Alta Dena Dairy
Monterey Park, CA Photo by RoadsidePeek.com
A stop for milk could easily turn into a stop for a Big Stick at Alta Dena Dairy in Monterey Park. This neighborhood favorite on South Garfield Avenue has supplied popsicles and other frozen treats to generations of customers. Quite a reward for volunteering to come along on the grocery run. 04-08
The Alta Dena name dates to 1945, when brothers Elmer, Edgar, and Harold Stueve started their Monrovia dairy with 61 cows and a delivery wagon. As Southern California grew, drive-in dairy stores brought the products closer to suburban customers, offering milk, eggs, bread, and something cold for the ride home.
At this location, the summer memories are part of the attraction. A cherry-pineapple Big Stick could make an ordinary afternoon errand worth remembering, especially when the weather suggested eating it before getting very far.
UPDATE: Alta Dena Dairy remains listed at 2200 South Garfield Avenue in Monterey Park. A familiar neighborhood stop carrying a name that passed its 80th anniversary in 2025, with plenty of frozen-treat memories along the way. 10-26
Valley View Farms (Demolished)
La Mirada, CA Photo by RoadsidePeek.com
Here’s the old familiar sight of Valley View Farms in La Mirada, where picking up the milk meant driving through the dairy. Check out the marquee standing on its two main feet. A distinctive introduction to a business that stayed put while much of the surrounding farmland disappeared. 10-08
Cornelius and Florence Van Dam developed the dairy in the early 1950s. La Mirada’s history tour dates their operation from 1953 to 1998, a span covering the community’s transformation from agricultural land into neighborhoods and industrial parks.
There’s a good story behind the partnership, too. Florence was a bank teller whom Cornelius met while arranging a loan to buy cows. Building a dairy together followed, giving this roadside stop a family history beyond the sign and service lanes.
Valley View Farms (Demolished)
La Mirada, CA Photo by RoadsidePeek.com
The drive-through offered the convenience that made these dairies familiar throughout Southern California. A few groceries could be collected without navigating supermarket aisles, while the farm name overhead connected the purchase to the area’s earlier landscape.
UPDATE: The Valley View Farms was demolished several years ago. An office park has taken its place. 10-10
UPDATE: The dairy buildings were demolished before the October 2010 update, and the property became part of an industrial and office development. The Valley View Farms Business Center name and a historical marker preserve the Van Dam connection, though the drive-through and its two-legged marquee are gone. 10-26
Alta Dena Dairy
