Originally called Altadena Park in the early 1930s, the park was renamed Farnsworth Park in 1934 after General Charles Farnsworth, an Army officer who lived in Altadena in the 1930s during his retirement. (“Park to be Named for Gen. Farnsworth,” Los Angeles Times, July 7, 1934, p. A1).
The park’s historical two-story cultural center is built in the arts and crafts style and offers commanding views of Pasadena, south LA, and, on very clear days, even Long Beach and the ocean. The building was completed in 1934 and a dedication ceremony included a ceremonial flag-raising event by a group of local Boy Scouts, a 48-piece military band, and a speech by Farnsworth (“Altadenans Dedicate New Social Center,” Los Angeles Times, October 29, 1934, p. 6).
In 1937, Los Angeles County received work relief funding from the Federal Works Project Administration to boost local employment through the improvement of regional parks. LA County Supervisors approved more than $12,000 in federal work relief funding specifically for Altadena’s Farnsworth Park (“Supervisors Approve Work Relief Program,” Los Angeles Times, September 24, 1937, p. A2). Visitors can see several historical landmarks in Farnsworth Park–some hidden or hiding in plain sight–from the 1930s that tell a little about the park’s history.
At the entrance to the basketball court, hidden behind an overgrown bush, is a plaque noting that this area of the park was improved by the Works Project Administration (WPA) in 1937.
The amphitheater that abuts the park’s headquarters building contains two plaques commemorating its development by the WPA in 1938. One plaque is at the front of the stage attached to the low stone wall. And the other is attached to the stone wall near the western stage-level entrance, hiding behind a trash can.
There’s also a barely-noticeable cement inscription on the main path that bisects the park, near the north-west corner of the baseball diamond outfield. If you’re not paying attention you’d hardly notice it. But the inscription says:
“Tuna Canyon CCC
[Company] 902
10/22/3?”
The cement near the year is chipped out a little bit and could either say 1935 or 1936.
The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was one of President Roosevelt’s early New Deal work relief programs to provide jobs to millions of out of work people during the Great Depression. The CCC put people–largely men–to work on various conservation and forestry projects like constructing trails and building national park infrastructure, clearing brush, and planting trees. In southern California, CCC camps also helped with various fire and disaster relief programs. Although many of the CCC camps were “white only” camps, the federal program was considered an integrated program, and one of the famous all African-American Camps (Company 2924-C) helped develop nearby Angeles National Park in the 1930s (Medina, Daniel, “Civilian Conservation Corps, Racial Segregation, and the Building of the Angeles National Forest” KCET, February 10, 2014).
The CCC company that is memorialized in the cement inscription–Company 902–operated out of the the Tuna Canyon Camp, which was located at a camp site near the intersection of today’s La Tuna Canyon Road and Tujunga Canyon Boulevard. This CCC camp site was constructed in about 1933, and according to the Tuna Canyon Detention Station Coalition website:
“The camp consisted of four large dormitories, mess hall, library, recreation room, work shop, barber shop, tool house, two shops for repairing autos and trucks, blacksmith shop, shower room, and two large garages for the storage of autos and trucks.”
In the 1940s, the camp was infamously used as a temporary Japanese internment center and later became the Verdugo Hills Golf Course in the 1960s (“Civilian Conservation Camp,” Tuna Canyon Detention Station Coalition, http://www.tunacanyon.org/history-of-the-site/ccc/, accessed March 28, 2020).
During the 1930s, Camp 902 worked on various forestry and land conservation issues in the region: they helped clear debris after a flood in Montrose, built water reservoir tanks in the Verdugos, helped fight various forest fires, and constructed a fire road from La Crescenta to Glendale over the Verdugo Mountains. This informal memorialization shows how Camp 902 also likely participated in the development or improvement of Farnsworth Park in some capacity.
There’s also a memorial inscription under a group of incense cedar trees near the bottom of the park, close to Concha Street. The inscription reads:
“Incense Cedars
Dedicated Sept 26, 1938
Don Benito Wilson Chapter
Daughters American Colonists”
In the picnic and outdoor barbecue area to the west of the amphitheater, this interesting “California Forestry” logo appears on several picnic tables and stone structures. I haven’t seen this exact logo before, but it appears that it is an older version of California Division of Forestry logo symbol. If you know anything about this logo, please leave a comment or send an email.
Edited: 4/16/20.