Chino Hills History Talk on 9 September

The Chino Hills Historical Society's next event is Monday, 9 September at 7 p.m. at the Chino Hills Community Center and features a talk on Chicago financier Albert W. Harris' Anazel Ranch, a 170-acre property for Arabian horse breeding just west of Los Serranos Country Club.

Harris, who ran one of Chicago's biggest banks, was said to be the first American to breed Arabian horses, starting with his Kemah Farm in Wisconsin.  After visiting Los Angeles, Harris was taken with the growing city and region and even organized and carried out an oxen-led covered wagon trip for the City of Angels to his Wisconsin horse ranch in 1911.

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Not long after Will Keith Kellogg, the Michigan cereal magnate, purchased land west of Pomona to breed horses—this now being the location of Cal Poly Pomona—Harris acquired 170 acres in 1927 from the Chino Land and Water Company, said to be the last major sale of Rancho Santa Ana del Chino land, and established Anazel Ranch to breed his prized Arabians.

Harris expended a large sum to build an expansive ranch house, barns, stables, workers' quarters and other outbuildings and maintained the ranch for about a quarter century.  Nationally known for his breeding, Harris wrote extensively about Arabian horses and held leadership positions with national associations for the breed.  Several years after selling Anazel to Paul Greening, who became one of Chino Hills' major landowners and developers, Harris died at age 91 in 1958.

Attached here is the Society's press release and hope to see you there.

Sleepy Hollow Artist Exhibits at Chino Hills Community Center

A wall in the Chino Hills Community Center displays a half-dozen paintings by Sleepy Hollow-based artist Hillary Miller and the showing will continue through April.

Since its opening, the Chino Hills Community Center has had displays of artwork from local artists on the walls in the hallway next to the multipurpose room, sponsored by chARTS, a committee of the Chino Hills Community Foundation that has also staged theatrical presentations and musical performances.

Through April, the current exhibit includes the work of three Chino Hills artists, including Hillary Miller, a neighbor here in Sleepy Hollow.  Hillary, who works in oil, pastel, watercolor, and, more recently, silk, and also paints murals and does ceramics, has several beautiful paintings in her exhibit.

A detail of a brightly-colored and highly-expressive still life by Hillary Miller of Sleepy Hollow, titled "Artichokes in the Garden" is a fanciful rendering of a plant from the artist's garden.

While much of her art consists of portraits, still lifes and Judaica, a favorite is the landscape in Carbon Canyon, which is well represented in the display.  The depictions range widely in terms of their emotive characteristics, with some heavily symbolic and more abstract and others more realistic and true-to-life.

This watercolor, called "Misty Canyon" is reflective of the landscape in and around Carbon Canyon.

Hillary began her career as a working artist some thirty-five years ago and she has a bachelor's degree in Fine Arts and a master's in drawing and painting.  This year marks her thirtieth as an exhibitor of her work and she has taught at local colleges as well as at her Sleepy Hollow studio.

For more information, please check out her Web site and blog here.

The chARTS page on the City of Chino Hills Web site can be found here.

And, the Web site of the Chino Hills Community Foundation may be accessed here.

"Carbon Canyon Summer II" is a beautiful pastel with rich colors and strong contrasts, evoking the diverse beauty of Carbon Canyon.

There are other artists in the Carbon Canyon area and a post coming soon will showcase a striking mural by another Sleepy Hollow artist, so look for that in a short while.