OpenStreetMap (new tab)

Google Map (new tab)

Google Streetview (new tab)

Overview

This wood frame, rail depot served the Pacific Electric Railway Company's Red Car line in the small, northern Orange County city of La Habra, CA. The building was covered by a long hipped roof, that had a small, gabled dormer jutting out from one side accommodating what looks to have been a ticket or baggage office. The building had sheltered porch on its west end, supported by columns. The building was still standing in 07/1965.

Building History

The Pacific Electric first operated a line that connected Vernon on the west to Yorba Linda on the east, reaching La Habra by about 1908. This wood-frame depot in La Habra was opened in 1909. In 1911, as part of the "Great Merger," Pacific Electric owner Henry Huntington exchanged control of his Pacific Electric line (and the Los Angeles and Redondo Railway) for the Southern Pacific's ownership share in the Los Angeles Railway(narrow-gauge Yellow Car line). In this merger, the Southern Pacific unified almost all of the electric railway lines n Southern CA under it ownership. Huntington and his estate continued to own the Los Angeles Railway until 1945. A large system of routes begun by various companies were ultimately standardized by Huntington and then the Southern Pacific. After 1911, the Southern Pacific reconstituted many of these other lines into a new version of the Pacific Electric Railway.

In 1911, the Pacific Electric operated two lines that passed through La Habra: the Los Angeles-La Habra-Fullerton line and the Los Angeles-La Habra-Yorba Linda-Stern line.

This station was closed down in 1938. According to the Electric Railway Historical Association of Southern California's La Habra-Yorba Linda-Fullerton Line web site: "Passenger service on the La Habra-Yorba Linda was abandoned on January 22, 1938 and on the Fullerton Line on the same date." (SeeElectric Railway Historical Association of Southern California.org, "La Habra-Yorba Linda-Fullerton Line," accessed 02/13/2018.)

According to the Los Angeles Public Library (LAPL), "This station was built in 1909. In the late-1970s, the station was moved across the street to 301 S. Euclid Street in Portola Park, and was restored to became the La Habra Depot Theatre." The building was originally erected on the northeast corner of Hiatt Street and Electric Avenue, but was moved to the northwest corner in the late-1970s. The street was renumbered between the 1970s and the present.

Building Notes

The La Habra station stood 22.19 miles from Los Angeles, and required three transfers to reach the city, one at Laon Junction, one at Santa Fe Springs, and one in Whittier. (See Electric Railway Historical Association of Southern California.org, "La Habra-Yorba Linda-Fullerton Line," accessed 02/13/2018.)

Freight was also carried from the station in La Habra, most of it citrus crops.