Eagle Rock grew as a small farming community just north of Los Angeles on Tongva ancestral lands that had become the great eastern pasture of the Rancho San Rafael. Eagle Rock enjoyed a geographic unity and a strong identity that revolved around its prominent namesake promontory. By 1906, trolleys made for an easy commute to Los Angeles, and Eagle Rock, which incorporated as a city in 1911, became increasingly integrated in the urban fabric yet remained defined by its residential nature and small-town character. Occidental College saw the quaint neighborhood at one end of York Valley as a place to grow. The annexation of Eagle Rock by Los Angeles in 1923 brought ample water supply as well as Eagle Rock High School, a center of town life into the 21st century. Freeway construction and shifts in business patterns affected Eagle Rock's growth in the post-World War II years, but the pleasant neighborhood identity remains despite its proximity to urban bustle.
Author Eric Warren, president of the Eagle Rock Valley Historical Society, selected these remarkable vintage images of his neighborhood's past from the society's outstanding archives as well as other public and private collections. They illustrate Eagle Rock's steady evolution from an oak-shaded valley into one of Los Angeles's great neighborhoods.