It’s funny. There are a handful of structures and scenes that form my earliest memories of Duarte, CA, that tiny hollow where we moved to in 1960 from San Gabriel. I was born at St. Luke’s Hospital in Pasadena, CA, which was the major hospital for most of the San Gabriel Valley back in the 50’s and 60’s. The structures in Duarte that I will never forget are the Bear Frame & Wheel on Huntington Drive just west of Las Lomas, the Boulevard Café on the north side of Huntington just west of Buena Vista, Aqualand, the Duarte Market up on Highland and Royal Oaks, and this Duarte Garage, Rock Town, the avocado groves west and northwest of Greenbank Avenue, the enduring San Gabriel Riverbed, the “Bowl,” the mobile home park on Bradbourne Avenue where I used to deliver the Herald Examiner on my first paper route, the VFW pub on Huntington Drive, and others.
Elsa Moreno has it posted on her FB page along with a few other images of Duarte. On her FB page, I wrote on Wednesday, December 30, 2020, at 3:44pm,
Great pic. I do remember that garage and the field to its west, where a lone tax office used to sit recessed from Huntington Dr. There was a footpath worn by residents & kids that cut diagonally through that field. On the other side of that corner, on the northeast corner of Huntington & Bradbourne, was the old Lerner gas station where the great Rich Molyneux used to work.
Duarte, CA 
May I add to that, the Handy Dandy grocery/department store at Highland and Huntington, the nearby Alibi Club bar, the Hi-Ho (I think it was called) hamburger joint on Huntington west of the above, and Chase’s Avocado Hut? That was at 1845 E. Huntington Drive. Oh yes, and Hammond Jewelers in the Alpha Beta shopping center at Buena Vista and Huntington. The proprietor, Bob Hammond was robbed and shot… twice! After that he closed the business. These venues are where I spend much of my time today. . . in my dreams.
Yes, that hamburger joint on the northeast corner of Huntington and Buena Vista was indeed called the Hi-Ho. My sister Connie worked there right after graduating from Monrovia High School in 1952 (it was called the Monrovia-Arcadia-Duarte school system then, or MAD), and I have several old 8mm films clips of the Hi-Ho. I remember the proprietor well, but I can’t recall his name.
We lived on Chesson Street, just off of Bradbourne, from 1948 to 1957. On the other side of Bradbourne on Huntington Drive was a little market that had two different owners, as I recall. One owner would balk when we would bring in empty soda bottles to get money. She would always tell us we had to buy something. My friend and I would go to the trailer park on Bradbourne to get sodas from the soda machine by the office. Fond memories!
Good memory. I wonder, was the market named “Mike’s Foods”? There was a “Mike’s Foods” in that small lot just east of Elmhurst southside of Huntington before it moved over to the old Alpha Beta site. Thanks.
This was on the north side..same side as the Duarte Garage. It was small…about the size of today’s gas station mini mart. Wish I could remember the name.