Pictures From The Montrose Historical Bike Ride

On Saturday, I -- in collaboration with The Glendale Historical Society, Walk Bike Glendale, Montrose Patch, the City of Glendale Community Services and Parks Department, and The City of Glendale Public Works Department -- led a group of 56 riders on the Montrose Historical Bike Ride.  We had an excellent group of riders of all levels of ability who enjoyed a beautiful day exploring Montrose on their bikes.  After meeting at the Montrose Bike Shop (since 1952!) we covered quite a bit of Montrose history with an extra special stop inside the gates of the former Rockhaven Sanitarium.  Thanks to the City of Glendale for letting us in!

In addition to Rockhaven, we stopped at and discussed the history of the La Crescenta Women's Club, the American Legion Hall (where 12 people died during the New Years Flood of 1934), the Verdugo Wash, Crescenta Valley park and the former Hindenburg Park, the defunct Montrose Railway and

the Montrose Shopping Park.  You can find out more about these sites and many others at The Historical Society of the Crescenta Valley's website.

Here are a few of my pictures from the ride.  I also have an expanded version of this set at Flickr.

riders on Honolulu

riding through the Montrose Shopping Park

Montrose Patch editor Nicole Charky discusses the La Crescenta Women's Club

Michael Morgan, City of Glendale Historic Preservation Commissioner, tells us about the history of Rockhaven

exploring Rockhaven

Rockhaven

riders on La Crescenta Ave

a beautiful watercolor by rider Ricardo Cerezo

Colin Bogart in front of old stone country club gates near Crescenta Valley Park.  He is pointing towards the Verdugo Wash and explaining how an access road alongside the wash could be adapted into a grade-separated bicycle path.

Erik Yesayan of Walk Bike Glendale

riders on Honolulu

Colin Bogart of the LA County Bicycle Coalition, who was invaluable in helping optimize our route

Councilperson Laura Friedman rode with us.  She has been absolutely fantastic on bike and pedestrian issues in Glendale.  She and Erik explained the proposed road diet on Honolulu, which has very low traffic volumes and is plagued by speeders and difficult to cross on foot.

gorgeous fixie

An extra special thanks to The City of Glendale's Fred Zohrevand, who has been instrumental in improving Glendale's bike parking situation, particularly in downtown Montrose.  I meant to thank him at our last stop in the shopping park but forgot.  Thanks, Fred!

Graeme Whifler rode with us and took pictures which you can see here.

Montrose Patch also wrote about the ride and put up a photo gallery.

Thanks to Mike Lawler, whose Historical Society of the Crescenta Valley site was an invaluable resource for preparing my ride notes.

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Glendale History Bike Ride Photos

The Glendale History Ride two weeks ago was fantastic. 77 riders came along on a tour of historical and scenic spots in Glendale and Atwater Village. Big thanks to Colin Bogart, Marc Stirdivant, and Marty Braccioti, who helped organize, and ace ABC7 photographer Martin Orozco for taking most of the great photos below. Also thank you to ride volunteers Jennie Rickert, Nathalie Winiarski and Jen from The Cave Wine Storage. The ride was sponsored by The Glendale Historical Society, LA County Bicycle Coalition and the City of Glendale Community Services and Parks Department.

Here are ride reports by George Larios (who was nice enough to help me out at the beginning of the ride) at Montrose Patch and by new blogger Somebody Walks.

Selected photos are below, and I posted the full set on Flickr here. Most of these are by Martin Orozco, a few are by Marty Braccioti, and I think one or two are Marc Stirdivant's. I was too busy to take many photos of my own.

• FULL SET ON FLICKR

Group photo before the ride

Departin the Glendale Train Station. Photo by Martin Orozco


Riding along the scenic LA River Path. Photo by Martin Orozco

Speaking about the history of the Grand Central Air Terminal.

I took this photo looking back at the group on Glenoaks. Don't make a wrong turn!

Riding through the Kenilworth Tunnel under the 134. Photo by Martin Orozco

At the Goode House. Photo by Martin Orozco

Exploring the nooks and crannies of The Cave Wine Storage, in the historic Hotel Glendale. Photo by Martin Orozco

Speaking at the Richardson House, former home of Tropico founder W.C.B Richardson. The oldest wood-frame home in Glendale.

Exploring the tiny Cottage Grove Historic District near Adams Hill. Photo by Martin Orozco

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Glendale History Bike Ride This Saturday

This Saturday, August 13th, I'll be leading a 13.5 mile bike ride to a number of historical sites in Glendale and Atwater Village with Colin Bogart and Marty Bracciotti. The route will take us along the Los Angeles River trail to the Grand Central Air Terminal, The Goode House, Richardson house (the oldest wood home in Glendale, home of the founder of Tropico), the Cottage Grove Historic District, Adams Square, and many other interesting places.

We are meeting at the historic Glendale Train Station at 400 W. Cerritos Ave at 8:30am and departing at 9. Bring water, sunscreen and a helmet (required). I created a Facebook event page for the ride here, please RSVP.


The ride is sponsored by the Glendale Historical Society, Glendale Community Services and Parks Department and the LA County Bicycle Coalition.

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