The Well Has Run Dry
Empty.
At the corner of Avenue 54 and Longfellow Street, (alongside where the Union Pacific Railroad once ran) until a few months ago was the home of Yosemite Waters. The water company with the bucolic name, and not-so-pristine water source in a residential neighborhood of Highland Park, was purchased in February by the parent company of another local water bottler, Sparkletts.
Founded in 1926 by the Soderstrom family, the water bottling plant provided home delivery service throughout California, with its Los Angeles operations being based here in Highland Park. Even though having never been a customer, (according to Yelp, that may have been a good thing!) I will miss seeing their trucks all over Los Angeles reminding me where we would be returning home to.
The water plant sits empty for now with no immediate plans for development. Who knows, perhaps it will open again as Arroyo Seco Springs, or Highland Park Wells, or maybe a Microbrewery???
Part of the network of mysterious underground streams?
a microbrewery would be an intruiging addition to this spot.
How sure are you of the UP running here? I thought this was the old San Pedro-Salt Lake right of way…
The rail line that went through there started as the Los Angeles Terminal Railroad in 1889, then became the L.A. & S.L., ultimately ending as the Union Pacific in 1969.