Title: Still Looking for That Perfect Christmas Gift? How About a Book on the History of Lemon Grove
Author: Helen Ofield
Publisher: Lemon Grove Patch
Date: 12/18/2010
If you are still looking for the perfect gift for someone who appreciates history and community, look no more. The Lemon Grove Historical Society is selling the definitive book on the history of the city.
Images of America: Lemon Grove, authored by Helen Ofield and Pete Smith, is available at $20 per copy (two for $35) in the Parsonage Museum, 3185 Olive St.
The book can also be ordered by mailing a check for $24.75 (which includes tax and shipping) to LGHS, P.O. Box 624, Lemon Grove, CA 91945. The historical society will mail the book anywhere in the country.
The autographed copies make a wonderful gift—especially for those with local connections. All proceeds support the society's two historic sites, educational outreach, archives and museum exhibits.
Title: Book is harvest of city history
Author: Michele Clock
Publisher: Unioin-Tribune
Date: 2/11/2010
During the height of its citrus growing days, Lemon Grove was producing an average of 5 million tons of fruit a year.
The East County community at one time went by the single-word name "Lemongrove." Coined by the U.S. Postal Service, most locals ignored it.
Now the community that bought its first fire engine from Tijuana has its own pictorial history book.
The 128-page work, unveiled last month, is part of a series called "Images of America," which in part features the histories of cities and towns across the United States. Like others, Lemon Grove's book has hundreds of vintage photographs, and their captions to tell the city's history, from the days of the Kumeyaay Indians to its evolution into a suburb.
"In America, the story of small towns has a romance and vigor and idiosyncratic charm," said Helen Ofield, a television and radio writer and narrator who co-wrote the book with freelance photojournalist Pete Smith. Both are residents of Lemon Grove and longtime members of the Lemon Grove Historical Society.
Smith had long harbored hopes of writing a book on city history, and the timing finally worked out last year. That's when the two agreed to do the book for Arcadia Publishing.
The book is centered on 225 vintage photos, most of which came from the society's archives, which Smith oversees.
The collection began with a cigar box full of old shots Smith was given in the 1980s after a member of the society died.
Smith and Ofield said they had no idea how many additional photos and stories they would come across in the process of putting the book together.
They began the project last spring with a call for historic photos in the society's newsletter.
The request elicited so many new photos, stories and memorabilia, Ofield and Smith spent months sifting through them all. At one point, they spread the photos across nearly every free surface at the H. Lee House Cultural Center, which the society maintains.
What surprised them the most were the new, unknown details on the city's history that they learned.
Using a magnifying glass to inspect the photos, Smith said that he found, for example, the correct location of the community's first school.
"Your best friend became a magnifying glass," Ofield joked.
In the end, they had to do a lot of trimming.
Still, the book managed to pack a diversity of images and captions rich with detail on the community's pioneers, best-known residents, first stores, schools and other landmarks.
Smith said he hopes the book will help share a bit of the city history for which he feels so much pride.
Lemon Grove City Manager Graham Mitchell, who proofread one of the early drafts of the book, said the book wasn't just some old photos but a lively history of the city.
"It's a wonderful asset to Lemon Grove to have this book," Mitchell said.
