Donation of Pearle Pardee Russell Belongings

September 1, 2020 — Retired Sulphur Springs schoolteacher Ray E. Gray of Canyon Country donates certain personal belongings of Pearle Pardee Russell to the Santa Clarita Valley Historical Society.

Daughter of Ed and Catherine Pardee, Pearle (1882-1958) was born in Pennsylvania and came to Pico Canyon and Newhall as a toddler. Beginning in 1893 she lived in the "Pardee House," which was located at the present-day Veterans Historical Plaza in Newhall and now sits across the street in Hart Park, at the entrance to Heritage Junction. Pearle married Harry Burton Russell and inherited her parents' estate following their deaths in the 1910s. Pearle and Harry continued to live in the Pardee House until they sold it to the telephone company around 1942. They then moved to another house on Walnut Street.

Among the donated items are a fancy fringed shawl, two handmade quilts, a finely embroidered pillow, a set of six Depression-glass goblets and matching glass bowl, an antler-handled carving set, a cookbook, a man's shaving kit and an 1880s portrait album from Pennsylvania. Prominent in civic and social circles, Pearle was renowned for her ballroom dancing and culinary skills.

Additional items donated simultaneously by Mr. Gray include a dinky railroad spike from Tick Canyon, an advertising piece from M&W Service in Newhall, a 1963 Hart High School yearbook, a broom that was presented as a wedding gift to Bill and Caroline Ludlow in the 1920s, and 11 staff photos from the Newhall and Saugus school districts. Gray's parents both worked in the Newhall School District. The family arrived in Newhall in 1963.