Collection context
Summary
- Creators:
- Christmas on Euclid Avenue Committee
- Abstract:
- Extent:
- 1 archive box
- Language:
- Preferred citation:
-
Christmas on Euclid Avenue Committee collection. Ontario City Library, Robert E. Ellingwood Model Colony History Room
Background
- Scope and content:
-
The Christmas on Euclid Avenue Committee collection contains the agendas, minutes, correspondence, newspaper clippings, Christmas cards and invoices from Mr. Vargas. Also contained is a binder of personal letters and ephemera collected by Barbara Poore from Margaret and Rudolph Vargas. The collection covers years 1957-1986.
- Biographical / historical:
-
Celebrating Christmas in Ontario had been fairly modest until 1958 when a planned carnival on the Euclid Avenue parkway was proposed to promote sales in the downtown area. City councilmen received numerous comments from citizens unhappy with the commercialism of the season and the carnival in particular. Frank Chaffee, a longtime resident, had the idea of establishing Christmas scenes along the parkway, which evolved into a set of tableaux depicting the birth and early life of Christ. Subsequent research indicated there was a similar set of five tableaux in San Diego created by the noted sculptor Rudolph Vargas. A community group called the Christmas on Euclid Avenue Committee (under the auspices of the Association of Commerce and Industry, later renamed the Chamber of Commerce) was formed to raise funds and Mr. Vargas was commissioned to create a series of twelve tableaux for Ontario. He later created a life-size mule for the restored mule car on Euclid Avenue in 1974. The first two tableaux were completed by December 1959 and the twelfth was in place by 1976. Various events including ice cream socials, the annual production of Handel’s “Messiah,” and sales of both Christmas cards and ornaments were among the fund-raising efforts to erect and maintain the tableaux.
- Acquisition information:
- The Christmas on Euclid Avenue Committee collection was donated to the Model Colony History Room by Barbara L. Poore, Secretary of the Christmas on Euclid Avenue Committee, on November 10, 1983. An additional binder containing correspondence and ephemera collected by Barbara Poore was donated by an unknown donor in 2015.
Indexed terms
- Places:
- Ontario (Calif.)
Access and use
- Restrictions:
-
This collection is available for research purposes during the operating hours of the Robert E. Ellingwood Model Colony History Room or by appointment.
- Terms of access:
-
Collection open for research.
- Preferred citation:
-
Christmas on Euclid Avenue Committee collection. Ontario City Library, Robert E. Ellingwood Model Colony History Room
- Location of this collection:
-
215 East "C" StreetOntario, CA 91764-4111, US
- Contact:
- (909) 395-2206