A streetcar on an unpaved road. Bicycles and horse drawn carts. These images aren't the wild wild west, they're our own hometown of Covina almost exactly 100 years ago. And they're a fascinating look back at our home town. The main streets of town were unpaved in these photos, the newest of which dates from 1911, or only four years before Irven G. Reynolds hung his Buick shingle at Daddy Weber's garage. Back then he was still competing with horses.
A streetcar rumbles through the dust at Citrus and Bedillo, where Reynolds would open their brand new facility in 1922. The Fire Department will pose proudly in front of their new 1911 Fire Station, but their apparatus appears to still be horse drawn. It was a different time. Many of the buildings in the photos look familiar, but the setting seems otherworldly.
It took a lot of vision for Irv Sr. and the other civic leaders to imagine what Covina could become, and to invest their savings and their hard work into creating it. Ninety seven years later, we look back in awe and wonder. We hope you enjoy this glimpse back at Covina one hundred years ago.
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