Mountain Views News          Saturday, April 14, 2012

LIBRARIAN (continued from page 1)

On March 29 the colorful but now-fragile quilt was brought out of storage and displayed in the 
Library in her honor.

Margaret loves to travel, and over the years she shared some of her adventures in five Travelers and 
Collectors presentations held at the Library. Her program highlighting her experiences attending the 
extravagant and “scandalous” wedding of her friend, who happened to be a British Earl, to a beautiful 
Brazilian banker, garnered the all-time highest attendance (175) for the popular armchair travelers 
series.

Margaret is a familiar face at Sunday Mass at St. Rita Church, where she regularly serves as a 
Eucharistic minister and lector. Though retired from the Library, she continues to don her “librarian 
cap” every Friday morning, as she has for decades, volunteering at the Mater Dolorosa Retreat Center 
where she maintains the center’s collection of theological works.

Margaret and David, her husband of 60 years, raised four children in Sierra Madre, and have lived in 
town for most of their married life.

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Mountain Views-News Saturday, April 14, 2012 

SIERRA MADRE LIBRARY AWARDED LOCAL 
HISTORY PRESERVATION GRANT

The California Preservation Program recently announced that the Sierra Madre Public Library has 
been awarded a $4,000 Collection Assessment Preservation Grant for its Local History collection. 
The California Preservation Assessment Project (CPAP) is designed to help small and mid-sized 
libraries and archives plan improvements for the care of their historical collections. 

A preservation consultant will visit the Library to help implement the assessment. A survey of the 
collection, including scope and scale of preservation needs, is an essential first step in creating a plan 
for enhanced collection care. Institutions that have completed collection assessments are more likely 
to receive additional funding for preservation work. 

When asked what impact she anticipates the award will have on the Library’s Archives, Debbie 
Henderson, Associate Librarian for the Archival Collection, said, “Our Local History collection has 
worked hard for us over the last ten years with the Centennial Celebration and the publication of 
Southern California Story: Seeking the Better Life in Sierra Madre. It is imperative that we review the 
collection as a whole and address its preservation and conservation needs.” 

The Sierra Madre Public Library is one of ten California repositories that received the award.


SIERRA MADRE’S FARMERS MARKET

The Farmers Market is open every Wednesday from 3:00-7:00 p.m. The location of the market 
is on Hermosa Avenue, south of Sierra Madre Boulevard to Mariposa Avenue, situated in the 
downtown area of Sierra Madre. Spring is in the air and the market is beginning to bustle. We 
have organic, fresh and locally grown produce. The farmers market is a great opportunity to come 
on down and meet the farmer directly. Dry Dock Fish has fresh and delicious wild caught varieties 
of fish. Rustic Loaf has your artisanal breads baked fresh that same day and brought to the market. 
Cutie Pie that has pies made with the fruits of our organic farmers, make sure you pick one or two 
up for desert. There are so many unique and amazing finds at the farmers market. Come on down 
to the Sierra Madre Farmers Market and shake the hand that feed you.

If you are interested in becoming a vendor at the Farmers Market, please contact Melissa Farwell 
from Raw Inspiration at (818) 591-8161 Ext. 806. Raw Inspiration, Inc., is responsible for all 
management and marketing of the City’s Farmers Market. For additional information please 
contact the Community & Personnel Services Department (626) 355-5278.


Garden Tour Stop: The Courtney Residence

Inspired by a trip to the south where they became intrigued with the warmth and character of 
homes and gardens built through Southern Louisiana by architect Hays Town

the couple returned to design and build their new home on a newly purchased property in Sierra 
Madre.

The goal… Solve the problems presented by an unusual, difficult building site and incorporate the 
best of yesterday’s southern charm with the contemporary lifestyle for a working couple and active 
teenage family. The result is a home and garden perfect for everyday living and entertaining friends 
and their own large extended families.

 

Approached through an arched opening below the guest house which is located at the lower front 
end of the property, the antiqued concrete drive leads upward to the front entry. Access to the rear 
yard is through an ornate wrought iron gate with a walkway that steps up past a small courtyard 
and fountain

.

The backyard includes a series of spaces for outdoor living. Dining terraces adjacent to the house 
below a second story terrace off the master bed room provide magnificent mountain views. The pool 
and spa are placed on a second level, and a third level contains an overlooking cabana and fire pit. 
The garden then terminates in an orchard, vegetable garden in raised beds, and a brick structure 
called a pigeonneir utilized as a pool area change room.

Plant material selections throughout the site once again recall the southern theme. 

Crape myrtles and weeping willow augment the existing Oak trees. Shrubs include Azaleas, 
Camellias. Philodendron xanadu, Japanese maples with Mondo grass groundcover in shady portions 
of the garden.


