La Cañada History: Movie theater takes shape; shooting attributed to L.A. riots

Ten Years Ago

Jim Stratton, a former principal of La Cañada High School who was stepping into his first year as superintendent of schools for the La Cañada Unified School District, said his key goal for the 2005-06 school year was to strengthen communications and accessibility within the district among its stakeholders.

Twenty Years Ago

The new development on Verdugo Boulevard that would bring the first movie theater complex to La Cañada was underway. By mid-August 1995, the United Artists marquee had been installed and the tower structure was under construction. The target date was also set for the theater’s grand opening: Oct. 15, 1995.

Thirty Years Ago

As the Crescenta-Cañada Church Softball League ended its 1985 season, Lutheran Church in the Foothills was the only team in the short history of the league to go undefeated for 18 games.

Forty Years Ago

Pic ‘n’ Save, a discount retailer now known as Big Lots, opened its doors for the first time in La Cañada, in a former Albertsons supermarket location.

Fifty Years Ago

La Cañada resident John Ivers, whose family owned and operated Ivers Department Store (where a T.J.Maxx store is today), was the victim of a shooting attributed to the rioting sweeping Los Angeles County in the summer of 1965. Ivers had been shot in the arm as he drove through Pasadena. In another Valley Sun report related to the Watts riots, 14 deputies with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s station in Montrose were ordered to the riot zone, joining 1,300 other county deputies, 1,000 Los Angeles police officers, several hundred California Highway Patrol officers and 15,000 National Guard troops.

Sixty Years Ago

The search for an architect was underway in August 1955 after the La Cañada Elementary School District board voted unanimously to proceed with the construction of the town’s fourth elementary school. The new campus would be located on Palm Drive.

Compiled from the Valley Sun archives by Carol Cormaci.