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Having just dealt with the San Dimas Hotel (the ‘Mansion’) it seems appropriate to tell the story of the home built to house the San Jose Land Co. Agent and family while the Hotel was being constructed. It is a charming Victorian cottage, still in use at 119 E. First St., built from the same redwood lumber as the Hotel. After the land boom collapsed (only ten lots having been sold in San Dimas), Agent E. M. Marshall and family departed for more lucrative fields, and sold the house to a sister of J. W. Walker. Mr. Walker was now the owner and, with his family, resident of the Hotel. When J. W.’s nephew, Harry, was married in 1894 in Kentucky, he brought his wife, Genevieve, to San Dimas for their honeymoon. They rented the little cottage facing on the square where the sheriff’s office is now. Then it was a field, often filled with wild flowers, and birds - quail, doves, meadow larks, road runners, and the cheery mockingbirds. They had both come from large homes in Kentucky, so the little six-room home seemed almost like a playhouse to them. It had high ceilings and was finished throughout with redwood. Harry’s Aunt, from whom they rented, had it newly papered for the bride and groom. However, Genevieve had little training in housekeeping, so the little cottage was about all she could manage. There was no water except from a cistern, no gas, no electricity, no telephone, and no ice. She cooked on a wood stove, and said that it took her quite a while to learn to get a meal cooked without forgetting to put wood on the fire and letting the fire go out. The kerosene lanterns were also, especially aggravating to her. However, Genevieve felt that the approximately 125 people (half of them children) who were here when they came, were a fine class of people. Some of them had come from Canada, some from England, and from different parts of the United States. |
The women were especially friendly – always taking time for a cup of tea with a visitor. When they had a little spare time, the women got together and read something worthwhile, like Emerson or Shakespeare. Shopping was done in Pomona, except for the Chinese vegetable man who came from Azusa twice a week.
The residents had to provide their own entertainment. This often took place in the large living room of the J. W. Walker’s home, for there were talented people among the early pioneers. The people would come from all over the valley - in wagons, buggies, on horseback and on bicycles. There were picnics in San Dimas Canyon, at Puddingstone Falls and other lovely natural spots. There were no churches at first. The Episcopalians went to Covina, the Methodists, Baptists, and Catholics, to Pomona. Harry and Genevieve Walker arrived in California on Thanksgiving Day and felt that was especially appropriate since they called this the “Land of Heart’s Desire.” They loved their first little home, and Mrs. Walker is quoted as saying “There have been sunshiny days, gray days, black and rainy days. But as I look back through the years, all I can see are the sunshiny days. |
