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Christmas on Euclid Avenue Committee collection
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Title: Christmas on Euclid Avenue Committee collection
Dates: 1957-1986
Collection Number: Consult library
Creator/Collector:
Christmas on Euclid Avenue Committee
Extent: 1 archive box
Repository:
Ontario City Library, Robert E. Ellingwood Model Colony History Room
Ontario, California 91764-4111
Abstract: The Christmas on Euclid Avenue Committee collection contains the agendas, minutes, and correspondence of the committee. The
collection also includes newspaper clippings, Christmas cards and invoices from sculptor Rudolf Vargas.
Language of Material: English
This collection is available for research purposes during the operating hours of the Robert E. Ellingwood Model Colony History
Room or by appointment.
Collection open for research.
[Identification of item]. Christmas on Euclid Avenue Committee collection. Collection Number: Consult library. Ontario City
Library, Robert E. Ellingwood Model Colony History Room
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.
Biography/Administrative History
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.
Scope and Content of Collection
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.
Ontario (Calif.)