This old church

The Old Stone Church turns 100 years old this weekend, despite looking not much different than it did when this photo was taken in 1909. But everything around the church has changed.

Esther Billings used to be a wedding hostess for the church on Church and Archibald and has been calling it her second home since 1944. Her husband's uncle helped Henry Klusman build the church using rocks hauled from the Cucamonga wash.

"When I first came here, I thought Alta Loma was just how God wanted the world to be. All the people working to make the town grow," Billings said. " There were no quarrels and no arguments. It's not that way anymore. I like the country world. I can do a lot better in the country world than the city world. But you have to change with the times. My mother taught me, you have to go with the flow."

I learned while talking to church members that the Old Stone Church actually replaced an even older church, a small wooden structure built in 1883. Donald Clucas, in his local history book, has an interesting account of what proceeded the stone church:

The church was a wonderful place to gather, and the farmers would stand outside, after Sunday morning meetings, draping their arms over the lower tree limbs, "swapping yarns." This generally lasted into late afternoon as everyone was reluctant to go home. It was a good opportunity for the men to stretch their legs after sitting on the hard benches in the sanctuary. The hardness of the benches was not the only uncomfortable feature. Another problem was the uneven varnish on them. On hot days, members of the congregation would get up to leave only to find that they were "stuck in place."

Archibald Avenue, during the lifetime of the little church, was a dirt trail full of chuckholes. It was a constant chore of the church ladies to clean up the street. This accomplishment, along with the planting of cypress and eucalyptus trees alongside the road, made Archibald Avenue seem like an oasis in the middle of the Cucamonga desert land.