Blog Posts

Route 66 and Monrovia: A Shared History

11/9/2025

By Oliver Beckwith, MHM Board Member

Source: California Route 66 Association (click link to see page)

In the first four decades of Monrovia’s existence, modes of transportation in the city had been changing. In the early years the train was the main mode of transportation. Passengers arrived at the Santa Fe Station. Next they were taken into town on a mule drawn trolley. In 1903 the Pacific Electric train line was added, making trips to Pasadena and Los Angeles relatively easy. The twentieth century also saw the advent of the automobile, and before too many years had passed, people were driving to and from Monrovia in their Studebakers, Oldsmobiles, or Fords.

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Monrovia Plunge Integration 1925

9/7/2025

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By Félix Gutiérrez, Guest Author

On this summer’s 100th anniversary of Monrovia Municipal Plunge, now home of the Monrovia Historical Museum, it was posted online that plunge doors opened in 1925 “for swimmers of all ages”. All ages: Yes. All colors: No.

From 1925 until 1949, the Monrovia Municipal Plunge enforced segregated swimming days limiting when people of color could use the pool.

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Monrovia Plunge Integration 1930s-40s

9/7/2025

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By Félix Gutiérrez, Guest Author

Thirteen years after the Monrovia Municipal Plunge opened in 1925 with segregated swimming days, that segregation was challenged by a group led by my teenage father Félix Gutiérrez, President of the Monrovia Latin-American Youth Club and Pasadena Junior College student.

In the summer of 1938 club members presented a letter and speech urging the Monrovia City Council to end their pool segregation. This challenge and other Mexican Americans equal rights efforts are now displayed on a colorful monument on the sidewalk in front of the Monrovia Historical Museum, once the entrance to the Monrovia Municipal Plunge.

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Who was Upton Sinclair?

7/13/2025

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By Mark Harvis, MHM Vice President

President Lyndon Johnson greets Upton Sinclair in 1967 at the signing of a meat bill. Photo is in the public domain.

I must admit I’m not an Upton Sinclair expert. Hardly. But I am familiar with "The Jungle,” which was published in 1905 and 1906. Sinclair intended his novel to expose the dire circumstances in which industrial laborers found themselves. Instead, the novel’s graphic description of unsafe and unsanitary conditions in the meat packing industry caused Congress to take action. It passed the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act, both in 1906. People were outraged and disgusted by what they read, leading to lasting changes to the food industry.

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What do you get for $20-plus million dollars?

7/13/2025

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June 27, 2025. The Reopening of Monrovia Canyon Park

Well, you get Canyon Park: The Sequel. But unlike some movie sequels that are pretty awful, the City of Monrovia got a sequel that is true to the original but oh-so-much better.

Canyon Park became “official” in 1911, yet the area had been utilized for decades prior. Hibbard and Polly Rankin settled in the Emerson Flat area around 1874. Around 1886, L.H. Emerson, for whom Emerson Flat is named, settled in the Sawpit Canyon area. For many years, Monrovians enjoyed hiking and camping in Canyon Park, even though getting there was difficult because there was no road. In1911, Taylor Renaker, member of a pioneer Monrovia family, started a group of volunteers building that road. Thus began the “official” Canyon Park.

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Searching For The Black Meccas: The Jones Family

4/27/2025

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LINK TO PRESS RELEASE ~ April 8, 2025
Monrovia ChangeMakers
Contact person: Sandy Burud, [email protected], (626) 675-8323

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The Principal Who Made Monrovia Better: Almera Romney

3/9/2025

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By Oliver Beckwith, MHM Board Member

At the end of World War II there were Monrovians who had lived there since the city’s incorporation in 1887. These people had seen the horse and buggy replaced by the automobile and the airplane. Monrovians had seen economic booms and busts, a Great Depression, and two World Wars. More changes would be coming to the city in terms of civil rights, and Almera Romney was one of those people who changed Monrovia for the better.

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Monrovia’s Plunge: Segregation and Civil Rights

2/8/2025

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By Oliver Beckwith, MHM Board Member

The building for the Monrovia Historical Museum is celebrating its centennial this year. Formerly the city’s municipal plunge, you can visit on any Thursday or Sunday and the docents will show you where the pool used to be. In the lobby you will find two display cases with photos and other plunge memorabilia, including the pool keeper’s record book. It’s open to the 1943 summer season page, and there, among the air and water temperatures, is a glaring reminder of Monrovia’s past. Along with the other data the word “Colored” is to be found. In that era young Black, Latino, and Asian people were only allowed in the pool on Mondays.

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Three Monrovians at Pearl Harbor

11/11/2024

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By Oliver Beckwith, MHM Board Member

USS Rall (DE-304)

At Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941, three Monrovians paid the ultimate price for our freedoms. Seaman First Class Dwight J. Orr (MHS class of 1940) was stationed on the Battleship USS Arizona, and became one of 1177 sailors and Marines killed on the ship. Nearby at Hickam Field Sergeant Gerald Anglich, an Army Air Corps gunner from Monrovia, was shot down by a Mitsubishi Zero as he ran to a machine gun emplacement, one of 139 soldiers killed there. The third Monrovian who perished at Pearl Harbor on that infamous day was Navy First Lieutenant Richard Rall, one of 18 men who perished on board the Battleship USS Pennsylvania.

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The (Un)Usual Haunts: A Spooky Dive into the Archive

10/20/2024

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Haunted Houses of Monrovia by Michael J. Kouri

By Carina Arias and Clara Fouser, MHM Staff

As docents who assist in the archive, Clara and I have come across some incredible historical pieces. One thing for certain: we knew that the October newsletter needed to feature something from our archive, but with a spooky touch. We immediately searched through our museum collection database to locate anything that fits within the theme of Halloween. We typed in “Halloween”, “ghost”, “witch”, “pumpkin”–you name it! But nothing came up. Finally, we typed in “haunted” and our database revealed a book by Michael J. Kouri called “Haunted Houses of Monrovia”. Clara and I gasped with excitement. The author, a psychic medium from Los Angeles, wrote this book in 2000 to document ghost stories in historic places in Monrovia. He mentions a variety of buildings– some that no longer exist–but all with spooky ghost-sightings. That said, Clara and I thought we would share our favorite stories from the book!

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Forward>>

Route 66 and Monrovia: A Shared History

Monrovia Plunge Integration 1925

Monrovia Plunge Integration 1930s-40s

Who was Upton Sinclair?

What do you get for $20-plus million dollars?

Searching For The Black Meccas: The Jones Family

The Principal Who Made Monrovia Better: Almera Romney

Monrovia’s Plunge: Segregation and Civil Rights

Three Monrovians at Pearl Harbor

The (Un)Usual Haunts: A Spooky Dive into the Archive

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