Los Angeles County CA Archives History - Books .....Introduction 1927 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ca/cafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 July 7, 2009, 6:09 pm Book Title: History Of Monrovia INTRODUCTION MONROVIA lies in beauty upon the mountain slope. By its founders it was styled "The Gem of the Foothills." From the verdure of its surroundings, it might be likened unto a diamond set in emeralds, for its climate of eternal summer holds in its magic spell the glory of a changeless green. Great oaks, seemingly as immutable as the mountains, slumber on through the centuries, granting welcome shade to man and beast who run the shorter cycle of their lives beneath them. Monrovia was born upon the foothills, but the growing child has stretched its legs into the valley and extended its arms up the mountain sides. At a distance it looks like a city hid in a forest. The huge native oaks, the multitude of pepper trees and the remaining orchards of citrus conceal the numerous homes that are sheltered beneath their protecting boughs. The gradual engineering of the landscape gardener has reduced the inequalities of the foothill slope, which in its native state was covered with brush and boulder, and it now presents a level surface which rises by easy grades from the valley to the mountain's base. This beveled edge of nature is suffused with a luxurious vegetation, which leaps spontaneously from the unexcelled fertility of granite mould which time has ground between the millstones of a tropical sun and seasonable rains. Flowers of every hue, tint, and shade blossom in a jungle of foliage plants, bush, and vine. The flower beds of the world have been requisitioned to produce this array of brilliant floral effects. The commerce of the founders is still evidenced in the many orange orchards that continue to flourish within the city, and it will be a matter of regret when these are crowded out by the ever swelling numbers of increasing population. The glory of their presence is felt the year 'round as the light wings of zephyr carry the matchless flavor of their delicious bouquet throughout the city. Orange culture enjoys a distinction not shared by many fruits. Some of the trees at the same time will bear the flower, the green and immature fruit and the golden apple ready for the market upon the same limb. While this is not a universal trait of the orange tree, it is by no means a rare exception. But the orchard is in the full glory of its being when it is flushed with its riot of waxen blossoms. No tree has a flower so beautiful, and no bud issues forth a perfume so delightful as this little blossom of lily white purity and delectable fragrance. A number of orchards of varying sizes to ten acres or more still exist, but they are yearly yielding to the subdivider, and in time this extended stretch of citrus groves will be reduced to a casual tree or two in the back yard, to mark the little kingdom that was. To see Monrovia in the full flower of her beauty, to see the mountains in the splendor of their many sided grandeur, and to see the valley in the loveliness of its placid lines, one may choose any of the many clear days of the year and view them from the vantage ground of Gold Hill or like eminence. From such a point, the Sierra Madres raise their lofty forms around you in a crescent of impressive magnitude. They arise in the east, and these mighty monoliths of granite extend in a semicircular sweep to the north and west. Between them and the mesa upon which you stand, are intervening valleys and canyons. You are sufficiently removed from them to see the beauty of the azure veil that shrouds them, and tints their emerald mass with a delicate tracery; you see the shadows that creep up their huge bulk along the canyon walls, that add the rugged grace to their shaggy sides; you see the high lights where their peaks and projecting arms are illumined by the vertical rays of a tropical sun. Here in the solemn grandeur of their magnitude, awed by their immensity and inspired by their impelling force and beauty, one lingers in the love of the spell of nature that holds him a willing prisoner. There is a majesty in their bulk, a grace and glory in their huge proportions that imparts an awe and reverence to him who stands in their midst and beholds them. At your feet, lies the city emerging from a wilderness. The clustered forestry but partially reveals from its en-foliaged mass the tops of the houses that lie embowered among them. Beyond is the valley, a valley of fertility; a coronet studded with the ever widening lines of growing municipalities. It is a valley where the golden sunshine lives again in the ripening fruit and kindles the flame that reddens in the rose and in the vine. It is a valley famous for its productiveness ever since the padres turned upon it the waters of the mountains; it is a valley of proud cities of happy and contented people. Beyond this fertile plain are the Puente Hills whose purple forms mingle indistinctly with the sea of blue from the azure skies. The wealth of Monrovia lies in the peculiar charm of her surroundings. The main extent of the city lies between Santa Anita and Monrovia Canyons. You who hold a love for nature, you who see a beauty in rocks and rugged trees, and you who find a charm in the wild diffusion of nature's elements strewn with a prodigal hand, will thrill with joy at a trip into the canyons. Additional Comments: Extracted from: History of MONROVIA By JOHN L. WILEY ILLUSTRATED 1927 PRESS OF PASADENA STAR-NEWS PASADENA, CALIFORNIA File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ca/losangeles/history/1927/historyo/introduc524nms.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/cafiles/ File size: 6.0 Kb