the memory of Kenny Lauder, a 13-year-old local youth who had been killed the previous year in a traffic accident. The memorial plan was initiated by the La Cañada Junior Baseball Assn.

Sixty Years Ago

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors gave final approval to the rezoning of about two blocks along Foothill Boulevard at the western gateway to La Cañada so that a proposed shopping center development could proceed between Ocean View Boulevard and Castle Road. The only protest to the move came from the La Cañada Chamber of Commerce, whose spokesman said that the chamber was opposed to the commercial rezoning there because it was a “strip” zoning and would contribute to “shoestring” business development along Foothill.

Compiled from the Valley Sun archives by Carol Cormaci