A Local Name with a Larger Story
In Upland, the name Huntington is most closely associated with the neighborhood and residential corridor surrounding Huntington Drive in the city’s southwestern area. Unlike Upland’s officially designated historic districts, Huntington is better understood as a local place-name—one connected to a major street, the old electric railway network, and the broader history of Southern California’s citrus communities.
Today, the area includes quiet residential streets, busy commercial corridors, schools, apartments, and newer development near the city’s southern edge. It sits close to Arrow Route, Monte Vista Avenue, Claremont Boulevard, and the boundary with Montclair. To understand what makes Huntington special, it helps to look beyond modern streets and remember the orchards, irrigation channels, electric railways, and early subdivisions that shaped this part of the Inland Empire.
Before the Neighborhood: The Land and the Citrus Boom
Long before Upland was incorporated, the region was home to the Tongva people, whose communities were connected to the rivers, foothills, and valleys of Southern California. Later, Spanish and Mexican land systems transformed the landscape, and by the late nineteenth century, the area was being reshaped for agriculture.
The most important early developers were George and William Chaffey, Canadian engineers who established an irrigation colony in the 1880s. Their work helped create the planned communities that became Ontario and Upland. The brothers designed broad streets, including Euclid Avenue, and developed water systems that made commercial farming possible. Citrus groves soon covered much of the valley, with lemons becoming especially important to Upland’s identity.
The Huntington area grew from this same agricultural foundation. What are now streets, shopping centers, and homes were once orchard land, ranch parcels, packing areas, and open fields. Even where very little agricultural landscape remains, the neighborhood’s wide lots, mature trees, and older street patterns still hint at that earlier era.
How Huntington Got Its Name
The name Huntington comes from Henry E. Huntington, the railroad and real-estate developer whose Pacific Electric Railway helped connect communities throughout Southern California. Huntington’s influence was felt across the San Gabriel Valley and Inland Empire, where electric rail lines encouraged both settlement and commerce.
Huntington Drive itself became associated with the Pacific Electric system and the Monrovia–Glendora route. In several Southern California communities, the street followed or bordered former rail rights-of-way, linking suburban neighborhoods with downtown Los Angeles and nearby cities. Electric streetcars once carried workers, shoppers, students, and travelers through a valley that was still largely agricultural.
In Upland, the name became part of the local landscape through Huntington Drive and nearby streets. Although the neighborhood was not founded as a company town bearing Huntington’s name, the road connected it to the transportation network that helped turn rural acreage into suburban communities. The name therefore reflects not only one individual but also a period when railroads, land development, and electricity worked together to build Southern California.
Key Milestones in Upland’s Growth
Several broad milestones shaped the Huntington area:
- 1880s: The Chaffey brothers introduced irrigation and planned agricultural development to the Ontario-Upland region.
- 1902: The name Upland began to replace “North Ontario” in common use.
- 1906: Upland incorporated as a city.
- Early twentieth century: Citrus groves, packing houses, churches, schools, and rail connections expanded throughout the community.
- 1910s–1940s: Upland matured as a citrus center, with families building homes near work, schools, and transportation routes.
- Post–World War II decades: Orchards gradually gave way to subdivisions, commercial buildings, and automobile-oriented streets.
- Late twentieth century to today: The area became a blend of established neighborhoods, apartment communities, businesses, and newer infill development.
The neighborhood’s history is therefore not one dramatic event but a steady transition—from farmland to town, from town to suburb, and from suburb to a diverse modern community.
Landmarks That Help Tell the Story
Huntington’s heritage is closely tied to landmarks throughout Upland. The most important is Euclid Avenue, the city’s signature north-south boulevard. Its unusually broad, tree-lined design reflects the original Chaffey plan and remains one of the clearest reminders that Upland began as a planned agricultural colony.
Downtown landmarks also provide context for the neighborhood’s past. The Old Carnegie Library at D Street and First Avenue, built with a Carnegie grant in 1911, represents the civic ambition of early Upland. Nearby are the former firehouse and historic municipal buildings. These institutions served residents from every part of the city, including families living near the Huntington corridor.
The Cooper Regional History Museum preserves photographs, artifacts, and stories connected to Upland’s Native American, agricultural, citrus, and residential history. The Old San Antonio Hospital, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, is another reminder of the public institutions that supported a growing city.
Closer to Huntington Drive, the relationship between transportation and development remains visible. The road’s location near Arrow Route and the Montclair border places the neighborhood within a long-established regional corridor. Today’s cars have replaced the Red Cars, but the basic idea is familiar: Huntington remains a place shaped by movement, access, and connection.
From Orchards to Neighborhood Streets
After World War II, Upland experienced the same suburban transformation seen across Southern California. Returning veterans, expanding industries, improved roads, and rising homeownership encouraged construction beyond the older downtown core. Citrus acreage declined as ranches were divided into residential lots.
In Huntington, this change produced a practical, lived-in neighborhood rather than a single architectural style. Older houses stand alongside mid-century ranch homes, apartments, commercial buildings, and newer developments. Streets that once looked toward groves now lead to schools, offices, shops, and freeway connections.
The neighborhood has also benefited from Upland’s location. Residents are close to historic downtown, Metrolink service, parks, schools, and major east-west routes. Huntington Drive and nearby thoroughfares provide everyday convenience, while the San Gabriel Mountains remain visible to the north on clear days.
What Makes Huntington Special Today
What makes Huntington meaningful is its layered character. It is not frozen in one historical moment, and it does not rely on a single landmark to define it. Its heritage is found in the ordinary details: an old citrus tree in a front yard, a mature street canopy, a house built during the postwar years, a familiar view along Euclid Avenue, or a road whose name recalls the age of electric railways.
For longtime residents, Huntington is part of the Upland experience because it balances history with daily life. Children attend school, neighbors walk their dogs, families shop along nearby corridors, and older residents remember when orchards occupied land now covered by homes. The neighborhood’s story is the story of Upland itself—Native roots, irrigation, citrus, railroads, family life, and constant change.
That combination gives Huntington its quiet charm. It is a neighborhood shaped by the past but never trapped there, carrying Upland’s heritage forward one street, tree, and front porch at a time.