Security Guard in Glendora, CA

Ygnacio Palomares received the 22,340-acre (90 km²) land grant Rancho San Jose from Governor Juan Bautista Alvarado in 1837. The land included the present day cities of Pomona, Claremont, La Verne, San Dimas, and Glendora.

Like many cities in the San Gabriel Valley, Glendora was established on previously remote agricultural land when the area became connected to the outside world upon the completion of the Santa Fe Railway’s main transcontinental line from Los Angeles to Chicago in May 1887. Located at the foot of the San Gabriel Mountains, Glendora was started on approximately 300 acres (120 ha) that were subdivided and sold by George D. Whitcomb in late March 1887. On the first day of sale, 300 lots were sold. Whitcomb was the founder of the Whitcomb Locomotive Works in Chicago and Rochelle, Illinois and had moved to California in the early 1880s. He devised the name Glendora by combining the name of his wife, Leadora Bennett Whitcomb, with the location of his home in a glen of the San Gabriel Mountains. In December 1907, the development of Glendora got a boost when passenger service opened on a new extension of the Pacific Electric Railway’s Monrovia-Glendora Line which provided hourly one-seat ride service from downtown Glendora to the Pacific Electric Building at Sixth and Main in Downtown Los Angeles. Prior to its 1911 incorporation, Glendora’s administrator officially occupied the office of President of Glendora.

The downtown area as it appears now is the product of years of renovation and maintenance by the city. The former opera house, movie theatre, Pacific Electric station, banks, hotels, grocery and department stores were converted into more modern commercial buildings. The original layout can be read about on the Downtown Glendora Historical Walk, by reading placards placed along Glendora Avenue (previously called Michigan Avenue). The original townsite was bounded by Sierra Madre Avenue on the north, Minnesota Avenue on the east, Ada Avenue and the railroad on the south, and Pennsylvania Avenue on the west.