Then and now: From ranches to suburbia

In October 2014, Then & Now highlighted Jack Van Sickle’s Crescent V Ranch near Stateline. Since then, I’ve come across remarkable photos of how fast areas like that can change.

An aerial view of South Lake Tahoe in 1940. Photo/U.S. Geological Survey

As early as 1940, the T-bone meeting of today’s Park Avenue at Highway 50 existed (just below center in the photo), as did the Pioneer Trail off-shoot seen to the right. The large blank area above Highway 50 was Jack Van Sickle’s Crescent V Ranch.

Development in South Lake Tahoe in the 1950s started changing the look of the area. Photo/Lake Tahoe Historical Society

Ten years later, that junction shows the historic Cecil’s Market facing what is now Tahoe Tom’s gas station, the round-roof quonset hut Lakeside Theatre to the right, as well as the original Tahoe Drive-In Theatre seen in snow on Van Sickle’s spread. Its entrance driveway became more of Park Avenue in the Crescent V Shopping Center.

The Park Avenue area of South Lake Tahoe in 2015. Photo/Google Earth

Today, Park Avenue above Highway 50 is renamed Heavenly Village Way and the Crescent V Center named after Jack Van Sickle’s ranch in 1962 now is named the Village Center.

Near Covina in 1940. Photo/Ed Crook collection

Near Covina in 1959. Photo/Ed Crook collection

For comparison, see how quickly development occurred in Southern California within only 19 years — 1940-1959 — near Covina.

— Bill Kingman