The Giddings Ranch
Levi W. Giddings, his wife Luna Giddings, and up to fifteen other members of their immediate family came to Altadena from Marshalltown, Iowa in 1874, the same year Pasadena was founded as the Indiana Colony further south along the Arroyo Seco. They established a homestead along what is now Lincoln Avenue, then just a dusty cart track winding through chaparral. In 1878, Levi and Luna's son Eugene W. Giddings acquired 100 acres in the foothills north of his parents' land along the eastern shoulder of Millard Canyon. At 1,500 feet above sea level, his new ranch, which he called La Viña, had magnificent views across the San Gabriel Valley and beyond to the sea. True to its name, La Viña was already a vineyard that Giddings "improved" with a modest clapboard cottage and outbuildings. It is said Giddings financed his real estate venture by selling half the water rights of Millard Canyon to John and Fred Woodbury, also from Marshalltown, who are credited with founding the community of Altadena in 1887.
By 1886, Eugene had built a toll road to Millard Canyon's falls but found that the sale of lumber from the trees cleared from his land was more profitable. To add to their income, Mr. and Mrs. Giddings raised cattle and poultry at La Viña. The family-owned Millard Canyon Water Company made possible the rapid development of West Altadena into farms and small family ranches and dairies. Eventually, Eugene and Anna Giddings deeded La Viña to the Presbyterian Church and moved to Pasadena.
The La Viña Sanitorium
The Presbyterians razed the Giddings' ranch buildings, planning to create a Chatauqua branch on the land. When their scheme failed to materialize they sold the tract in 1911 to members of the La Viña Sanatorium, a non-profit corporation. The corporation's first hospital was a small cottage in Linda Vista, but when the former Giddings ranch and adjacent lands totaling 240 acres became available, they decided to move and expand. They elected to retain the La Viña name, Dr. Stehman commenting that "we are all workers in the vineyard."
La Vina III
In 1987, the owners of the former Sanitorium put the now-198-acre parcel on the market. After proposals to turn the site into a Scientology center and then a national cemetery failed due to community pressure, Cantwell-Anderson, a real estate development firm, purchased it and proposed building a gated community of up to 4,000 single-family homes and condominiums.
Citizens reacted strongly, forming the "Friends of La Viña" to fight over-development and to protect hiking and horse trails that had crossed the land for 100 years. After an almost-ten-year battle, the County approved a plan for just 272 single-family homes. In 1997, new residents began moving into the first phase of houses designed in modern interpretations of Spanish and Craftsman styles. Despite some ongoing disputes regarding trail routes and public access to Millard Canyon and its falls, the last fifteen years have seen "La Viña III" (as it has been dubbed by historians) settling into Altadena's residential fabric and fueling an ongoing rejuvenation of Lincoln Avenue, the most close-by commercial area.
Sources:
Altadena Historical Society
Pasadena Museum of History
Pasadena Public Library
Ives, Sarah Noble. Altadena. Pasadena, Star-News Publishing Company, 1938.
Peterson, Robert H. Altadena's Golden Years. Alhambra, Sinclair Printing, 1976.
Zack, Michele. Altadena: Between Wilderness and City. Altadena Historical Society, 2004.
Tim Gregory
The Building Biographer, #3
Pasadena, CA 91106-3763
Copyright August 2011
By Tim Gregory
