Around 1:00 p.m. every day, a cracked boulder in the San Rafael Hills casts a shadow of an eagle on the ground. It is the Eagle Rock, one of Eagle Rock’s Historic Cultural Monuments. According to their website, the name of the landmark came about with the arrival of English speakers in the area around 1886.
“The Spaniards and Mexicans that were here before, they called it ‘Piedra Gorda’ meaning the ‘fat rock,’”David Dellinger, president and secretary of the Eagle Rock Historical Society, said.
Eric H. Warren ’69 is the Vice President and Curator of the Eagle Rock Historical Society. He said one of the most interesting historic landmarks to him is the The Jay Risk Standard Oil Service Station built by Standard Oil of California in 1919. It became a historic monument in May 2023, according to the Eastsider LA.
Another one of the Eagle Rock Historic Cultural Monuments is Argus Court, courtyard housing on Colorado Boulevard. This style of housing around a courtyard was common in the 1920s and 1930s, according to Warren.
“I got really interested [in the society] when I found that the city had moved our archive to a new building and had left it unattended in a pair of relatively damp closets,” Warren said. “I took action to get it off the floor and on the shelves and [began] to index it and inventory it.”
According to Dellinger, the Eagle Rock Historical Society has been around since 1961, when a group of women in the Women’s 20th Century Club decided to create the historical society in honor of one of their members, then split it off into a separate club.
“In 1960, someone in that [club] who knew a lot about the history of Eagle Rock passed away, and there were several ladies in the Women’s Club that said we need to make sure that the history of Eagle Rock doesn’t fade away,” Dellinger said.
According to Dellinger, the society hosts four main events during the year, including three presentations and an Ice Cream Sundae social in August, where they have musical groups and a raffle.
The Eagle Rock Historical Society archives are housed in the Center for the Arts Building, Dellinger said. He said the society works closely with the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Events, and in order to use the center of the place rent-free, they have to organize community events.
Dellinger said one of these events is called Open Archives, where people can walk in and explore some of the archival collections of the society.
According to Dellinger, his own house is an Eagle Rock Historic Cultural Monument, nicknamed the “Good Will Hunting House,” since actor and then Occidental student Ben Affleck wrote the movie Good Will Hunting while living there. He and his wife are the third owners of the house, Dellinger said.
Dellinger said the storybook-style house was constructed by Jean-Louis Egasse in 1923, and the first owners were Constance and Albert Braasch, who commissioned the house. Dellinger said he and his wife named the house “The Egasse-Braasch House.”
Constance was a piano instructor who taught in the house until the late 1960s, according to Dellinger.
“We think the some of the design aspects of the house are because she wanted to be able to use it for a being a piano tutor and recitals and things,” Dellinger said.
According to Dellinger, he and his wife registered their house to be considered a historic landmark by the city and created a website for it.
Dellinger is also the senior Linux systems administrator at Occidental College. According to Dellinger, the society has worked with the Occidental Special Collections and College Archives (OSCCA).
The Eagle Rock Historical Society helped OSCCA curate The Joe and Henk Friezer Photography Negatives, Dellinger said, which are a collection of around 60,000 negatives from the 1950s to the mid-2000s of Northeast LA.
According to Dellinger, this month, the society will have Brenda Ramirez from the Occidental Moore Lab come and talk at their monthly meeting.
History major Sophie Prado-Tucker (senior) said it is very important for people to know about and be reminded of the history of their community.
“I grew up in New York City, and I remember in a parking garage across the street from where I lived, there was this little photo of what my neighborhood looked like in the early 20th century,” Prado-Tucker said. “I think that was a reminder that really stuck with me of what the area that I lived in kind of used to look like.”
Warren said he is interested in history and has three published books on the history of Eagle Rock, “Eagle Rock,” “Eagle Rock: 1911-2011” and “Pioneers of Eagle Rock.”
“I think memories of the past are important,” Warren said. “For one thing, they give us insight into how we got to where we are.”
Contact Francine Ghazarian at ghazarian@oxy.edu
