The 25th Annual Pumpkin Festival, co-sponsored by the Glendora Community Services Department and the Glendora Preservation Foundation will take place from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Oct. 21 at the Centennial Heritage Park.
“It’s very unique,” said Tom Reinberger, secretary of the Board of Directors for the Glendora Preservation Foundation, in a phone interview. “The purpose of the event is preserving the past for the future. It is a remembrance of the past that started this town.”
The park is located at 725 E. Mauna Loa Ave. The festival celebrates over 100 years of history for the Glendora community.
The Centennial Heritage park, itself, is a recreated 1890s citrus ranch. The Pumpkin Festival started in 1991 and this will be the 25th anniversary.
The festival is about the history of Glendora it has a fall theme, with a focus on pumpkins.
Tours of the building are available, where the “Rainbird Sprinkler,” a water sprinkler, was invented.
The Hamilton House, which is an antique home with Victorian-style furniture is a popular site to see, as well as a number of activities, including: an 1890s print shop that prints bookmarks, an orange grove, games for children from 1890s and 1900s, a small engine group to ground corn and make cornmeal, game booths where children can win prizes, pony rides, rag doll making, food and baked goods, such as cakes and cupcakes.
The admission to go to the event is a $3 donation and children under 4 years old are free.
Activities are similar to those that have been done in the past and there is a pumpkin patch of about 175 pumpkins.
Attendees can take pictures with an old 1890s wagon with their pumpkins.
“We have pumpkin pancakes in the morning,” said Valerie De Lazzaro, from The Glendora Preservation Foundation. “The pancake batter is homemade. People come just for the pumpkin pancakes.”