SIERRA MADRE SEARCH AND RESCUE LOG

During the month of March, Sierra Madre Search and Rescue (SMSR) responded to six 
calls for assistance. 

Injured Hiker, Eaton Canyon/Medical Emergency, Big Santa Anita Canyon: SMSR 
responded to a mutual-aid call from Altadena Mountain Rescue regarding an injured hiker 
in Eaton Canyon. Team members assisted Altadena personnel in evacuating the injured 
party via litter wheel-out. Just as this operation was being secured, SMSR was called to 
a medical emergency in Big Santa Anita Canyon. Additional SMSR members responded 
along with those from the Eaton Canyon rescue. The patient was assessed at the scene and 
evacuated to Chantry Flat via litter wheel-out by SMSR and L.A. County Fire personnel, 
then transported to the hospital by ambulance 

Missing Backpacker, Switzer Falls: The Team responded to a mutual-aid call from 
Montrose Search and Rescue regarding a missing backpacker. SMSR crews worked several 
assignments in the search area. A combined crew from SMSR and Montrose found the 
subject deceased.

Missing Hiker, Millard Canyon: Responding to a mutual-aid call from Altadena 
Mountain Rescue, SMSR members were dispatched to search for a hiker who had been 
missing for two days. A crew of EMT-certified SMSR members located the subject after 
dark and provided initial medical treatment. Personnel from other participating agencies 
helped evacuate the subject to the trailhead, where they were transported to the hospital. 

Missing Hikers, Big Santa Anita Canyon: Shortly after completing a technical rescue 
training exercise in adverse weather conditions, the Team was notified by Montrose Search 
and Rescue that a party of four hikers were missing in the Mt. Wilson area. SMSR crews 
were dispatched along several likely routes of travel and located the party on a trail in 
Big Santa Anita Canyon. The hikers were uninjured and were escorted to the trailhead at 
Chantry Flat.

For 60 years the all-volunteer Sierra Madre Search and Rescue team has been responding 
to calls for help in the local mountains and beyond. Funded entirely by private donations, 
SMSR provides a range of public programs on wilderness safety in addition to its search 
and rescue activities. The Team never charges for any of its services.

For more information, including how to arrange a wilderness safety demonstration for 
your school or group, visit www.smsr.org.

50TH ANNUAL SIERRA MADRE ART FAIR

Alison Snow, chair of the 50th annual Friends of the 
Sierra Madre Library Art Fair is excited to announce that 
our featured artist is Carolyn Grantham Gravatte, a long-
time resident and painter of Sierra Madre. (Go to: http://
mtnviewsnews.com/v06/htm/n12/p27.htm) 

Gravatte has been painting a series of canvases featuring 
‘site specific’ scenes around and about Sierra Madre. 
The first in the Sierra Madre series was “The Old North 
Church” painted in 2004. She may be best known to 
Sierra Madre citizens as the artist whose 2006 painting of the Sierra Madre Playhouse was used for 
the cover of the book, The California Story: Seeking the Better Life in Sierra Madre, published by the 
Sierra Madre Historical Preservation Society in 2009. The site for her latest work was chosen, with 
much thought, by the Art Committee as a treasured view of our town and our mountain Jones Peak. 
Entitled “It’s A Good Life”, the painting can now be seen hanging in the Library reference room. 

The 50th annual Friends of the Sierra Madre Library’s art fair will be held in Memorial Park, 222 West 
Sierra Madre Blvd, Sierra Madre, on Saturday, May 5, from 9:30AM to 6:00PM and Sunday, May 6, 
from 9:30AM to 5:00PM. More than 80 artists will be displaying and selling their fine arts during 
the weekend. Mediums include oil paintings, jewelry, water colors, glass, wood, metal, photography, 
pottery, ceramics, mixed media, and hand woven baskets and rugs. The Art Fair will be the perfect 
place to find that unique Mother’s Day, graduation, or wedding gift and to find art that you will be 
proud to wear or display in your home.

Live music will be featured throughout the weekend in the band shell and on the south lawn and a 
food court will offer a variety of food and drinks provided by local non-profit groups as well as food 
vendors. For the children, the Creative Arts Group has planned a fun and imaginative craft activity 
on Saturday and Sunday from 10am-4pm.

A new feature of this year’s fair will be a silent auction. So far, forty of the artists who are displaying 
and selling their creations at this year’s fair have donated lovely, one-of-a-kind pieces for the auction 
which means that you’ll have a chance to bid on some really beautiful artwork. 

So come early and stay all day. Browse through the wonderful displays of artwork, sit on the lawn and 
listen to music, have a little lunch, check on your silent auction bids, and then go back and purchase 
those lovely pieces of art that have been calling your name ever since you spotted them. Proceeds from 
the Art Fair benefit the Sierra Madre Library. For more information, visit our website at sierramadrelibraryfriends.
org or call 626 355-7186.