Two pictures, same spot, 103 years apart. This is looking west on Fallbrook Street near Mission Rd. This 1st photo shows Loma Olive Oil Company employees in the winter of 1916-1917. The only person identified in this photo is Eric Hindorff, the tallest man standing in the back. Hindorff was a well-known Fallbrook pioneer & resident who once worked at the Loma Olive Oil Company. It must have been a cold day in Fallbrook, as many of the women are wearing sweaters or coats. Fallbrook Street is on the left. Large tree root balls are lying along the side of the dirt street.
Fallbrook Fertilizer is at this location today. The 2nd attached picture is the same view today. In both pictures you can see the building’s unusual roof and how Fallbrook Street goes uphill slightly. In 1916, South Mission Road was called Hill Ave.
The Fallbrook Loma Olive Oil Company ranch was a major producer of high-grade olive oil, bottling about 15,000 gallons annually from 1895 until 1919. Before this newer building was constructed about 1916, the original olive press was at the old Loma ranch down on Alturas Street. The Loma label was shipped as far as New York. After WWI ended the domestic market for olive products diminished as the supply from Italy resumed. With the decline of olives, the building was temporarily leased by the Fallbrook Citrus Association (FCA) as a packing house until their own facilities were completed on College Street. We don’t have the exact dates, but for many years during the 1950s and 1960s, this building was used as the Green Goddess Avocado packing house. At one point it was called the Cal Brook Avocado Company (see 3rd photo). A railroad siding served the packing houses in this building from 1919 until 1982.
If anyone out there was around and remembers the exact years this building was the Green Goddess Avocado Packing house, we would appreciate to hearing your information.
Tom Frew
historian, Fallbrook Historical Society
