Paradise in Rosemead, Cal.

Tree and foliage-laden Paradise Trailer Park at 8069 Garvey Avenue has stood the years as its surroundings have absorbed the march of mini malls, Chinese markets, Chinese restaurants, and store signs that spell out CVS, Starbucks, and Phó.  Garvey Avenue was a major east-west corridor before the placement of the San Bernardino Freeway.

The sign is frozen in time.

The earliest structure at the address was built in 1922, and improvements continued in the 1930s and 1940s.
An additional property further back and ending at Whitmore Street was constructed in 1956.

The river rock wall runs along the front on Garvey Avenue.

The L.A. Times reported that in 1989 there were 740 such parks in the county of Los Angeles.  The state's Housing and Community Development statistics show that the number of parks has fallen to 644 in July, 2008.  In Rosemead there have been other recent activities by developers that have threatened or have displaced mobile home residents.

Adjacent to the east of Paradise, a tract of land at 3053 San Gabriel Boulevard, where another mobile home park had been, was demolished without permit in 2007.


To the west at 8001 Garvey sits 18 vacant acres formerly the site of Los Angeles Dealer Auto Auction.  It closed at the end of March in 2009 after over 60 years in business.  In August, 2010 when this photo was taken, no new development has taken place.

Beyond the fence is the expansive field of the former L.A. Dealer Auto Auction.

A Look at Some San Gabriel Valley Businesses

Some noticeable changes to a couple of long-time businesses prompted me to document their existence in case they close up and their signs are taken down.  Their longevity in the area deserves recognition.  They represent the ways we used to shop in an earlier time when shopkeepers were independent.

Rosemead Pharmacy

Rosemead Pharmacy faces a Rite-Aid store directly across the street on Valley Boulevard.
(Click on images to zoom in)

Bob Peterson owned Bob's Rosemead Pharmacy at an earlier location one block east at the corner of Rosemead and Valley, at 9001 Valley Boulevard, where the Citibank is currently located.  As early as 1953, Rosemead Pharmacy advertised in the paper, along with dozens and dozens of independent pharmacies.

Only animal figurines living in this drug store.

Above is an ad from the year 1957 for an Alhambra pharmacy.

Jenkins Products, Inc.

Jenkin's Carpets, at 1841 So. San Gabriel Boulevard was a store that was easy to overlook.

Until recently this San Gabriel store, long having been at this location, was still open for business.

This store was easy to bypass.  There were plenty of store windows, but the store exterior lacked appeal.  I shopped here in the early 1980s for beige mini-blinds.  In those years neither Home Depot nor 3-Day Blinds existed.  Maybe the store is just getting a face-lift.


Bob's Wondries Motors in Alhambra

A familiar car dealer from a 1957 ad.
(Click on image to zoom in)

From Studebakers to Toyotas, this business has survived.

Sweet History in El Monte and Rosemead

Thrifty Ice Cream plant, located in El Monte, is a creamery celebrating 70 years in operation this year.  I see the eye-catching sign on my way to the credit union.  The ice cream plant is about half a block away from Supervisor Gloria Molina's field office, near a forest of beautiful trees.  There is something comforting about the plant, aside from the cute sign.  The place has a very clean exterior, very neat and tidy.  It is good to know that there is manufacturing going on in Los Angeles County, and that it is sustaining a set of employees who have probably raised several generations since the plant opened in 1940.

Farrell's Ice Cream Parlour

 

Farrell's had a restaurant in Rosemead on the west side of Rosemead Boulevard, just south of Valley Boulevard, and it looked similar to the one above. I remember going there in the mid-1970s. (Image from Farrell's Ice Cream Parlour Restaurants)

Today, the site is a popular Chinese seafood restaurant.  (Click on images to zoom in)

[Update 11-2016:  Sea Harbour Seafood Restaurant is listed in Jonathan Gold's 101 Best Restaurants 2016 at number 88 - phew - number 88 is a good number.  The guide describes Sea Harbour as the Hong Kong equivalent of Spago.]

Upon driving into the parking lot of the seafood restaurant there is a large rooster (I think) to greet you. Could this be leftover from Farrell's?  Or left behind from another Chinese restaurant at this location?

Today Farrell's is making a comeback in Orange County.  Farrell's obtains their ice cream from ...Thrifty's!