Members of the Altadena Historical Society (AHS) and the Episcopal Home Communities look through the contents of a box of documents and pictures from the Scripps Home. From left: former Scripps resident Jeanne Guernsey, Mary Lou Langedyke of AHS, Martha Tamburrano, president and CEO of the Episcopal Homes Communities, AHS Archivist Sherry Cavallo, and Kathy Hoskins of AHS.
The Altadena Historical Society welcomed a treasure trove Tuesday morning, as the Episcopal Home Communities donated a large cache of documents, pictures, and artifacts from the Scripps Home to their archive.
The Scripps Home was a senior housing community that opened in 1912, at the now-vacant site on North El Molino Avenue between East Calavaras Street and Alameda Street. The Scripps Home was acquired by the Episcopal Home Communities, which closed the home in 2007 and tore down the buildings to create a more modern facility, MonteCedro. Residents of Scripps were relocated to other senior housing owned by the Episcopal Home Communities, but the bad economy has stalled construction of MonteCedro and the property remains vacant.
Pictured: Episcopal Home's director of pastoral care The Rev. Sarah Nichols moves a large framed photograph into the Historical Society's office at the Altadena Community Center.
But old records, scrapbooks, and photos from the Scripps Home were saved and put in storage. Jeanne Guernsey, a former Scripps resident who now lives at The Windsor facility in Glendale, took charge of the items and worked to insure their collection and preservation.
Pictured: Archivist Sherry Cavello watches as Episcopal Homes' CEO Martha Tamburrano signs over ownership of the collection to the Altadena Historical Society.
"My heart and soul is in this, and I treasure every item," Guernsey told a group of women from the Episcopal Homes and the Altadena Historical Society during the delivery.
The Episcopal Home Communities offered to donate the Scripps ephemera to the Altadena Historical Society to be preserved and catalogued, at a location not too far from where the home was located.
"This is a real gift to Altadena's collection," said Mary Lou Langedyke, a board member of the Historical Society.
Pictured: the trove of documents included photographs, framed newspaper and magazine articles, and other large items.
(Note: fixed the identifications on the first picture -- never, never do anything before that first cup of coffee!)
