Carbon Canyon Historic Artifact #48: Groovy La Vida Dressing Room, 1960s

Here is another Amescolor postcard of La Vida Mineral Springs during the Swinging Sixties, showing the dressing room used before and after guests took to the hot mineral baths.

For its time, the resort was definitely modern and up-to-date.  Note the acoustic ceiling tiles, flourescent lighting fixtures, formica counters, plastic chairs and so on.  While some might cringe at the decor, there are plenty of fans that love this era and its space-age styles.

Walking through part of this site now, it is really hard to imagine the facility being there with its motel, cafe, bath house, swimming pools, landscaping and other elements.

It is pretty difficult to picture a comeback, despite statements that the Japanese owner of the property has contemplated investing $35 million in a new mineral springs resort.

Two Early Photos of La Vida Mineral Springs

Courtesy of University of California, Irvine's Special Collections come these two great early photos of La Vida Mineral Springs, taken by Edward W. Cochems (1875-1949), an amateur photographer based in Santa Ana from about 1919 until his death:

This first view is titled "Bath House, La Vida Springs" and shows a simple, rustic wooden structure with a lattice-work fence just steps off Carbon Canyon Road.  To the east are a couple of cars, dating the photo to the late 1920s or perhaps the early 1930s, while the stand of eucalyptus trees in the background, where the picnic facilities were, still have a survivor or two today.  The location appears to be just where Carbon Creek crosses the highway from its north to south sides.

The second is denoted as "Sulphur Springs / La Vida Cal," and depicts a pipe angled from the top left and depositing a stream of mineral water from what appears to be the hillside above Carbon Creek onto a pile of rocks accessed by a rough wood footbridge.  The precise location may be difficult to pinpoint in today's topography, given that conditions have likely changed a great deal in terms of what is left of the hillside, what course the creek follows and so on.  The date is almost certainly the same as the one above.

The Edward Cochems Colllection at UCI comprises some 1,100 glass plate negatives and about 100 prints with about 40% of the collection available online.  For more on this remarkable collection, please click here and here.

Click on either image to see them in new windows in enlarged views.

Carbon Canyon Historical Artifact #39: Badminton at La Vida Mineral Springs, 1948

This is an unusual view of La Vida Mineral Springs from the 1940s, with a "Genuine Hand Colored Photograph" from publisher Fred K.W. Martin of Pasadena showing a couple of dudes in white duds playing a spirited game of badminton.

The duo are in a dirt court set next to the two-story bath house, which existed for about three decades or so, from the 1920s to the late 1950s, when a devastating explosion destroyed most of the structure, which was then raised and replaced by a motel.

To the left is a small structure which may be the one seen in many views near both the bath house and the hotel and which may have been an office.

A few trees amidst a sitting area with an umbrella and some furniture are also of note.  At the lower left is the name of resort in black lettering, though notice how the letters "Vida Min" are distinct from the rest and are located on what looks like a small post at the border of the badminton court.  Not sure, though, if that means anything.

The postally used card has a one-cent stamp, a postmark from Placentia (La Vida had a rural route designation through that town's post office), an address to some folks from Quakertown, Pennsylvania (about the most appropriate name for a community in the state as could be) and a short message that the sender was readying to go to Santa Catalina Island but also noted that "we went hier [sic] for one week."

While there were other La Vida postcards issued during the 1940s, this one by Martin may be somewhat rare.  In any case, it is a nice little view of another aspect of the springs.  Clicking on the image opens it with a larger view in a separate window.

Carbon Canyon Historical Artifact #37: 1940s Postcard of La Vida Mineral Springs

Here is another ca. 1940s postcard of La Vida Mineral Springs, in which a photograph was rendered into a color image almost looking like a drawing or painting.

The view is from the parking area just west of Carbon [Canyon] Creek, with the footbridge partially visible at left, as well as the red-colored sidewalk, parts of which are still visible in the parking area where the photographer stood for this image.  Off to the left out of view the footbridge led to the café (seen in the last entry here), cottages, a picnic area, and other elements of the resort.

The building in the background is the 1920s-era bathhouse, which was largely destroyed in a late 1950s boiler explosion that badly wounded several people.  On that site, the two-story motel was built that lasted until a fire several decades later.

Today the site is filled with weeds, trees, and the like, giving no indication that something like this was ever there.

On the reverse of the card, published by the Adv. [presumed, Advertising] Pencil Company of Kansas City, Missouri, is a description that reads:

La Vida Mineral Springs Home of World famous Natural Mineral Water, Baths, Massage, Colonics, Hotel Rooms, Housekeeping Cottages, Excellent Café with Home cooked food.  In Beautiful Carbon Canyon just seven miles East of Brea, Calif.  For Health and Relaxation out of the Smog and Fog, visit this secluded, restful Resort.  Just thirty-three miles from Los Angeles.  For information write Rt.1, Box 176A, Placentia, Calif. or call Placentia 5150.

Note that the address was considered Placentia and that, as far back as the 1920s, people associated with La Vida (namely, its managers and employees) had this same rural route post office box address and telephone exchange.  Yet, the description located the site as "just seven miles East of Brea, Calif."  It was not until later, perhaps the 1960s, that this area, part of unincorporated Orange County, was annexed to Brea and became associated with it in address and telephone number listings.

As for those colonics . . .

