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Building Suburbia: 1960

Here we have some road construction taking place in an unknown Southern California town. This photo was taken in June 1960. Scanned from the Kodachrome slide. View full size.

Here we have some road construction taking place in an unknown Southern California town. This photo was taken in June 1960. Scanned from the Kodachrome slide. View full size.

On Shorpy:
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Cross Street Named

The name of the cross street in front of Rexall Drugs was Imperial Avenue; it's since been changed to Lemon Grove Avenue.

Yep! There she is!

I found this site by searching for an image of the old Mayfair Market that used to be on Broadway in Lemon Grove. Well, there it is on the right! Now if I could just remember what the cross street there is.

The green-fronted drugstore on the street corner is Haizlip's Pharmacy, which may still be there. Rexall Drug was across the street at the time. On the left catercorner from Haizlip's is Southland Savings and Loan, later Imperial Savings and Loan, then -- after the S&L wipeout -- Household Bank. Now, after the Financial Meltdown, that's gone too! Come to think of it, I haven't any idea what's there now. Maybe it's a Union Bank.

I think the vantage point of the photographer may have been the intersection of Broadway (which street we're looking eastward along) and Massachusetts Avenue. I'm not sure though. I'll go take a gander at the old neighborhood and report back.

Wings

That '59 Chevy is actually a Bel Air two-door sedan.

Trading Stamps

1960 S&H Green Stamps sign on Mayfair Market front. 1905 sign here.

Tall Antennas

Lemon Grove was set down in a little valley so the TV reception sucked. So yes, those high antennas were needed. In the early Sixties the only local stations were 6 (Mexican, Independent), 8 (CBS) and 10 (NBC).

But with a decent rotating antenna you could pick up all the LA stations. Channels 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 11 and 13 -- more choice than almost anywhere else at the time.

Wings

And, the closest parked car, a full profile of a 1959 Chevy Impala.

re: Another View

Also, a Renault and a Fiat Multipla.

Another view

Here's a close-up of the shops on the left from a different photo:

Lemon Grove, sure enough, looking east

I found my 1958 City Directory but it is lacking the suburban cross street index section that my older volumes have. Nevertheless, the Southland Savings and Loan Assn. branch seen here at left was at 7800 Broadway in Lemon Grove, the northeast corner of the intersection with Lemon Grove Boulevard. So we are looking east, not west, as I first thought. The 7700 block, between Harvey's Cafe Venezia at 7664 and the Southland Savings at 7800, is unusually short, allowing the compressed juxtaposition of addresses seen here. That makes the hillside in the distance part of the western slope of Mount Helix, a pricy enclave of view lots and conservative voters, just out of view in this image.

Safety first?

They thought so, I'm sure, yet they are getting the work done with no hard hats, no reflective safety vests that are all the current craze and no cones and things as others have noted. Absolutely AMAZING.

I LOVE scenes like these. They capture so, so much and bring back a flood of memories. I was only just shy of three years old when this was taken, and I was in Florida at the time, but so much of what I see reflects what I saw and am familiar with until at least the mid- to late-60s.

Thanks for the memories, as always!!! --RJ--

Danger! construction ahead!

My firs reaction was how the citizen drivers were supposed to just drive around the construction without the help of K-rails, cones, or other blockades to keep them (and the road workers) safe. Different times, I haven't seen as much as a survey party on the street in Southern California without some kind of isolating protection.

Tall TV Antennas

Where ever this is in the San Diego area a lot of folk must have been trying for the Los Angeles TV stations judging by the size of those antenna masts.

Mayfair Market

7667 Broadway, now Joann Fabrics.

Almost went to work for the Lemon Grove School District but the state budget crisis put a damper on that.

Somewhere in San Diego County

All of the chain stores seen in this photo were operating in several locales around San Diego County in 1960: Mayfair Market, First National Bank, Southland Savings & Loan, Rexall Drugs, even Top's Cleaners. The big piece of road equipment bears the name of Daley Corporation, which was a big-project road construction company owned in San Diego. This large divided boulevard and its buildings were not very new in 1960, but I can't quite place the locale of one of the region's major traffic streets in relation to the low hill in the distance, which tells me more where this isn't than where it is. Might be El Cajon Boulevard looking east from past College Avenue in East San Diego. Might be up in Vista, CA. And, Broadway in Lemon Grove, looking west, is actually a kind of a good possibility, but I can't confirm this combination of businesses along that street without my 1958 City Directory, and I can't lay my hands on that until tomorrow. Stay tuned.

Lemon Grove

LG's just southwest of La Mesa, about 8-10 miles east of San Diego. Much has changed there in 50 years. The elevated land in the distance looking east is Golden Avenue, above the Catholic church. The curving Art Deco building above the man in the checked shirt is Starbuck's; I drove past that block this morning.

He__'s Club Venezia

Maybe someone can get a better idea of what that is. I was going for Henry's but I don't think that's right. There's the ACE Automotive on the left and ___thland (Northland?) _ings (Wings? Savings?) just down the block.

[Harvey's Club Venezia. Southland Savings. - Dave]

Well, in that case ...

HARVEY'S Club Venezia
Choice Steaks - Sea Foods Cocktails
Lunches Served Daily
1 1 :00 A.M. till 2 :00 P.M.
Phone HO 9-6344
7664 Broadway, Lemon Grove, Calif.

Police and peace officers' journal of the State of California (Dec. 1957 - Mar. 1959)

Which puts it right here ...


View Larger Map

A 1960 Pontiac Catalina

is memorialized for posterity in the immediate foreground.

[Pontiac Bonneville. - Dave]

My Guess

Broadway in Lemon Grove.

Could be anywhere in So. Cal

And it's driving me NUTS!! Love the old stores like Mayfair Market and Rexall Drugs. There is one for Diego Market, maybe it's in the San Diego area, but we may never know. Old timers, shake those cobwebs out of your memory cases and figure out where exactly this is!! (tterrace, it is NOT Larkspur)

[Sign is for the Don Diego Market. - Dave]

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