The history of every community has included some colorful characters whose eccentricities left their mark in local memory long after their passing.
One such bellwether of the 1870s was a chap named Hawkins whose home, “Hawkins Garden” near Fulton Wells (now Santa Fe Springs), was renowned for its pools and sunken gardens.
Hawkins’ favorite sport was driving spirited horses and he was master of the art of snaring chickens by the head with the lash end of his whip and jerking them into his wagon while going at full speed, much to the embarrassment of his wife.
Mrs. Hawkins was terrified of her husband’s fast driving so when business took them to Los Angeles, he would drive her to the Downey depot and then go on alone while she rode the Southern Pacific trains.
Invariably when she arrived at the Commercial Street station in Los Angeles 45 minutes later, Hawkins would be waiting for her, having driven about equal distance over 12 miles of ungraded dirt roads.
On one of his whirlwind journeys, he lost their small son, who was riding in a basket in the back of the spring wagon. Later, when Hawkins discovered the loss, he backtracked and found the baby still in his basket and unhurt.
The following story comes from the “1873-1973 Downey Centennial Celebration”:
Accustomed as we are to our modern conveniences, it is like looking into another world to peer back on the Downey that was with the life our modern utilities make possible -- and which we take for granted.
Downey today is served by 68,000 telephones in the General Telephone Company system, yet before 1884 there was only the telegraph, and for 13 years thereafter the entire community was served by one toll phone, first in a general store on Downey Avenue and later in a livery stable.
The only gas in Downey before World War 1 came from a coal gas plant in Bellflower: In contrast, Southern California Gas Company today serves 28,600 connections in Downey, with a district headquarters here serving 228,000 customers in 18 cities covering 132 square miles.
The lighting in town was by kerosene or acetylene lamps until a string of electric lights in the central business section was turned on in 1900; Southern California Edison today has 102.8 miles of transmission and distribution lines spreading from five substations in town, serving 31,000 meter connections in Downey and representing a $3.142 million investment within city limits.
Until Arthur Darby connected four windmills and water tanks to serve a tract of homes in the middle of town about 1902, the only water available came from hand dug wells in the yard, or by the old field irrigation system the long defunct Arroyo Ditch and Water Company had dug from the San Gabriel River for local farmers.
The first mutual water system in Downey started in 1925, serving 190 families. Four years later, the Downey County Water District was formed with 600 water users, beginning the system which was taken over by the city in 1963 and today serves 12,000 connections over a grid of 200 miles of mains, covering half of Downey.
Today, 10 years after going into the water business, Downey has a long range goal of taking over the other six water utilities in the community to provide uniform water service throughout Downey. Negotiations have been underway intermittently for almost five years with the largest private operations, Park Water Company, which serves 800 connections. The remainder are relatively small, serving isolated pockets around the city’s periphery, principally in the southern section of town.
The following is from the Downey Eagle newspaper dated Oct. 22, 1993:
This December, the Downey Historical Society will have an open house which will include a tour of old Dismukes House.
In the house is a painting that hung in the old 101 Cafe. The 101 Cafe is just a memory now but to the boisterous survivors of the post World War II era, it was a home, saloon and even something of a chapel.
It was called the 101 because it was located at 101 Downey Ave., the lot at Firestone Boulevard that the Cardono Building now occupies.
Old-timers will always remember the old bar’s odor of stale beer and its shining steel bar rail.
After the bar’s last gasp at the end of the roaring 1940s, it became a clothing store. Later, in 1986, the old building was torn down.
It was in 1949 the old bar’s most infamous moment occurred when the bartender shot a bad mouthed customer dead.
“I am the one who shot that man lying on the floor,” bartender Edgar Gray told the deputy sheriff when he arrived. It was widely quoted in the papers.
On further questioning, the deputy said Gray told him he shot the customer because the man had repeatedly cursed at him.
Old-timers nodded when they heard the explanation. It was right out of the Old West, and it fit the bar’s aura, even to the Western painting of “The Night Watch” that hung on the wall.
Art Morris of Morris Photography remembers the 101 but said he was never inside. “It was an eyesore to the community, sitting there on the main corner of town,” said Morris. “There were a lot of drunks and people would just hang out there.”
Morris said the café across the street was better and cleaner. In earlier years, the old town marshal’s office was just up Downey Avenue next to where Johnnie’s Salon is today.
That was convenient, Morris said, because the marshal had to make many trips to cool down the rowdies at the 101.
It was so seedy the nice girls in town wouldn’t be seen there. There was almost constant trouble. It was a seedy saloon, oozing a certain charm created largely by its customers. There is nothing like it today in Downey and for that the police are thankful.
Some very well known folks once drank there, although most of them and their families hope it has been forgotten by now.
John Vincent of the Downey Historical Society has restored the old painting from the 101’s wall, “The Night Watch.”
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