Two Tours Left of the Monrovia Historical Society’s Narrated Tours

The Santa Fe Depot is on the must see list on Steve Baker’s tour. – Photo by Terry Miller/Beacon Media News

By Susan Motander

Tickets sell out quickly for this limited seating, narrated bus tour of Historic Monrovia. The tours are led by City Historian and Treasurer Steve Baker. Each tour focuses on a different sector of the city. The tour on Aug. 25 will focus on the southeast part of the city and the one on Sept. 22 features the southwest. Tickets are $40 for Historical Society Members, $50 for all others.

The Tour of Southeast Monrovia will feature the following:

• Wild Rose Historical District.
• Old Monrovia Airport.
• Old City Plunge which now houses the Monrovia Historical Museum.
• Old Route 66.
• Origins of Live Oak Cemetary.
• The story of Bradbury and West Duarte.
• Fig Avenue, an area rich in stories.
• Shiloh AME Zion Church.
• Second Baptist Church.
• Immaculate Conception Church.
• Huntington Elementary School.
• Municipal Auto Park.
• The Jones Family.
• John Isaac Fisher, blacksmith and farrier.

The Southwest Section has the following features:

• The Spence Addition, modest cottage of Monrovia’s working class which became the site of Monrovia High School, originally Monrovia-Arcadia-Duarte High.
• Mayflower Village, originally known as Cowtown and the nearby dairy.
• The Historic Santa Fe Depot.
• Monroe School, site of the first school, Orange Avenue School, that also housed the first high school.
• Highway Square, an early planned development (1908).
• Monrovia’s panhandle and water well.

To check on the availability of seats, call the Community Center at (626) 256-8246. For additional information on the tour check the Historical Society’s page on Facebook.

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