Yucaipa Valley Historical Society - Yucaipa: 1940s-1980s

This 1947 view shows upper Yucaipa with snow-covered foothills and new homes. The two-story structure no longer exists.

By the 1940s, the pepper trees along Yucaipa Boulevard were well established, and the uptown area along California Street was a busy business district. The Corner Market and the post office stand on the left, across the street from Holsingers Lumber and Hardware. (Photograph courtesy of Toni Muirhead.)

This A. J. Threlfall photograph of Yucaipa Boulevard, taken west of Bryant Street, shows the pepper and eucalyptus trees in full glory.

Cy Barnett sits behind the wheel of his 16th birthday gift, which cost $15. From left to right are sister Helen Barnett, father Garrold Olda G. O. Barnett, brother Howard Barnett, Ken Cathcart, sister Barbara Barnett, sister-in-law Marie White Barnett and Margie Cathcart. This c. 1940 photograph was taken at the corner of Second Street and Yucaipa Boulevard.

While automobiles were certainly the most popular mode of transportation in the 1940s, horses could still be seen downtown. In this photograph, judge G. O. Barnett has his granddaughter, Kandie Barnett, on his steed. Notice Capts Rabbitry and Feed Supply store at 113 Second Street in the background. Rabbitries and egg ranches were becoming major businesses in the community.

Vet Overly harvests oats on the Casa Blanca Ranch where he was foreman. The Overly family lived on the ranch for many years. They moved to the nearby 1886 Pass Schoolhouse building after the school closed in 1985.

Vet Overly is plowing the Casa Blanca fields around 1944. In the early 1940s, large plots of land were turning over to new owners. Leon Atwood, who owned the Casa Blanca ranch, bought Bill Clydes ranch and expanded his holdings to over 1,100 acres, becoming the largest individual operator in the district. Most of his land was put to grain. Atwood had also purchased the Henry Webster ranch, adjacent to his property. Local pioneer L. Cobb, for whom Cobb Canyon Road (todays Live Oak Canyon Road) was named, sold his properties, including the orchard, to Mr. and Mrs. Dehails from Beverly Hills.

From left to right, Beverly and Roger Ward and their cousins Sue and Larry ride Chubby, half of Fred E. Wards workhorse team, which included a skittish Clydesdale named Ball. The familys small ranch was at the southwest corner of Sixteenth Street and Highway 99 in Dunlap Acres, which is the lower, west end of the community.

Holsingers on upper Yucaipa Boulevard advertises its wares on its buildings in this photograph that also shows housing units, utility poles, the agricultural areas of the North and Middle Benches, and the beautiful snow-capped hills. An old West Coast Redlands Theater (later known as the Fox Theater) playbill can be seen in the window.