Homestead Valley – 1907
September, 2006
Homestead Valley in 1907. > click to enlarge
In 1907, Harry Wilhelm took this photo from his home at 328 Ridgewood. He aimed the camera at the Alto power station on the other side of the marsh, and captured a magnificent view of Homestead Valley showing about a dozen houses, five roads, two railroad lines and even a windmill. Click on the above image to see all these and other features more clearly. The windmill is in the upper right.
The road crossing the photo in the foreground leads to a white barn on the right which belonged to Alfred and Fannie Worley. Their house on LaVerne is the large brown one in the foreground. They also owned the white house behind it. There are two paths connecting the white house and the white barn. Fannie was the first woman to live in the community, and the first woman to die there. The adjacent 25-acre Worley Tract which was subdivided in 1909 extends off to the right of the photo.
Both Worley houses were demolished long ago. But, several houses in the photo still exist, for example, 59 Montford, 530 Ethel, 138 Evergreen and 254 Evergreen. The Robertson house in the trees on the upper left is on Robertson Terrace and their white barn is just to the left. The barn is now a red house on Molino. Visible roads are Melrose, LaVerne, Evergreen and Scott. The landscape is for the most part devoid of trees, except that Reed Creek on the left is lined with mature trees, and a tributary in the foreground is lined with smaller trees.
If you have comments or questions about this article or other topics
pertaining to the history of Homestead Valley,
please feel free to e-mail Chuck Oldenburg.