Picture of the Month 2019

Lifur Dairy Farm- El Sereno

This month we are featuring the Lifur Dairy Farm that was once located on Harriman Ave.  and Pullman Street, on the northwest-side of El Sereno.  The owner was Frank Lifur, a Basque emigrant from Spain.  He traveled to France and took a ship across the ocean, where he landed on Ellis Island, New York.  He then made his way west and settled on what was then known as Rancho Rosa de Castilla.  It later became the community of Bairdstown, before being changed to El Sereno.  Frank Lifur married and raised four daughters on his dairy farm.  The Lifur livestock was said to roam all around the hills, especially Elephant Hill.  The Lifur dairy farm was said to have existed right up to the 1940s.

The Lifur name is well known in El Sereno, as there are several streets named after a founding community member, Martin Lifur.   Martin Lifur was a large landowner and farmer who lived on the east-side of El Sereno, in the area around Sierra Park Elementary. 

There are several streets in El Sereno that are directly influenced by Martin Lifur: Navarro Street, named after the town in Spain that Martin Lifur came from; Martin Street, named after himself; and Lifur Street, named after his family name.

While we haven't found any evidence that directly connects Frank Lifur's Dairy Farm and Martin Lifur's farm, it's easy to conclude that these two Basque families helped each other in times of need.  The Basque were a tight-nit community who helped each other out. 

We thank Louis Salcido for his help, research, and contribution to this post.

This month we are featuring a video commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the Student Blowouts, or walkouts that took place on March 1, 1968 at Woodrow Wilson Senior High (today it is El Sereno Middle School).  The students across the Eastside had been planning a walkout to protest the inequitable educational opportunities. However, the students at Wilson ended up walking out before the planned date. The spontaneous walk out was due to administration cancelling the student production of the play Barefoot in the Park. The rest is history.

In 2018, the El Sereno Historical Society organized a series of meetings to plan the commemoration of the 50th Anniversary of the Student Walkouts.  These meetings culminated with the unveiling of a mural and the installation of a bronze plaque on March 1, 2018, exactly 50 years from the day the Wilson students walked out.  In this video, the artist of the mural, Carlos Callejo.

Our Picture of the Month features the historic El Sereno Independence Day Parade.  This is the 60th year of the parade which theme is "Celebrating El Sereno."  The parade has been a community staple for many years, bringing together schools, businesses, artists and community organizations as participants.

The parade will end at El Sereno Park.  There at 5 pm, the community will enjoy the 12th Annual Concert in the park as we wait for the traditional Fireworks Show.  There will be music, food, community booths and activities for children.  

Included below are some historic newspaper clippings from El Sereno's 16th Annual Independence Day Parade, 1973.  

While many have heard of the old El Sereno Country Club that was halfway built on what today is Woodrow Wilson High School, most have probably never heard of the Chadwick Country Club.

The Chadwick Country Club was formed by residents in 1912 as a way to promote the community as well as to provide many forms of outdoor amusements. Many of the community prominent residents were members of the club, such as Gregory Lifur, the youngest son of Martin Lifur. Gregory Lifur was an excellent athlete, a pitcher who lettered at Stanford University.  As you may recall from previous post, Martin Lifur was one of the founding families of El Sereno. Many street names are directly tied to the Lifurs, such as Navarro Street, Martin Street, and of course, Lifur Avenue.  

The Chadwick Country Club held its first tennis tournament in 1913, with Roy C. Wilson as the winner of the singles and Gregory H. Lifur (20 years old at the time) and his partner Eugene Weston Jr. “carried away the doubles after a close contest.” This same year saw an increase in the expansion of the Chadwick Country Club, as quoted from the article,

“This new country club is directly adjoining the Huntington Boulevard tract of the Janss Investment company, one of the prettiest subdivisions on Huntington Boulevard.  The main club house is to be of unique pressed brick architecture and will embody all the features of the popular country club with many added innovations for the comfort and entertainment of members and guests.
Tennis courts which will rival the fastest on the coast and parkings and gardens of artistic and rare shrubbery and trees are being laid out directly adjoining the club house, and the balance of the grounds are being arranged to accommodate a nine-hole golf links which is planned for the start.
This new club should mean a distinctly attractive added social feature to the residents of this district.”

A nine-hole golf link…this would have been in the area of what is today Warwick Ave and Navarro.

Thanks to Louis Salcido for researching and contributing this story.

Above: Chadwick Country Club article, September 1, 1913.