Ramona

Ramona is a designated community area in the southeast area of Greenfield, California. It is located just southeast of Downtown Greenfield.

History

In the early 1900s Ramona was originally a small community outside of the main area of Greenfield, It did not really have a name yet. In this time it was nothing more of small farmhouses and some stores on the busy avenues. That was until the 1920s and 1930s that Ramona would be urbanized and and would be officially a part of Greenfield in 1922, it saw a lot of income since newer housing and stores would fill the blooming area. At that time Ramona was considered to be an affordably and relatively safe place to live in though it was nothing compared to the elegant and fancier neighbourhood of Dawson which sat right above it. In 1956, when the Interstate 5 was being constructed the neighbourhood would be cut from Dawson as it was decided that it was going to be built through a small section of housing that would spare the main avenue between Ramona and Dawson. Though while having multiple residents displaced and degrading in land value, The neighbourhood of Ramona held up quite well. That was until May 12th, 1964. When a house presumably from the 1920 was scheduled for demolition because it wasn't up to modern standards and had been sitting vacant for quite some time. Two workers of the demolition team went to proceed to dismantle the house, when at some point a gas leak formed that was overlooked by the company, this caused the gas to be ignited when they started using tools while working. The house blew up. Flaming debree flew into it's neighbouring houses and even houses across the street, the house was almost completely disintegrated. This happend somewhere around 7 am, shortly after the explosion there were people already calling for the fire department. The dry Californian climate along with the wooden houses made this perfect for the fire to spread from house to house very quickly. An hour and a half after the initial blaze and thats when the fire crew finally arrived (likely due to rush hour traffic). It took some time before most of the fire was extinguished, 80 houses were atleast destroyed and many more were damaged along with around 27 people losing their lives (including the two workmen). A memorial was hung up in the local church a few days after it had happend. The higher-ups of the demolition were sued and about 3 million was to be paid by the company. Though it was said that it would be miracle for them to recover after such a price. Despite the money, it was nothing to solve the absolute tragedy of that neighbourhood. Ramona was a burnt-out slum for atleast two years until October 24th, 1966 when a Real estate development team made plans to completely rebuild a part of Ramona, it would include new suburban houses that would appeal to young families to move in so the neighbourhood would thrive again. The current inhabitants of that area happily argeed and two months later the remaining houses (which most of them were boarded up) were already demolished along with the streets. And the brand new roads would be laid out. It was at the beginning of 1967 that the neighbourhood would be officially ready to be built on. The planning remained the same as of gridplanning, though small changes were made so it wouldn't look as if the highway was abruptly cutting up the neighbourhood. And that is why Ramona looks like as it looks as of today and continues to be a safe walkable neighbourhood.

Notable builds

-St. Clair Episcopal Church

-OLS

Transit

-Include information on highway