This historic mural is located on the north side of the Utilities Department Customer Service Center.

68 S. First St.
Alhambra, CA
91801  

Shorb Garden
(& Shorb Street) 
are named after
James deBarth Shorb (1842-1896), who was the son-in-law of Don Benito (AKA Benjamin Wilson). 

The Shorb Garden is located on the north side of the Utilities Department Customer Service Center. It features an artistic mural dedicated to James deBarth Shorb and his place in Alhambra history. Shorb was a local land and water baron who demonstrated the importance of water in our region "way back when," when he ran the Lake Vineyard Land and Water Company.

Visitors to the Shorb Garden may also gaze upon a life-size bronze statue of Shorb that was created by muralist Art Mortimer and and local sculptor Victor Amor. Both Mortimer and Amor have devoted many hours to the study of Shorb, insuring that Shorb's history on the wall is accurate and that his visage, on the statue, is correct and lifelike. They have stressed the importance research plays in the creation of works of art.

Art Mortimer has provided numerous communities in Southern California with opportunties to view his art, including Brentwood, Claremont, Covina, Culver City, Lompoc, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Santa Monica, Santa Paula, Twentynine Palms, Upland, Venice, Westwood -- and that doesn't count the multitude of privately commissioned murals he has completed. One of his murals, located in Lompoc, was the subject of a Huell Howser "California Gold" program.

Victor Amor is well known in the Alhambra community as the owner of the Amor Art Gallery (with his wife Ixchel Marina Amor, also a noted artist) and the Hits Fine Art Connection art classes. His studio, where Shorb's personage emerged through a series of ten working models, is located at the Gallery, 2 South Garfield, Space 15, in the Alhambra Place Shopping Center. Amor's designs have been incorporated into television industry graphics, Las Vegas casino designs, Rose Parade floats, and scores of other works of art in our area.