Railroad Avenue, c. 1879
Newhall, California

Probably taken in 1879 from the Newhall Depot looking west, this is the oldest known photograph of downtown Newhall. In January and February of 1878, the town moved from the junction of modern-day Bouquet Canyon Road and Magic Mountain Parkway, where it started in 1876, to the corner of Railroad Avenue and Eighth Street. Building materials are still piled up in the foreground.

Sporting the blank frontage at left is Mike Powell's Palace Saloon. In the center is George Campton's general store, which was originally established at Bouquet Junction in 1876 and housed the Newhall Post Office. At right is the Derrick Saloon, a favorite of the Pico Canyon oil drillers (Mentryville was a "dry" town). Barely visible next to the Derrick is a "Billiard and Pool Room" which advertised "soft drinks, cigars and tobacco" on its storefront sign. In the distance is the spire of the first Newhall School, built about 1879. It burned down in 1890.