David Purington Reminiscences of Sleepy Hollow, Part Four

Today's entry is the fourth part of a series focusing on the typed (that is, with a typewriter) recollections, probably from the late 1970s or early 1980s, of David Purington, whose father, Cleve, and partners created Sleepy Hollow in 1923 when greater Los Angeles was at the peak of another of its many real estate booms.  Thanks to my neighbors who loaned these documents and other material relating to Sleepy Hollow so they could be uploaded here!

As mentioned previously in this series and elsewhere, Cleve Purington died in 1927, but his widow and family continued to manage the subdivision and live in the community for decades.  So, the narrative begins with David remembering that he "was about eight years old when my father was developing a subdivision in 1927 that was to be Lookout Ridge in Carbon Canyon which is located near Yorba Linda, California."  He went on to note that the tract "was the last to be developed out of eighty acres he had purchased in 1921." 

While the first development was Sleepy Hollow, which "was [a] handy place to have a summer cabin," the new one, Lookout Ridge, was situated on the upper slopes of the hills at the north side of the area and was given that name "because this remaining parcel consisted of a prometory [promontory] from which one could see in both direction[s] up and down the lenght [sic] of Carbon Canyon."  In addition, the rest of the land "consists of a bowl that overlooks a neighboring canyon," this probably being Lion's Canyon to the west and north where the St. Joseph's Hill of Hope religious compound is.

In what seems to be universal for almost any secluded hill location, Purington added, "it has been said that Muerietta, the early California hold-up man used the ridge as a 'lookout point.'  It is also said that he camped by the spring when he was in this area."  Joaquin Murrieta is a shadowy figure in the Gold Rush period of California, said to be the head of a large gang of desperadoes who committed robberies and other crimes throughout the state. 

At times, there were several simultaneous reports of him in varying areas of California, this reflecting the heightened state of tension many residents felt.  In 1853, it was said that Murrieta was killed and his decapitated head pickled in a jar for identification--this jar was reportedly displayed until it was destroyed in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire.

Whether Murrieta was ever in Carbon Canyon can't be documented, though it is certainly possible, although in nearby Soquel Canyon, just to the south, a hunted murderer, Felipe Alvitre, holed up until he was discovered by Ygnacio Palomares, a rancher from what became Pomona looking for stray animals.  This was in late 1854, a year after Murrieta's death, so maybe these stories were conflated?

In any case, Purington recorded that his father "put a well down above where the spring trickled out of the side of the hill which was to be the water-supply for the Lookout Ridge tract" and that "the well tested out satisfactorily."  Moreover, "since the spring water was very soft and good tasting," Purington's father installed a concrete catchment basin in the hillside and had a 1-inch pipe lead from that down the hill.

He continued

since the water from the wells the supplied the Sleepy Hollow tracts was very hard water he had the pipe run down the hillside to the large oak tree located near Joe Tater's restaurant in Sleepy Hollow where it ran into a small tank from which people could fill five gallon bottles for drinking water.

At the Carbon Canyon talk given at the Yorba Linda Library a month ago, Joe Tater and his wife attended and talked a little with some of those in attendance about the decade or so from 1970 to 1980 when they owned the restaurant where the Party House Liquor Store building is today.   The oak tree likely still stands in the grove behind the structure.

Purington added that he was drawn to the work being done to build the roads that crawled up the steep hillside, done with mules, "fresnos" or early graders, and "lots of pick and shovel work."  He added that the location of the spring was shaded by oaks "and was a very cool and relaxing spot" for his family and the workers.

Purington was away in the service during the Second World War and returned to Sleepy Hollow to a home he had built before he left.  He, his wife Leone, and their four children lived there and, in 1954, he purchased the land where the spring and well were situated.  The purpose, he wrote, was as a backup water supply for seven acres he owned "over the hill from the spring."  Unfortunately, he built a home there that burned just the following year.  This led him to sell all of that land, except for where the spring was (for obvious reasons of future value and use) and move to Hawaii.

Twenty years passed and Purington decided to return and develop the slightly more than one acre he retained around the spring.  He christened the property Hana Ranch, after a granddaughter who was born in Maui.  What struck him, though, was that "the new piece of land I was to develop around the spring was not the same portion of the mountain side I had originally spent considerable time walking over and planning!"  Why was not stated—perhaps someone had done grading on his land illegally?

In any case, Purington said he saw other projects in the area and decided to maintain "the topography as much as possible" with as little grading as he could do.  His home was selected on the highest portion with the bowl mentioned above at the rear, so he could maximize sun exposure (possibly using solar power), winter warmth, summer breezes, and have a windmill for water.  With a permit secured and power brought to the property, it was time to address obtaining the water.

The natural flow from the spring wasn't enough, so Purington uncovered the old well his father dug fifty years before and which had a ten-foot long redwood shaft. After clearing it out, he acquired a old pump to start with and then a submersible with a timer because "the water is in a small basin and although the supply [is] adequate the recharge is slow."  His plan at the time of writing was to bore a hole up to fifty feet in and draw water out by gravity flow using a windmill.

Purington added that he had "two lady friends I stayed with alternately [who] needed more serious commitments that I was not prepared to make" so he moved to his property staying in a small building he'd put there before he went to Hawaii.  A daughter joined him there and he added another small structure as "an office and general controll [sic] center for the ranch establishment."

In spring 1977, Purington began his house below the well site, but, because there was no road for ready access, concrete for the foundation was mixed above and transported by chute down below.  Delays ensued because of repairs to the temporary buildings being used and for other reasons.  He also noted that the original water tank from the 1920s for the Lookout Ridge tract was still on the site, though it was pushed down the hill to the well site and had many bullet holes.  He hoped it could either be repaired and used for water storage or, with a door cut into it, as a storage building, so it was lowered to a spot below the well for gravity feeding of water.

He mentioned the idea of further digging out and leveling an area for a home for his daughter and "a pool or some body of water we can jump into either a hot or cold day depending how successful we are with solar water heating."  Later, he was able to get an access road cut directly to the house site.  By the time fall came, he decided to hold off completing the framing the house until the following spring because of winter weather.  So Purington spent some time with family and friends in Hawaii, returning to the canyon in mid-January 1978.

Purington noted that it rained basically from that point all the way through mid-April and wrote "I am sure in the future this period will be known as the, 'Rains of 1978.'"  In fact, that winter was one of the three wettest since official records for the region were started a century before and about the same as 2004-05.  Unfortunately, the narrative ends at the fifth page where Purington talked about erosion of the soil around his house because of the torrents of rainfall and the story leaves us, like his house-in-progress, on a cliff-hanger!

Check back periodically for part five of the Purington reminiscences.