The Metamorphous of Barton Road and Environs Through the Decades as Viewed From Loma Vista Drive

The well traveled Barton Road has gone though some changes through the decades. The feature image is of Barton Road taken around 1925 from a spot above what is known today as Loma Vista Drive. This photograph may be of a postcard for if one looks closely at the bottom of the picture it reads: “Loma Linda Sanitarium, Loma Linda, Calif.” Barton Road (to the right) comes off of the knoll and the first road to the left is what was known as San Bernardino Street. Today it is known as Campus Street. The hill on which the Loma Linda Sanitarium once stood is positioned in the center of the image.  The building on the hill was Loma Linda’s second hospital, a T-shaped building constructed in 1924. At the center left in the photo is most likely the southwest corner of North Lab, which was located on the site where Evans Hall is today. The building was razed in 1936. No doubt the photo was taken in the late fall or winter as snow is on the  mountains in the background.

Although this photograph (circa 1955) is somewhat grainy it reveals some significant changes to the small community. Coming off the knoll, Barton Road is now a four lane road narrowing to a single lane east of Campus Street. Campus Street has become a prominent intersection. A few houses had been built to the south and I believe the house still there today. North of Barton Road the Orchards still stand and will do so until the trees are taken out to make ready for the new hospital to be built on that site. In the upper left hand corner of the image is the southeast section of the hill. A water tower had been added sometime around 1928, about four years after the hospital on the hill was built.

This photo (circa 1968) was taken on the hill (most likely the San Juan Street area) just to the north of Barton Road. At the lower right is the Hughes Loma Linda Mortuary. To the lower left is Linda Valley No. 1, known today as West Hall. Both buildings front campus street. To the right just out of the frame is Barton Road.

This is the closest location I could get in replicating the spot where the previous image was taken 50 years ago. In the bottom center of the photo is the roof of West Hall formerly Linda Valley No. 1, which fronts Campus Street. The former Hughes Loma Linda Mortuary is behind the  trees to the lower right. During the past 50 years, the Medical Center has expanded to include the Children’s Hospital (center right). The multi-story parking structure P3, which is located on the corner of Barton Road and Campus Street is just beyond the roof line of West Hall.

Another photograph (circa 1976), which depicts Barton Road this time boasting of a four lane boulevard. In the upper right (where the cloudy skies meet the trees) is the Loma Linda Veterans Administration Hospital, which was under construction. At the lower left, on the corner of Barton Road and Campus Street, is the Hughes Loma Linda Mortuary.

This 2005 photo was taken from Loma Vista Drive approximately thirteen years ago. The west bound lanes of Barton Road are visible at the lower right. By this time, the Hughes Loma Linda Mortuary had been purchased by the Medical Center to house the electrical engineering department.

What is that old English idiom? A picture is worth a thousand words. Snow is still on the mountains, Barton Road is still a four-lane highway, many of the same buildings still stand, multi-story parking structures (P2, P3, and P4) are now in the picture. And, the once iconic clover leaf Medical Center is now dwarfed by the steel frame of the Loma Linda Children’s and Adult Hospital towers.

Note: The black and white photos in this blog are courtesy of the Loma Linda University archives, and were featured in the Mound City Chronicles: A Pictorial History of Loma Linda University A Health Sciences Institution, authored by Dennis E. Park and Published by the Alumni Association, School of Medicine of Loma Linda University.

(To be revisited after the GFRC (prefab curtain walls cover the steel frame.)