Preserving Our Legacy: Redlands Heritage Club Fair Highlights Local History
By David James Heiss
Redlands News Collective
Photos by David James Heiss
At left, Gini Watterson, a docent at Kimberly Crest, and the organization’s Executive Director, Anita West, talk with visitors at the Redlands Heritage Club Fair.
Photos by David James Heiss
At left, Karla Trosper, daughter of Historical Glass Museum founder Dixie Huckabee, sits with docent Connie Wheeler and board member Jeff Thies, at the Redlands Heritage Club Fair.
REDLANDS — Redlands loves a parade. In fact, dozens have evolved through the years.
One of the big ones that faded away was the Oddfellows Day Parade, which attracted more than 50 entries in its 1920s heyday. The Mexican Drum and Bugle Corps was once prestigious, as was the American Legion Post 106 Drum and Bugle Corps.
Redlands once entered a giant orange into the Rose Parade. The city’s own Flower Parade, which ran from 1915 to 1928, morphed into the Redlands Pet and Bike Parade because both were held in April.
The University of Redlands had its Pajamarino parades.
That deep dive into parade history was on display from the Redlands Area Historical Society, which coordinated its second annual Redlands Heritage Club Fair. Organizations that have been around for 50 years or longer, or are actively involved in promoting historic preservation, were invited to participate in the promotional community outreach event hosted at the Redlands Contemporary Club.
Two Canyons Conservancy, which preserved the Frink Adobe (Loma Linda’s oldest home) was front and center at the event, promoting its Nov. 7 Citrus & Clay afternoon fundraising event.
Meals On Wheels, the original Door Dash that has been around Redlands serving $6 meals for 55 years, still has two volunteers who have been part of the program for over 50 years — Mike Reynolds, and Bev Wollverton, who has dedicated at least 52 years as a volunteer with MOW, according to President Dexter Cole.
Redlands League President Cesca Nolan, sitting with Vice President of Marketing, Ginger Boyd, holds up an historic photo of the Golden Jubilee Parade of 1938, which portrays the former Methodist Church that held the former Watchorn Chimes, that burned in 1968 at the corner of Cajon Street and Olive Avenue.
Redlands Footlighters, Redlands Community Scholarship Foundation, Redlands Camera Club, the philanthropic Redlands League — formerly the Assistance League — which has been around since 1931 Redlands Round Table, and PEO, an international organization that helps young women achieve educational goals, were among the organizations present, along with the Redlands Conservancy and the Museum of Redlands, which will open on Oct. 24 with its grand opening taking place at 10 a.m.