As I write this, Titley Ave. is a stub of a street that runs a few hundred yards between Foothill Blvd., on the north, and the 210 freeway on the south.. On the south side of the freeway, Kinneloa Ave. is a north-south street that dead ends into the freeway. The City is nearly done with a tunnel under the 210 freeway that will connect Kinneloa and Titley avenues and allow north-south traffic under the freeway.
With the two streets connected, will there still be two street names or will Kinneloa be renamed Titley or visa-versa? The decision has been made and Titley Ave. will be renamed Kinneloa Ave.
The bell has sounded for the little street. Soon Titley Avenue will be no more.
When Titley Ave. goes, so too will any physical reference to an old place named “Titleyville.”
Not that Titleyville was ever an official city or town. There were no “entering” or “leaving” signs, city councils or chambers of commerce. But, for half a century, the name marked a place where hundreds of people made their homes, did business, and raised families.
Depending upon the source, Titleyville spanned the years 1900 – 1950. The village center was the site of the present day Target store (previously Fedco) on East Colorado Blvd. The unofficial boundaries seem to be east of Eaton Wash, south of Foothill Blvd. and north of Colorado Blvd.
I have not found the origin of the village’s name. I assume there was a Titley family in the area around the turn of the century, but haven’t seen any reference to them. Spanish speakers had another name for Titleyville — “Chihuahuita” or Little Chihuahua. The later name was possibly given in recognition that some early residents immigrated from Chihuahua.
Whatever the name, by the 1920’s there were 350 residents, primarily Latino, in an established village. Many residents worked in area vineyards, orchards or packing houses. As historian and civic leader Roberta Martinez points out, this was a vibrant little village.
Martinez writes about Chihuahuita in her excellent book, Latinos in Pasadena. Because it was a distance from Pasadena proper, there was a self-sufficiency and definition about the place. Chihuahuita had two stores with shopkeepers who lived in the village. It supported two churches — a Roman Catholic Church and a Methodist Church. And there was a school, which opened in 1915 as Titleyville School and was later renamed Chihuahuita School.
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So what happened to Titleyville/Chihuahuita?
The combination of time and growth gradually overcame the little village. Bit by bit the distance and distinction between the urban City of Pasadena and rural lands to the east were diminished. The old communities of Lamanda Park and Titleyville gradually melded into East Pasadena. And the old names lost their currency until one day the only physical reminder of Titleyville’s existance was a stub of a street dead-ending into the freeway.
Soon, even that last sign of Titleyville will be gone.
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Check out Pasadena Adjacent for more on Roberta Martinez and her book.
Also, a brief but nice discussion of Titleyville/Chihuahuita is in the East Colorado Specific Plan.
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