Carbon Canyon Historical Artifact #36: La Vida Mineral Springs Blanket Room, 1960s

Here is another postcard in a series of views of the La Vida Mineral Springs resort in the Brea side of Carbon Canyon, dating to probably the early 1960s and published by Amescolor Publishers of Escondido.

It is a view of the "blanket room," where, presumably, patrons were wrapped in blankets after emerging from the hot steam baths depicted in an earlier posting on this blog.

The setting is hardly the kind of "aroma therapy" environment that you'd see now.  Instead, this almost looks like it could be a prison or a mental hospital!

Which isn't to say that the staff didn't take good care of its customers at the Springs fifty something years ago, but it was definitely a different era.

Carbon Canyon Historical Artifact #34: The Last of Three 1940s La Vida Mineral Springs Views

This is the last of a set of three circa 1940s real photo postcards of La Vida Mineral Springs in the Brea portion of Carbon Canyon.

The caption at the bottom reads "Bath House / La Vida Mineral Springs," although the title is a little misleading.  What the view does show is portions of the hotel and bathhouse, where the sign partially is visible behind the tree and the one-story structure in front of it.

Notably, the photographer stood in the parking area to the west and captures the dilapidated wooden foot bridge crossing Carbon [Canyon] Creek.  Note how the floor of the bridge is buckled and uneven and the side rails are leaning badly to the left.

There is a sign on a horizontal beam or pole at the middle of the bridge, which issues a welcome to visitors though one wonders what kind of welcome awaited when trying to cross the rickety structure.

More than likely, visitors to the old hotel and bathhouse, which were destroyed in a late 1950s explosion that was covered in a previous post on this blog, took the auto bridge off Carbon Canyon Road closer to the structure. 

In any case, the footings for this bridge and for the auto bridge, both of which are long gone, can still be found on the banks of the creek.

As with the other two cards from the set shown here, this is postally unused and has an EKC (for Eastman Kodak Company) stamp box, dating it to that 1940s time period.

Carbon Canyon Historical Artifact #33: Another 1940s La Vida Mineral Springs Real Photo Postcard

This ca. 1940s real photo postcard of the old hotel and bath house at La Vida Mineral Springs looks northeast from the parking area near the café and appears to be taken by a visitor rather than by a photographer hired by the resort.  Click on it to see a larger view in a separate window.

This is the second of three real photo postcards of the La Vida Mineral Springs, located on the Brea side of Carbon Canyon just a short distance east of Olinda Village on the north side of Carbon Canyon Road.

The view is an interesting one, the photographer standing near the parking lot and just behind a wood fence that paralleled Carbon [Canyon] Creek with the road behind and looking northeastward towards the "Hotel & Bath House."  This would be the older building that was rocked by an explosion in the late 1950s (and which event was discussed in a recent post here.)  Later, a new hotel structure was erected on the site and this was the one destroyed by fire in the late 1980s.

Meantime, there is a one-story structure in front of the hotel/bath house with a red clay tile roof, while a man stands looking at the camera and a woman is at the right turned the other way.  A bit of the hills to the north and easy peek out over the roof line of the two-story hotel/bath house.

This seems to indicate, along with the unusual view, that these cards were taken by a visitor and not by the Springs as an advertising, promotional and souvenir vehicle.  Besides, there is no publishing information on the back of the card, which is postally unused.  As noted in the previous post, the EKC (Eastman Kodak Company) stamp box found on this card is dated from 1930-1950.

Real photo cards were really just photos printed on postcards rather than photo paper and were heavily used by shutterbugs from the early 1900s onward, though by the 1940s, when these were presumably made, they were not in vogue any longer.

The third and final of this series of La Vida RPPCs will be posted next month.

La Vida Mineral Springs Bathhouse Explosion in 1963

In the 15 September 1963 edition of the Los Angeles Times is an article titled, "Nine Injured, Two Gravely, in Blast at Resort."  The piece went on to say that the previous day at 2:45 p.m., a water heater in the basement of the two-story bathhouse exploded.  While there was no fire resulting from the calamity, the effects of the explosion were such that the "first and second floors of the bathhouse were blasted into shambles."

Deputies with the Orange County Sheriff's Department reported that there were some twenty people in the building, most in the dressing rooms, but none actually in the bath area.  Other guests were in nearby hotel cottages and the pool, within about a hundred feet of the bathhouse, and strongly felt the blast, but were unhurt.

Of the nine injured, two guests with minor injuries were transported to La Mirada Hospital.  Seven others were taken to St. Jude's Hospital in Fullerton, including two guests and three employees, one, 17-year old attendant Jimmie Dale Gray, who lived at the resort, being released quickly after treatment for minor injuries.  A masseur, Robert Paque of Orange, suffered a broken right arm and foot injuries, while physical therapist Ernest Brown of La Habra, had leg wounds.

The two badly injured persons, however, were, indeed, gravely wounded.  Mamie Slaton, a 51-year old attendant at La Vida and a resident of Yorba Linda, was so badly hurt that both legs were amputated by surgeons at St. Jude's.  Physical therapist and La Vida resident, Nina Lackey, age 60, was also facing amputation of one of them due to the severity of her wounds.

While officers on scene could not speculate on the cause of the explosion and what the financial loss would be, the paper reported "that the bathhouse is probably a total loss." 

The bathhouse referred to in this article is probably the same pictured in a 1928 postcard that was featured in this blog in the Fall of 2009.   Click here to see that post and note the window opening for the basement, in which the heater that exploded was located.