From grocery store to Glendale High School

Glendale’s grocery stores were few and far between In the early

1900s. Although not much is known about the Verdugo Cash Store,

pictured here, it stood on Verdugo Road somewhere near where Glendale

High School now stands, according to a caption on the back of the

original.

From the picture, all we can tell about the Verdugo Cash Store was

that it offered good service and advertised Peerless Poultry

Supplies, Alsen Cement, and Schilling’s Best.

Although the “Glendale Community Book,” edited by E. Caswell Perry

and Carroll W. Parcher, has no information on the Verdugo Cash Store,

it does include references to other grocery stores.

In fact, Parcher says one of the most important of the early

arrivals in Glendale was that of W.G. Watson. Watson, with his wife

and young son Thomas, first moved to Pasadena and established a meat

market. In 1895, he moved his business to Glendale.

Eventually he branched out into the nursery and seed business in

partnership with his now grown son. In 1906, they entered the real

estate business, building a two-story frame building at Glendale

Avenue and Broadway.

Prime tenant of the building was the Glendale Hardware Co., which

opened its doors the same year.

Thomas Watson was one of the directors of the hardware store,

which was also a distributor for Union Ice Co.

Next door was the plumbing firm of Eves & Wilkinson, which had

been doing business since 1896.

Another cash grocery, as they were known in those days, stood at

Glendale and Wilson avenues, operated by W.C. Fraley.

The memories of Dorothy Hobbs Smith, daughter of early resident

John Hobbs, who came from Illinois around 1890, are also included in

the book.

Smith recalled that her parents set up housekeeping in a home on

25 acres of mostly sand, rock and sagebrush. Their property lay on

both sides of Central, not far from Windsor Road.

At the time, there were four north and south trade routes through

the valley: San Fernando Road, Glendale Avenue, Verdugo Road and

Central Avenue.

Crossroads were haphazard, she wrote, sometimes starting in the

driveway of one ranch and ending up in another.

Smith told of a tiny, wood building at San Fernando Road and

Central Avenue which housed a post office. Mrs. Bullis was

postmistress and her aunt, Mrs. Logan, was the assistant. On the

other side of the road was Logan’s general merchandise store and not

far away was a combined blacksmith, feed and fuel store. In the same

area was T. Funatsu’s Japanese store.

Yet another grocery store was in the First National Bank building

on North Brand Boulevard.

It was owned by R.M. Seeley, who also was an agent for the Wells

Fargo Express.

Parcher writes more about Logan’s grocery store, which figured

prominently in Glendale’s history, but more about that at a later

date.

* KATHERINE YAMADA is a volunteer with the Special Collections

Room at Central Library. To reach her, leave a message at 637-3241.

The Special Collections Room is open from 1:30 to 5:30 p.m. Saturdays

or by appointment. For more information on Glendale’s history,

contact the reference desk at the Central Library at 548-2027.