Mike Vercillo added this bit of information about Arcadia’s Pastoral Scene: “I love this picture. It is the area that currently encompasses my street of Santa Maria Road. The sheep to the right of the picture are drinking from a stream bed, which later becomes the County flood control wash that borders my street on the east. When we moved in fifty years ago, I was told this story from one of my neighbors, who originally settled in this area. Old maps and pictures like this, lend confirmation to his story. Eventually, when the Santa Fe Railroad came through, he told me that hobos hung out under the trees, which are to the left of the photo. They had shelter, water and transportation whenever they wanted to hop a train west to Los Angeles or east to an Bernardino. Indeed, as we started changing out some of our backyard landscaping, we found broken glass and rusted out tin cans, which lent additional confirmation to his story. The hill rising up to the left (west) became Oakhurst Lane, which when we first moved in was a dirt driveway, where they sold orchids. My kids used to play on the stretch of land that eventually became the 210 Freeway.
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Carol Libby and Karen Hou
Carol Libby & Karen Hou
Arcadia Historical Society