The same generous neighbors who loaned the David Purington reminiscences that have appeared in two installments here to date followed up with some other great material relating to Sleepy Hollow history.
These include copies of community newsletters from the mid-1960s and late 1970s, community calendars from the early 1970s and some photographs dating as far back as th 1930s. A few of the latter are being shared in this post.
One is a great view taken from northwest part of Sleepy Hollow and looking to the south and east. There are a smattering of houses on the steep slopes off Hay Drive as it winds up in switchback fashion from Rosemary Lane down towards the lower part of the photo and with Carbon Canyon Road at the very bottom.
There is a large light-colored home at the center and to the right of that, below and above Hay Drive, are two structures that are still standing. The one above the road with a set of windows at the left and a single one at the right of the facing elevation was built in 1929, according to its current owner. The one below, a Craftsman style dwelling, with a small second story tower, is the other. The homes flanking the Craftsman may still be there, as well.
At the bottom towards the lower right corner is a Pueblo-style unit with a garage accessed off Carbon Canyon Road. At the top, above the 1929 house, is another 1920s-era house on Grandview Lane that is likely still there. Otherwise, there was still plenty of space left for later buildings in subsequent decades.
The other two photographs are taken from near the same vantage point and it looks to this observer like the view is from the southeast corner of Sleepy Hollow from about Francis Drive and its intersection with Hay Drive, which would be the dirt road moving off from the center and lower left of the respective photos.
If this assumption is correct, the photos look back to about where the first image was taken, with Lion's Canyon being just beyond the community and to the right of the bare patch at the bottom of the sloping hillside at the west side of that canyon, which is the entrance to today's St. Joseph's Hill of Hope campus. In the more horizontal of the two views, Carbon Canyon Road would move from the center of the right margin up towards that bare patch.
These rare early views of Sleepy Hollow not only show the community within probably 20 years of its 1923 founding, but also indicate just how rural and remote the neighborhood was 70-80 or more years ago. Looking at the chapparal and other vegetation and thinking about the primitive state of firefighting generally, much less in an isolated area like Sleepy Hollow, it's remarkable that there wasn't more destruction from the wildfires that have occasionally burst forth in Carbon Canyon.
The situation has changed considerably, but the rural quality of the community, even as suburbanization has crept closer over the years, is what has been both a great attraction for its residents and a risk, as well.
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