Covina, CA

Covina's original 120-acre townsite remains the city's civic and commercial center. The Citrus Avenue District occupies the historic core, with City Hall, shops, restaurants, the Covina Theater, and Heritage Plaza gathered south of the Metrolink station. Covina lies in the East San Gabriel Valley, roughly 22 miles east of downtown Los Angeles. In 2020, its 51,268 residents shared a seven-square-mile footprint. Within that compact area, Citrus Avenue connects municipal buildings and older storefronts with regional rail and newer housing near the station. The Metrolink station at 600 North Citrus Avenue serves the San Bernardino Line and connects with Foothill Transit.

ATTRCommunity Archives / Public domain

The townsite came from 2,000 acres that Joseph Swift Phillips purchased from John E. Hollenbeck in 1881. The land had been part of Rancho La Puente, which Governor Pio Pico granted to John Rowland and William Workman in 1845 with requirements to cultivate the land and build residences. Phillips hired surveyor Fred Eaton, who coined the name Covina and laid out ten-acre parcels; Phillips reserved 120 acres for the settlement that became downtown. Covina incorporated in 1901. Orange and grapefruit groves defined much of the surrounding landscape from the early 1900s into the 1950s. Aerials from 1928, 1934, and 1938 show orchards covering a surveyed site beside the Southern Pacific line; images from 1964 show nearby homes and commercial buildings after the orchards were gone.

ATTRCommunity Archives / Public domain

Five adjoining downtown districts put medical offices, civic buildings, restaurants, shops, housing, entertainment, and the rail station around the historic town center. A smaller free service circulates within that center. The all-electric FRIC & FRAC pilot, launched in February 2025, connects the station, downtown parking facilities, and mixed-use neighborhoods from Thursday through Sunday, running until 9:30 p.m. on Thursday and Sunday and 11 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. Its current route makes the rail station part of downtown activity beyond weekday commuting, while the city continues to treat expansion outside the pilot area as a future possibility. Drivers also encounter two local parking rules: overnight curb parking requires a permit citywide, and a weekday restricted zone surrounds the Metrolink station.

ATTRSiujyuzi / CC BY-SA 4.0

Several civic traditions share the same central streets. The city acquired the Covina Theater in December 2022 to preserve it as a performing-arts space in the downtown shopping district. Nearby, the combined firehouse and jail built in 1911 as Covina's first civic building now houses the volunteer-run Firehouse/Jail Museum. City Hall also displays 130 photographs of Covina from 1846 through 1950 in its self-guided Vintage Years exhibit. Heritage Plaza Park hosts a farmers market on Friday evenings throughout the year, and Covina Park brings another recurring event a few blocks east. The Covina Concert Band, founded in 1956, gives free concerts there on Thursday evenings during the summer. A Friday market at Heritage Plaza, a show at the city-owned theater, and music from the Covina Park bandshell all take place within the town center first laid out by Phillips and Eaton.