Edgewood High School - Aurigan Yearbook (West Covina, CA)

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THE PAST IS PROLOGUE . . The recorded past of that piece of property in the city of West Covina that is now bordered by Merced Avenue, Orange Avenue, Durness Street, and Trojan Way, begins in 1771 when the Franciscan Fathers founded the San Gabriel Mission in the present city of El Monte. In establishing the Mission they claimed as their estate the entire San Gabriel valley. Five years later the mission moved to its present permanent site. With Mexican Independence in 1810, most of the mission estate was taken by the government. In 1842, two major land grants were awarded in the San Gabriel Valley by Governor Alvarado. One, east of the San Gabriel river and north of the present San Bernardino Road, was given to John Dalton. The other, east of the San Gabriel River and south of the present San Bernardino Road, was given to John Rowland and William Workman. In 1868, Rowland and Workman divided their holding, Workman taking the north-east section of their rancho, and Rowland keeping the remaining half. In 1876, Workman ' s banking interest in Los Angeles went into bankruptcy and his rancho was mortgaged to Lucky Baldwin for $200,000. Workman committed suicide shortly thereafter and Baldwin foreclosed on the mortgage and took over Workman ' s property. Baldwin used what is presently West Covina as range land, leasing parcels for farming from time to time. The first recorded use of what is now Edgewood High School is in 1883. From that date until 1887, T. F. Griswold and J. R. Elliot leased the land from Baldwin to grow wheat. In 1903, Baldwin subdivided some acreage in the present city of West Covina, selling the land for $175 an acre. Among the first settlers to buy land from Baldwin were Max and Robert Dancer, who purchased the land on the southeast corner of what was to become Orange and Merced Avenues. The Dancer brothers drilled a well on the corner of their land, then in the fall of 1905, sold the property to Mr. and Mrs. C. J. Hurst. The well is still pumping and supplying water to the residents of West Covina. That accounts for that fenced off area in the northwest corner of the athletic field. In 1908, the first roads were laid out in West Covina. These were Service, Orange, Vine, Irwindale and Merced Avenues. Up to that time, Glendora Avenue was the only public road through the area. West Covina ' s diagonal streets date back to this time, as Glendora Avenue was a straight line from Glendora to La Puente. At this time the area was called Walnut Center, but at the suggestion of J. L. Matthews, editor of the Covina Argus, the area became known as West Covina in about 1909. The first school house was built in 1909 on Sunset Avenue. The first year there were eleven students enrolled. West Covina was closely identified with the people of Covina, and didn ' t begin to have much feeling as a separate community until World War I. At this time Covina purchased land near Azusa and Cameron Avenues for a sewage farm. The people of the area became very upset and to keep the sewage farm from being built, voted on February 3, 1923, to incorporate as a 6th class city. At the time of incorporation the population was 507, just seven people over the legal minimum for incorporation. One of the first large annexations came about when Covina bought property just east of the newly formed city as a sewage farm, so the people in this area asked to be annexed to West Covina. Population figures for the first three decades of West Covina confirm the rural atmosphere maintained. In 1930, the population was 769; in 1940, 1072; and in 1950, 4499. Then came the building boom! By 1952, the population had risen to 8361. In 1953, the city had 13,088 people. By 1958, the population had risen to 45,500 people, and the school district purchased the Hurst property on the corner of Merced and Orange Avenues as the site for West Covina ' s second high school. In the fall of 1959, 700 Freshman, Sophomore and Junior students arrived at the not-quite-finished Edgewood High School. In the spring of 1961, the first class of 196 seniors was graduated from the school. The class of 1965 numbers almost 400. The class of 1962 started the senior court, the class of 1963 finished the senior court and presented the clock. The class of 1964 gave the sprinkling system. In 1963, a victory flag was established, trees began to look like trees, and an attractive, well organized campus greeted the Edgewood students. Then in March of 1964, the bulldozers once again converged on Edgewood to start the first additions. From the time the Spanish Fathers claimed this land, through the agricultural period, and then as a high school, many physical changes have taken place and traditions have been established. Thinking of the past in perspective to the present, and future — the 1965 Aurigan has selected as its theme — THE PAST IS PROLOGUE.

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THE PAST IS PROLOGUE