THE BOOK ENDS, 2704 North Fair Oaks, Lost and Found Altadena

Once upon a time there was a book shop at the top of Fair Oaks Avenue.  It was called the Book Ends and inhabited a beautiful little cottage, Hollywood Regency in style, elegant as old Altadena was.

The address was 2704 North Fair Oaks Avenue, a place for book browsers as nice as could be found in Claremont or Carmel.  These days the old book shop quarters house what looks to be a pre-school, so the little cottage still houses a place of learning.

Here from the back of the book cover one sees the other businesses which were located at the top of Fair Oaks Avenue.  Real estate, beauty salon and garden shop.

All what we could still use today.  With a little work and restoration, this stretch of North Fair Oaks Avenue could be as elegant as it once was, although it looks fairly nice even in its present state.

Here the Book Ends Hollywood Regency cottage today, although quite hidden by shrubbery, it appears in good repair.

Another shot, this one showing the interesting architectural gem just to the north.

And a shot of the Hollywood Regency mansion on the SW corner of Mariposa and Fair Oaks, alluded to in the previous shot.

This may have been built by the same designer at the Book Ends cottage.

Quite an ensemble, the two structures, don't you think?

Here 2648 North Fair Oaks, former home to the Mariposa Garden Shop.  You probably know that Mariposa is butterfly in Spanish, but our Mariposa was named after Mariposa County in Northern California.

Wouldn't it be nice if we had a garden shop here, as A.R. Verdier had back in the 1930's, which was open seven days a week, as posted in their ad?

And here is the site of Syd Winn's Beauty Salon, specializing in permanents, hair tinting, hair cutting according to his advertisement.

Now the site of the Little Red Hen Coffee Shop, and usually has the owner's Rolls Royce parked in front.  He drove it away just as I was taking this picture.  We'll have to go back for breakfast some time; this place looks more inviting than Syd Winn's Beauty Salon.

Does anyone have any memories of this area?  Please leave a comment about what you remember!