ESTABLISHED 1980

Our goal is to foster an awareness of the history in the Highland/East Highland area of San Bernardino County in Southern California, and to expand the involvement of the public in collecting artifacts and preserving local history.

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The Highland Area Historical Society
Home Page

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2012 Highland Chamber of Commerce Citizen of the Year

Nancy Alexander

 Nancy was honored for her work as the President of the Highland Area Historical Society, for serving on The Highland Historic and Cultural Preservation Board, the Street Naming Committee, and her work in researching and chronicling Highlands History.

Nancy pens a weekly history column in the Highland Community News dealing with Highlands History and has authored  numerous books and pamphlets.

Congratulations Nancy on a honor well earned!

 

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The Highland Area Historical Society’s
2012 wall calendar celebrating the 25th anniversary of the City of Highland is now available.
Contact Nancy for ordering information.!

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Back in stock!!

A Pictorial History of Highland, by Bill Calvert

Bill Calvert has been collecting Highland photos and artifacts for 25 years. An idea began to take shape to chronicle the history of Highland from its early days, when it was known as Messina, to 1987 when Highland was incorporated as a city, through the use of photographs.

The late Kay Beattie, who wrote the Looking Back articles for the Highland Community News, was to collaborate with Bill on this project, but it became too much for her. With her encouragement, Bill pressed on with the project.

The Historical Society offered to “self-publish” this one-of-a-kind book consisting of 207 pages of photos and historical narrative.

Copies are available by contacting Nancy Alexander at 909-862-7868, or writing to the Highland Area Historical Society: P.O. Box 353, Highland, CA 92346-0353.

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Please remember that dues for 2012 are due and payable in January.
Dues are $10 a year for individuals and families.

Dues may be mailed to:

Highland Area Historical Society
Attn. Membership
P.O. Box 353
Highland, CA 92345-3353

Next Meeting

Highland Area Historical Society meeting
Thursday, January 26, 2011 7:00pm at the Highland Senior Center 3102 Highland Ave. at the entrance to Patton.

Marilyn Cram Donahue, daughter of Fred Cram and Nellie Carter Cram; widow of Robert Donahue (son of Leo Donahue) and prolific author will share her memories of Highland in the 1930's and 1940*s, concentrating on the downtown area; the two grocery stores, the drugstore, Hambly's drygoods store, etc. and some of the social activities, including the Women's Club and the Knitting Club. She will also talk about the Canteen that operated during the war years. Marilyn will also share her memories of orange ranching and what it was really like.

Pioneer recipes and some of the "snake oil" curatives, street games and songs and dances will be part of the treasure trove of memories that Mrs. Donahue will share.

The public is invited to share their memories of this time. If you are too young to have memories of the 30's and 40's, bring your questions!

Marilyn has a new book coming out soon (hopefully). It takes place in a town called Messina in 1939. The story is fiction, but the setting is factual.

For those of you who read her first novel, Sutter's Sands (1971) and any of her young adult books. Straight Along a Crooked Road, The Valley in Between or any of her books, you won't want to miss this opportunity to meet the author and hear her share her personal memories of early Highland.
 

As Always the programs are open to the public. Light refreshments are provided after the program.

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Highland Area Historical Society meeting
Thursday, March 22nd, 2011 7:00pm at the Highland Senior Center 3102 Highland Ave. at the entrance to Patton.

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It's Getting to be Citrus Harvest Festival Time!!!

The City will soon celebrate its 16th Annual Citrus Harvest Festival. The Historic District will be filled with crafters, delicious food, antique and classic cars and lots of area residents. There will fun for everyone including live entertainment, kids games and rides, an historic home tour, shopping and much more. Join us on Saturday, March 31, 2012 from 10:00 am to 3:30 pm.

For further details, please contact Stater Kim at:
(909) 864-8732, extension 204.

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Resent Meetings And Events (See more)

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Highland Area Historical Society meeting
Thursday, December 1, 2011 7:00pm at the Highland Senior Center 3102 Highland Ave. at the entrance to Patton.
(Don’t forget, because of Thanksgiving the November meeting will held the First Thursday of December.)

PRESENTATION DESCRIPTION:

Tom Hooker on "From Highland To Hollywood"

The presentation will begin with a little Hooker family history. Tom will tell about his Grandfather who had a plumbing business in Highland from about 1906 to about 1920 and owned a building in town. Tom’s Grandfather also had an orange grove on Atlantic Ave at Church Ave (now the Valencia Lea Mobile Home Park). Tom will give a history of the grove and of the buildings that were on it. That will lead into the main presentation about a little known Highland family from 1902 to about 1911. Mention of things that happened from as early as 1876 and as late as 2011 will be made. Photos taken from 1904 to 2006 with an emphasis of 1909-1911 will be shown. The connection with Hollywood will become apparent. A discovery of new information about two well known Highland photos is also a part of this presentation.

