Whittier Historical Society Blog

Adapted from the Whittier Museum Gazette articles from April 2022, March 2023 & April 2023 by Nicholas Edmeier, Curator.An exciting point in any early 20th century city’s life was the arrival of its first movie theater, followed by the building of bigger and better rivaling theaters. Before anything we would recognize as a “movie theater” in Whittier, most film showings during the 1910s started as pop-up moving-picture shows that were shown any place people could gather: churches, community centers, school auditoriums, etc. Most of the these were traveling film companies charging a nickel to see a 15 minute or shorter …

If you grew up in the Whittier area in the 1940’s, 50’s or even 60’s, On Popsicle Street by Tommy Long is a real treat.  It is a memoir of Tommy Long’s childhood spent on a cul-de-sac street in Uptown Whittier that looked like a popsicle from overhead.  (I would say it looked more like a lollipop – but hey – it’s Tommy’s book.)  When Tommy was six years old (1949), three other boys about his age moved into houses on Popsicle Street (actually named Pacific Place – right off of Pickering Ave near the five-points bridge.)  Naturally, the four …

Born and educated in Blue Earth, Minnesota, Mabel George Haig has been recognized as one of Whittier’s important artists and community leaders. She first came to Whittier at the age of ten with her mother in 1894, seven years after Whittier’s establishment by the Quakers, to visit her grandparents, Hiram and Nancy Mendenhall. Mabel’s grandparents lived in a clapboard farmhouse on Mendenhall Ranch in East Whittier. East Whittier Middle School now stands on land that was part of Mendenhall Ranch. Mabel George returned to visit Whittier multiple times before marrying Myron Haig and then finally moving to Whittier in 1914. The newlywed couple built their home on Hadley  Street …

You never know what someone is going to bring to the Whittier Museum. Majority of the time it’s copies of Whittier High yearbooks or Whittier Daily newspapers; but every so often it’s something very unexpected. At the beginning of August, during the sixth month of our temporary closure, I was contacted by Sarah Hall, a Whittier resident, who was inquiring if the museum would be interested in accepting a homemade telescope built by a former Whittier resident, Paul Nemecek. Sarah’s father, Mike Pavelski, had acquired Nemecek’s telescope years ago as a keepsake from Nemecek’s family, but was now unable to …

People come to the Whittier Museum archives to research a variety of topics. They range from researching their homes, ancestry, a former business/building or just to clarify something they remember from their past. We do our best to help everyone who comes to the museum, but there is always the possibility we do not have what they’re looking for. When we can find the smallest bit of data to add to what someone is looking for, it’s a victory for Whittier history. Last month we were contacted by a former resident of South Whittier, Jim Lentine, now a resident of …