Newhall Ambulance Service, late 1950s.

According to Brunner's 1940 history, J.M. Davis started his Newhall Ambulance Service in September 1936 with a LaSalle sedan as an ambulance at the corner of Spruce Street and the Pico Road (Spruce is now Main, Pico is now Lyons).

At the time, it had an 18-mile service area and would have taken patients to the Newhall Community Hospital at the corner of 6th and Spruce (now Main) and to Dr. Sarah L. Murray's emergency surgery in the 700 block of Spruce (west side of today's Main Street between Market and 8th). In 1961, the Newhall Ambulance Service was purchased by Tilton R. "Slim" Jorgensen, operator of the Douglas Service Station in Nehwall and founder of J&J Tire Service. Jorgensen owned the ambulance service until 1994 when he sold it to a national chain.

Previously, ambulance service had been run out of Fred Lamkin's Newhall Garage (which became the Chevrolet dealership). Before that, ambulance service was provided by Will G. Noble, who operated a funeral home at the corner of Brand and Second streets in San Fernando and who, in 1925, purchased the 3.8-acre San Fernando Mission Cemetery for $10. Talk about your all-in-one emergency service.

About the photographer: HAROLD G. DEINES (1922-1970) brought his family to the Santa Clarita 1954 and taught photography and drivers' education at Hart High School. He also was the proprietor of Pin N' Pen Photo Stationers in Newhall. Harold and wife Esther were married in 1944 in Kansas, where Harold was the sports and society photographer for the Wichita Eagle newspaper. They lived briefly in Tucson, Ariz., prior to their arrival in Newhall (Chestnut Street), where they raised four children — Glenn, Anita (Barnes), Sylvia (Wortman) and Myrna (Litt). Not yet 50, Harold succumbed to a long illness; Esther (1921-2009) continued her teaching and adminstrative career with the Newhall School District, sang in the church choir (Santa Clarita United Methodist) and was active in the SCV Senior Center and Friends of the Library.