Fast Digs: The Monrovia Road Race

Though it no longer serves the purpose it once did, you can still see the building that housed a livery stable, at the corner of Myrtle and Lemon Avenues in old town Monrovia. The building commonly known today as the Keefer Building is the oldest commercial structure in old town, being constructed in 1886. During its lengthy history the building saw use as a general store, public meeting room, non-denominational church, drug store, grocery, and livery. Unknown to most, the street outside the building, which at the time in question was the livery, served as the finish of a popular annual bicycle race.

To find the start of this particular race you would need to go away to the west, to Pasadena, at the intersection of Marengo Street and Colorado Boulevard. The race, known as the Monrovia Road Race, left the start heading due east along Colorado all the way to Lamanda Park where it turned to the north for two blocks and crossed the tracks of the Achison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad. Where it turned north is up for debate, since the street is not named, but the list of possibilities can be narrowed down to the rough equivalents of the streets known today as Sierra Madre Boulevard, Altadena Drive, and San Gabriel Boulevard. Traveling north along each of those for two blocks would take a rider across the tracks (by the way the tracks are no longer there, but the right of way is still clearly defined). After crossing the tracks the race turned east again, along todays Foothill Boulevard, following it all the way to Monrovia, crossing the Eaton Canyon and Santa Anita Washes, to Myrtle Avenue, where it turned south to the finish at the livery stable.

1896 USGS topographic map, Pasadena sheet

For the 1896 race, which was run in handicap fashion, a lengthy list of prizes was offered for winners of both time and placing; they included a Crescent bicycle for the first across the finish line, and a gold watch for the fastest time. Among the favorites for the race were Carson Shoemaker, E. G. Bidwell, William Delany, and G. Rodriguez. It is kind of interesting to note that when the race was announced a week ahead of the start, the location for the start was clearly called the "top of the hill in Colorado Street." Either the start was moved for what ever reason, or the topography has changed considerably since then, as Marengo is well below, and away from, the top of the hill. From the thirty-six starters James H. Havers of Los Angeles, starting with a four minute, thirty second handicap crossed the line first; Shoemaker, the most accomplished rider in the race, finished dead last, though with the fastest time (23:54). As with the most successful of today's races, the city of Monrovia fully backed the 1896 race by hosting dinner (at the Antlers), an address by the mayor, afternoon sports including a tennis tournament, and an evening ball.

The Monrovia Road Race, like the Santa Monica Road Race, though not run at a cycling-specific venue, never-the-less is a well documented course, another of the early bicycle racing venues of the greater Los Angeles region.