Hello all, I am wondering if anyone here can help me in a search since the sleuthing abilities here at Noirish LA are pretty legendary at this point!
I am looking for information, and especially photos, of the Richfield Beacons in Alhambra and Castaic Junction. Not strictly LA I know, but close so I hope it's ok. For those unaware, Richfield put up a string of beacon towers from Mexico to Canada in 1928-1930, as promotional tools as well as navigational aids for flyers. Each tower was triangular, 125 feet tall, and had Richfield spelled vertically down two sides in letters several feet tall, with a two-letter code for its location in even larger letters on the third side. At the base of most towers was a service station, built in Mission Revivial style for most of California, or an English-Norman style for northern California, Oregon and Washington.
You've all seen at least one of these beacons: the tower on top of the Richfield Building in DTLA. Although being on top of a building it was different than the rest. Here is what the others in SoCal looked like:
http://theoldmotor.com/?p=90970
The pic above is of the station in Barstow, with the Beacon Tavern hotel behind it - an improvement that was planned for all beacons eventually but never occurred due to the depression and the beacons' rather quick technological obsolescence.
Information on the Alhambra beacon is scant. All that I have seen are a couple of entries from Air Commerce Bulletin in 1929 and 1930, found at
http://richfieldbeacons.weebly.com - I will quote their quote:
Quote:
October 1, 1929: Certification of private lights: "Alhambra, Calif.---The Richfield Oil Co., of California is operating a 24-inch beacon, 8,000,000 candlepower, six revolutions per minute, elevation of main beam above horizon 1 degree, located 1 1/4 miles airline south of the post office, mounted on top of a 125-foot steel tower, latitude 34 degrees 04' 38", longitude 118 degrees 06' 47", altitude 385 feet. Red neon signs 115 feet long, with the word "Richfield," are on two sides of this tower, and a third side has initials "AR" in 15-foot neon letters. The tower is located adjacent to the Western Air Express Field, for which reason no directional projector is operated in conjunction therewith." (Air Commerce Bulletin, Vol. 1, No. 7)
July 15, 1930: Under beacon lights discontinued: "Alhambra, Calif. -- Light formerly operated by Richfield Oil Co., located 1 1/2 miles south of Alhambra." (Air Commerce Bulletin)
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It does not appear that there was a service station at this beacon.
I believe the Western Air Express Field at Alhambra has been covered here before with photos of the grand opening of a new terminal/control tower in spring 1930. I was unable to spot the Richfield beacon in any photos of that event. I assume it was discontinued in summer 1930 because it was no longer needed after they built the control tower, and in fact the Air Commerce Bulletin coordinates are at the control tower site. The coordinates would seem to be exact, but based on my experience with other beacon sites they could be a tad off. In any case, I have no helpful photos of the control tower site prior to 1930.
The beacon at Castaic Junction did come with service station, and was located at what is now the intersection of The Old Road and Henry Mayo Dr., with a Beacon Coffee Shop across Henry Mayo. The exact location of this one is firmly established with aerial photos as it was not soon destroyed, but I have found no ground level pictures of it - I have an ad for the coffee shop which shows it only, and this photo of the intersection looking south:
(Don't remember where I picked this one up)
The beacon and station would be behind camera from this vantage point. The tower was purchased by LA County in 1943 and removed to a mountaintop somewhere for use as a transmission tower by the fire department. Where exactly it was placed, I don't know.
So, any help would be appreciated! These are the only ones in the immediate LA area; the next closest were in Dana Point, and Santa Barbara (tower only). I started a Richfield Beacons Facebook page a couple of weeks ago to foster information-gathering on all the sites, as a number of them have not been precisely located, mostly in Oregon and Washington where fewer towers had service stations adjacent.
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