"I remember the train depot... We used to sit on the bench between two palm trees and watch the trains arrive with passengers, leave, and just pass by carrying produce." Sylvia Manley

The following responses were collected from long-time Alhambra residents during the course of Alhambra's Centennial Celebration in 2003:

What was your first impression and/or first memory of Alhambra...

• "Getting chips of ice off the ice truck when blocks of ice were delivered to our ice box at 910 N. Garfield (house is still there!)" Earle (Bob) Bunker
    
• "Coming from Lincoln Heights in Los Angeles I felt as if I had arrived. Alhambra was and still is the place to live. The City is growing at a rapid pace, which makes it a more exciting place. It is wonderful. I don't think I will ever move away. I love it here." Josephine Barrera
    
• "We moved here in 1949. The 'Bean Tract' was just being built and my Mom and I would walk up to Almansor St. to Huntington Dr. and take the 'Red Car' to downtown L.A. and have lunch and shop at Bullocks Dept. Store. On Woodward, the 'Red Car' made its turn-around, on what is now a grassy park like strip." Pati Bordonaro
   
• "My happiest day was when my husband, Charles, and I moved into our new home on July 4, 1951. We shopped as our neighbors did at stores that are no longer here: Braggs, Lieberg's, Helen Dress Shop, and Crawford's Corner. We went to the movies at the beautiful Garfield Theater." Victoria Nugent, age 84, 52 years in Alhambra
   
• "I remember the old Clyde Beatty Tent Circus on several locations on the vacant land at Almansor and Valley (now 777 E. Valley) as a kid at Ramona School. I remember watching the freeway being built. I remember Temptation Ice Cream Parlor on Valley, near Marengo, next to McDonald's. I took the old PE Red Cars on Ramona to El Monte and Baldwin Park (now Metrolink route along the freeway)." Gary McBridge, age 59, 59 years in Alhambra
   
• "When I was a child, every Sunday our family would get in the family car and go for a ride. We always wound up in Alhambra. In October 1948, my husband, two children, and I moved to Alhambra and I am still here!" Lillian Scherer, age 91, 54 years in Alhambra
    
• "Curries Mile High Cones, Valley Blvd, near Atlantic; Gonzy's Gas Station, Valley Blvd., around Marengo; the Hi Neighbor Parade on Main St.; Bob's Big Boy, Valley Blvd.; Fosselman's Ice Cream, Main St.; McKay's Drug Store, Main St., across from Alhambra High School; the Red Car (electric street car) to 6th and Main Street and downtown L.A. in the same area on the 10 Freeway that the Metro Link now uses (everything old is new again); Woodruff's Men's Store, Main St., Downer's Men's Store, Main St., Ann Mossberg (now Hall), 1955 graduate of Alhambra High School who was Rose Parade Queen in 1957; Ricky's Sky Room (restaurant), Valley Blvd., Nancy Rugoff (now Dombrowski), 1954 graduate of Alhambra High School and first girl student body president." Frances Randazzo, age 93 (56 years in Alhambra)

Famous landmarks that aren't here anymore...

• "Citrus packing plant at Granada and Valencia; Big Red Cars down Main St.; Alhambra High School on Main St.; Alhambra Airport where I got my first airplane ride in a Ford Trimotor ($5); watermelon fields at the Bean Tract, Granada and Alhambra Rd." Earle (Bob) Bunker
   
• "My wife, Marguerite, and I came to Alhambra in 1938. There was a sawmill on the corner of Second and Woodward and across the street, on the north side, of Woodward was the Sunkist Orange packing house with the railroad running down Woodward Ave." Charles McCoy
   
• "The Alhambra Hospital on Bay Street where two of my daughters were born, Chicken in a Basket located on Sixth and Valley, Britts Dept. Store on Almansor, Braun Engineering plant on Mission/Fremont." Josephine Barrera
    
• "I remember the train depot on Mission Rd., between Palm and Date St. We used to sit on the bench between two palm trees and watch the trains arrive with passengers, leave, and just pass by carrying produce. When I was seven or eight years old, I remember the train men on top used to slash open a gunny sack of raw peanuts and toss it to the ground. We would run with our paper sacks in hand, all excited, ready to gather our treasure. The men on top waved and smiled at us as the train continued on its way.
  
  "I also treasure the memories of the vacant lot on the southeast corner of Orange and Date St., the site of postal helicopter landing and circus stops. The circuses had real sawdust on the ground, elephants we could touch, cotton candy, red, hard shell candy apples, etc. We don't have a close-up hands-on circus anymore. I remember Cancenary's Market across the street. It carried our supply of 'Fleers Double Bubble Gum.' It was all so exciting for a child. I am a native Alhambran." Sylvia Manley
   
• "LaBrie's Drive-In (now Twohey's) and shopping on Main St. on Friday nights." John Foulkes
   
• "I remember Nash's Department Store, Lieberg's Vandermast, Downer's and Lorraine Sutherland. They were all beautiful stores." Elsie Heitzman, age 63+ 64 years in Alhambra

Brush with Alhambra greatness or celebrity encounter in Alhambra...

• "Stan Freeberg and his antics to get elected to the student body commission (Alhambra High School)." John Foulkes
   
• "In 1946, I began my law practice with California Lieutentant Governor Frederick F. Houser in the old medical building, which is now the site of the new Renaissance Plaza at Garfield and Main." - Vice Mayor Talmage V. Burke

Most influential public figure(s) in Alhambra in your lifetime...

•  "Ralph Kiner, Pittsburgh Pirates" John Foulkes
   
• "Helen Wysong is my choice. She was the most dedicated lady to the City of Alhambra. She was Ms. Alhambra. Helen was in charge of Alhambra Beautiful. She did all she could to make Alhambra beautiful. Happy Birthday, Alhambra." Victoria Nugent, age 84, 52 years in Alhambra
   
• "Our offices were next door to those of Judge William M. Northrup, who wrote Alhambra's City Charge in 1915." - Vice Mayor Talmage V. Burke
   
• "Ms. Engles, my first grade teacher at Ramona Elementary School, 1948." - Gary McBride, age 59, 59 years in Alhambra
   
• "Dr. Brooks, heart-cardio, built his office at 21 S. Chapel. I worked with him for years." Elsie Heitzman, age 63+, 64 years in Alhambra

Favorite Modern-Day Memory...

• "How much the City has grown. The airport is gone, the railroad depot is gone, but we have so many  new things. I do all of my shopping here. We have a beautiful, new theater complex and our shopping district. I was a friend of Norma Yocum. I worked on the City Beautiful Committee." - Lillian Scherer, age 91, 54 years in Alhambra
   
• "My favorite today memory is the Marengo Elementary School reunion of our class of 1941-1948, which was held in April 2001. Some of us had no see each other in 50 years! Marengo School was on the corner of Main St. and Marengo, now Century School. We all lived locally and went through each grade together, K-8th. The last half year we had to move to Northrup School and we were the first graduating class. The reunion was great! We all still had the same values. We all blended so well that we had a second reunion in April of this year, 2002. Good 'ole Marengo School! It was a time of innocence and friendship." Sylvia Gomez Manley, age 66, 66 years in Alhambra