Tom Hooker was born in 1946 in San Bernardino as that was where the hospital was located. His father was Robert E. Hooker who lived most of his 80 years of life in Highland and His mother was Elva V. Hooker who lived a good portion of her life in Highland. Tom was raised on the orange grove in Highland on Atlantic at Church in his Grandfather’s house. He attended Highland Cypress School, Highland Pacific Elementary, Highland Jr High School and Pacific High School where He graduated in 1964. He went on to San Bernardino Valley College, and then Cal Poly at San Luis Obispo where he graduated with a BS degree in Chemistry. Tom then went on to San Diego State where he graduated with an MA in Chemistry. After San Diego State, he Joined VISTA and they sent him to Williams, Arizona for one year of service. After VISTA he got a job with Kaibab National Forest and spent the next 34 years working for the US Forest Service. After Tom retired from the Forest Service four plus years ago, he decided to put together a family history. While doing so, Tom made contact with Howard Ingham, a grandson of the man who had planted the Hooker orange grove in 1884. They talked and decided to do a history of the Inghams and Hookers in Highland. Howard died a couple of years later and the history project grew to include much more. Tom is still working on the project today. The title of the book that Tom hopes to publish will be "A Pioneer History of Highland California and the North Fork Ditch." Most of the book will deal with the time period of 1852 to 1900. However, a little of the book will go past 1900.

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Highland Area Historical Society meeting
Thursday, Sept 22, 2011 7:00pm at the Highland Senior Center
3102 Highland Ave. at the entrance to Patton.
(Don’t forget meetings have been changed to the FOURTH Thursday of Jan., Mar., May and September. Because of Thanksgiving the November meeting will held the First Thursday of December.)

PRESENTATION DESCRIPTION:

Tom Atchley On Lugonia and Highland Connections.

Tom Atchley, historian, retired teacher, tour guide, researcher, Past President of the Redlands Area Historical Society, and director of the Junior Historical Society has immersed himself in history. With A.K. Smiley Public Library Director Larry Burgess, he teaches a popular ten-week-long evening course about the history of Redlands and the local area. He recently published "A Driving Tour of the Mill Creek Zanja."

As Always the programs are open to the public. Light refreshments are provided after the program.

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Highland Area Historical Society meeting
Thursday, March 24, 2011 7:00pm at the Highland Senior Center

PRESENTATION DESCRIPTION:

History of Water in the Inland Empire
by Suzie Earp

Suzie Earp, historian - archivist for the Water Resources Institute at California State University, San Bernardino, presented a lecture about the early history of water use and water development in the Highland and Inland Empire areas.

Earp, who has been employed at WRI for more than seven years, is enthusiastic about the work she does. In 2009, she and Joyce Hanson, professor of history at CSUSB, published the book, "The History of San Bernardino Community Hospital."

Some of the topics Earp will cover during the lecture are recreational water use, bottled water, the Clean Water Act and the State Water Project.

The lecture is free and open to the public.

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Highland Area Historical Society meeting
Thursday, March 24, 2011 7:00pm at the Highland Senior Center

PRESENTATION DESCRIPTION:

"The Wildflowers of Aurantia Park and East Highlands"
by Scott Klemm

A brief history of Aurantia Park will also be given.

The lecture is free and open to the public.

 

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What if Highland Area Historical Society earned a donation every time you searched the Internet? Or how about if a percentage of every purchase you made online went to support our cause? Well, now it can!

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Announcing the publication of the first volume of Kay Beattie's A Look Back columns, (originally published in the Highland Community News), as part of a fund raising project.

Kay spent many, many hours pouring over old newspapers, visiting the Highland Library, the Smiley Library in Redlands, the San Bernardino Feldhym Library and the San Bernardino Historic Archives, as well as her father-in-law's, George W. Beattie, work, to find information for her "stories".

This body of work is an invaluable resource for the history of Highland and the surrounding area, and is deserving of being preserved in enduring and readily available format. It would be impossible to include all her columns in a single volume, so they have been divided into several.

The collection was compiled, edited and indexed by Nancy Alexander, President of the Highland Area Historical Society and City Historian.

The first volume is available now and will make great gift for anyone who is interested in Highland's rich history.

The cost is $40 and can be ordered by contacting Nancy Alexander at

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