In Claremont — the college town at the base of the San Gabriel Mountains where thousands of acres of citrus groves once thrived — the locals have taken lemons and made lemonade. The booming citrus industry began in this leafy hamlet in 1887 when the Santa Fe Railroad arrived, but as tract housing supplanted citrus ranches in the early 1970s, the town’s many packinghouses closed and were demolished. The College Heights Lemon Packing House, built in 1922 on the railroad tracks just west of Claremont Village, is the last one standing. Long used as a warehouse facility, the renovated structure opened to the public in April 2007 as a stunning mixed-use building with boutiques, restaurants and a contemporary art museum. The Packing House, along with the spanking-new Claremont Village extension known as Village Square, has made the neighborhood a destination for more than just students from the Claremont Colleges…