Where's Wendell???? Stop #15

Photo Key

Day 1
Whittier Main Post Office - built in the 1930s in the art deco style - and yes, I blurred/erased the name of the city on thr front. Same with the street signs!
Gazebo in Central Park across from post office
View of Whittier foothills, part of the San Gabriel Mountain range
Whittier City Hall - built in 1954 with poured concrete using Arizona flagstone, aluminum and glass on the exterior finish, by architect for William H. Harrison.

Day 2
Bailey School House Bell in Front of City Hall
In 1888 school bonds in the amount of $8,000 were voted and the Jonathan Bailey Grammar School was completed in 1889. When the second Jonathan Bailey School building was razed in 1962-63 many people sought to save Whittier's first school bell. Today the bell can be seen at the rear entrance of City Hall where it rings nearly everyday as children give it a good strong push. The plaque on the monument reads "First Bell in Whittier - 1889 Hung in old Bailey Street School -1926 re hung in new Bailey School on Hadley Street. In early days this bell was rung on many civic and patriotic occasions. Erected in Civic Center, 1963
Tree outside of Whittier City Hall
Whittier College. The college was founded by Quakers in 1887. The rock is painted and repainted for special events by “societies” on campus, which take the place of sororities and fraternities at the private school. Presideny Nixon attended this college.

Day 3
The Whittier Historic Depot Transportation Center
Initial construction of the Southern Pacific Railroad Station began in 1888, in 1891 the citizens of Whittier put up $42,000 to bring a 6 mile Southern Pacific spur track from Los Nietos. Final construction of the Victorian-style station was completed in 1892. In 1895, a southern extension was added to the depot to provide fruit packing space for the Whittier Fruit Exchange. It is one of only 4 remaining 1890's stations in the state of California. Restored then re-dedicated in 2002 as the Historic Whittier Transit Depot, the station is used by the City of Whittier as a Transportation Center and future transportation museum. The Depot is on the Local, state and national Registers of Historic Resources.

Day 4
The Garden Gate at Lou Henry Hoover Park (Wife of President Hoover)
The Garden Gate is a bronze sculpture inspired by the women of Whittier created by artist Guy Wilson. The left door of the gate is of Harriet Strong and her four children among the pampas grass. The right door depicts Florence Maple Thornburgh peering from behind hollyhocks. Both images are sculpted in bas-relief and they are larger than life at approximately seven feet in height. A child is standing in the opening of the gate inviting the viewer to enter and is gazing upwards reading the histories of the women of Whittier. This figure represents Lou Henry Hoover or a contemporary child gaining inspiration from the many accomplishments of the women of Whittier. The bronze gate is 9 feet high, 3 to 4 inches thick and the whole sculpture is approximately 6 feet wide.

Day 5 & 6
Pio Pico Historical State Park
Pio Pico State Historic Park is the site of "El Ranchito," also known as the Pio Pico Adobe or Pio Pico Mansion, the final home of Pío Pico, the last Governor of Alta California under Mexican Rule and a pivotal figure in early California history. Located in Whittier, California, on 6003 Pioneer Blvd off of Whittier Blvd. and Interstate 605, it is a California Historical Landmark No. 127, listed as "Casa de Governor Pío Pico". Just west of the park is the San Gabriel River and the city that bears his name Pico Rivera. The park consists of the land that surrounds the adobe.

Day 7
John Greenleaf Whittier Sculpture
Located at Central Park and created by artist Christoph Rittershausen, this statue represents the man Whittier was named after. John Greenleaf Whittier was a famous poet, writer and newspaper editor who made his home in Massachusetts. When the City was named after him, John Greenleaf Whittier was too old and frail to make the trip from Massachusetts and consequently, never had the opportunity to visit the town that bears his name. This statue was also completed for Whittier’s Centennial celebration, which was in 1987.

(The house in the picture was where they filmed portions of the movie Hocus Pocus.)

El Camino Real Bell
The origin of El Camino Real :The Road of the King" dates back to the founding of the Missions in California by the Padres. Northward from San Diego the road passes through many intervening towns of the present day, to San Luis Rey, San Juan Capistrano, Tustin, Orange, Santa Ana, Anaheim, Fullerton, La Habra, Whittier and Pio Pico Mansion to Los Angeles Plaza; then connecting with Sunset Boulevard and the Cahuenga Pass to Ventura, Santa Barbara to San Francisco. An original "El Camino Real" marker dating from the 1930' s can be seen at Whittier's Civic Center.

Day 8
Downtown LA with me! Inside the Ronald Reagan State Office Building. Located at 3rd and Spring Street.

Day 9
Bradbury Building - Los Angeles
The Bradbury Building is an architectural landmark in Los Angeles, California. The building was built in 1893 and is located at 3rd and Broadway in downtown Los Angeles. The building itself features an Italian Renaissance-style exterior facade of brown brick, sandstone and panels of terra cotta details, in the "commercial Romanesque" that was the current idiom in East Coast American cities. But the magnificence of the building is the interior that is reached through the entrance, with its low ceiling and minimal light, that opens into a bright naturally lit great center court.

The building was prominently used in the film Blade Runner. It has also been featured in the 1944 Billy Wilder film classic Double Indemnity, the 1950 film noir classic D.O.A., the 1951 Joseph Losey remake of M, the film Wolf starring Jack Nicholson, the "Demon with a Glass Hand" episode of the TV series The Outer Limits, the Season Six episodes (1963-64) of the TV series "77 Sunset Strip" where Stuart "Stu" Bailey (Efrem Zimbalist Jr., the only remaining recurring cast member) had his office, the TV series Banyon, the Charles Bronson movie Murphy's Law, the Michael Douglas and Demi Moore vehicle Disclosure, music videos from the 1980s by Heart, Janet Jackson, Earth Wind and Fire and Genesis, and a Pontiac Pursuit commercial. The Bradbury has recently been seen in the show Pushing Daisies, which debuted in fall 2007.

Day 10 -The happiest place on earth!