Annual Old Timers Photo

The self-described old timers of Newhall and environs gather for an annual photograph in front of the original 1925 Newhall School Auditorium at 1113 Walnut Street (now 24607 Walnut) as part of the 1936 Fourth of July Homecoming Celebration held at Newhall Park — as the park at Walnut and 12th Street, adjacent to the school, was called until the current Newhall Park came along in 1950 at the corner of Newhall Avenue and Dalbey Drive.

It was a true homecoming; people from all over the Santa Clarita Valley — and even people who didn't live here anymore — came home to Newhall to celebrate the Fourth.

This auditorium burned to the ground on Valentine's Day 1939, along with the rest of the school. The auditorium was rebuilt in its present form in 1940 after Newhall School District residents passed a small, $10,000 bond measure for that purpose by a vote of 86 to 5 (five) on January 10, 1940 — far exceeding the two-thirds vote required.

8x10 photo by Thomspon of Santa Monica, who was frequently hired locally in the 1930s.

Identifications are written (by person unknown) on the back of the photo in reverse order, so they match up when held to a light. We've digitially superimposed them below.

Front row, from left: "Grandma" Emmons of Pico Canyon; Mrs. Gallegher of Pico Canyon; Harriet Young, wife of Walton Young; Bertha Taylor, daughter of John C. Haskell; Armantha Thibaudeau, leading lady of Newhall; Ruby Jenkins Kellogg, daughter of Castaic land baron William W. Jenkins; Mrs. Polly Mayhew, wife of commercial property owner William Mayhue; Mrs. Sarah Gifford, widow of John Gifford, Newhall's first train station master.

Second row: Unknown except for: Mrs. Hume, fifth from left (fourth woman); Mrs. Galbraith of Pico Canyon, second from right; Mabel Taylor, daughter of Sarah Gifford, far right.

Third row: Man unknown; Pearl Russell, daughter of Ed Pardee; Nellie Coyle, wife of Patrick Coyle; man unknown; Patrick Coyle, train station master at Newhall and Saugus; next 3 unknown; Florence Powell Ziegler, daughter of Judge John F. Powell, far right.

Back row: Helen Haskell, daughter of John C. Haskell (Bertha's sister), in front of column in dark hat; Walton Young, retired Pico oil field superintendent; Peg McDermott of Pico Canyon; man unknown; Louis A. Ziegler, husband of Florence Powell; Mr. (?) Powell; woman unknown.