This November, the Whittier Museum Puts Your Daily Route on Display

Lee Owens Park sits on Greenleaf Avenue. Before it was a park, that ground held a car dealership. In 1946, Clint Harris opened Harris Oldsmobile there. The Whittier Daily News described him as a lifelong confidant of President Richard Nixon.

On Saturday, November 14, that story becomes an exhibit. The Whittier Museum is opening "Harris Oldsmobile & Whittier's Auto Row" on its first-floor Main Street, along with two other new displays. The same morning, Chris Krause gives a talk on how Whittier's streets got their names. The night before is Friday the 13th, and the museum turns its lights off for lantern-lit ghost tours. Most of the weekend is about the city's own addresses: the streets, sidewalks and corner lots people in Whittier drive past every day.

From Greenleaf Avenue to Whittier Boulevard

Harris Oldsmobile spent its first 18 years on Greenleaf. In 1964 it moved to 13617 Whittier Blvd. The business stayed on the boulevard far longer than it had stayed Uptown, 46 years in all. It was not alone there. When Harris closed on September 24, 2010, the Whittier Daily News reported a whole group of dealerships along Whittier Boulevard. That run of showrooms is what the exhibit calls Whittier's Auto Row.

The closing ended 64 years of Harris in Whittier. By then the name over the door had changed with the industry. In May 2009 the paper reported that Harris and Saturn of Whittier, at 13809 Whittier Blvd., would give up their GM franchises voluntarily. The building on Whittier Boulevard came down in June 2011, as covered in a Whittier Daily News demolition report.

Harris closed only 16 years ago, so many people who now shop, commute and run errands along Whittier Boulevard were living here when Harris was open. The exhibit puts the museum's recreated Main Street next to a stretch of the city that changed within recent memory.

Saturday Morning on Newlin Avenue

The Whittier Historical Society holds its Annual Meeting on Saturday, November 14, at 10 a.m. at the Whittier Museum, 6755 Newlin Ave. It is free and open to the public as well as to members. The program centers on Chris Krause's talk about Whittier street names. That talk pairs naturally with the Auto Row exhibit: one covers the businesses that lined the streets, and the other covers where the street names came from.

Three exhibits have their grand opening that morning:

1. Harris Oldsmobile & Whittier's Auto Row, on the first floor's Main Street
2. Whittier Cavalier Band & Lin Lovettes marching group, on the second floor
3. The refurbished classroom exhibit, also on the first floor

There will be refreshments, and museum staff and board members will be on hand to talk about how to support the Whittier Historical Society. If you have only been to the museum for one exhibit, this is the morning to see several new things on both floors.

The Night Before, by Lantern

On Friday, November 13, the Whittier Historical Society and Jacob Caputo run Museum Ghost Tours. Caputo created the Haunted Whittier: Ghosts, Myths & Legends Tours. He leads groups by lantern light through the darkened museum and tells stories of ghosts, hauntings and unexplained events from around Whittier. Tours start at 6:00, 7:30 and 9:00 p.m. and cost $30 per person.

Each tour holds 25 people, so the whole night has 75 spots. Many Halloween events are open to anyone who walks up. This one is not, and it falls on a Friday the 13th. Reservations go through the museum's Ghost Tours page, which links to the ticket seller. Check there before making plans around a particular time slot.

The ghost tours fit the weekend's theme too. They are built on stories set in Whittier, told inside the building that will open the Auto Row and street-name history the next morning.

How the Weekend Lines Up

The museum is the center of the weekend, but other events in Uptown fall on the same days. Here is all of it in order:

The Friends of the Whittier Public Library sale is buy one, get one, and it overlaps with both museum events. Whittier Community Theatre has posted the dates for Silent Sky but not curtain times for most of them. Check its site before you plan around a show.

Silent Sky is the one event that weekend that isn't about Whittier. Lauren Gunderson's play tells the story of Henrietta Swan Leavitt, a "computer" at the Harvard Observatory in the 19th century. She was not allowed to use a telescope, yet her discoveries made it possible for others to measure the distance to the stars. The run lasts three weekends, November 7, 8, 13, 14, 15, 20 and 21. The November 8 performance includes an American Sign Language interpreter. Tickets for the November 7 opening, an 8 p.m. show, are $22.50 to $27.75 with fees.

Before and After the Weekend

The exhibits open on November 14, but you don't have to go that day to see them. The Whittier Museum is regularly open Tuesday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Admission is free, and donations are appreciated. A weekday lunch hour is enough time to see the Auto Row display and then drive the stretch of Whittier Boulevard it describes.

Two other dates bracket the museum weekend. The City of Whittier's Veterans Day Celebration is Wednesday, November 11, from 10 a.m. to noon at Central Park. The farmers market on Philadelphia Street stays on its Friday schedule through November and December. The Uptown Whittier Christmas Parade is Saturday, December 12, on Greenleaf Avenue. Its event page blocks out 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. but still lists the parade time itself as TBA. The parade will come down Greenleaf Avenue, the same street where Harris Oldsmobile opened in 1946.

If the Auto Row exhibit has you curious about the history of your own block, or about how Whittier's older corridors could figure into a future move, Charlotte Kornik is happy to talk it through with you in confidence. Request a private consultation, and ask about early access to her exclusive listings.