for Old Town Newhall Association's Night Under the Stars Sept. 13 for SCVTV.com • Local Television for Santa Clarita
for Old Town Newhall Association's Night Under the Stars Sept. 13 for SCVTV.com • Local Television for Santa Clarita
Overview of Railroad Avenue
Newhall, California
This photograph of Railroad Avenue in downtown Newhall, looking west, was taken c. 1900 from the hill above and immediately east of Pine Street and the Newhall Creek.The town of Newhall sprouted around its train station, which was erected in 1876 near what is now the intersection of Magic Mountain Parkway and San Fernando Road. A year and a half later, the Southern Pacific Railroad Company moved the station two miles to the south. The rest of the town picked up and moved with it.
Railroad Avenue was Newhall's "Main Street" from 1878 until about 1914, when a dispute over real estate prices led former Railroad Avenue merchant Albert Swall to build a hotel one block to the west, on Spruce Street (known as San Fernando Road today). Many merchants followed suit.
Seen at left, foreground, are warehouse buildings that sat next to the Newhall Depot, which is just out of view. On the far side of Railroad Avenue, at left, is the Oil Exchange building, which was used by Demetrius Scofield's Pacific Coast Oil Company to ship oil from nearby Mentryville. At right is Lewman & Co.'s general store, originally built by George Campton. It doubled as the Newhall Post Office.
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