Westminster, Hobby City, Nixon, Vic Stapf, etc.

The photo above shows Westminster as it appeared around 1920. The community finally incorporated as a city in 1957. The last event in Westminster's year-long 50th birthday celebration will be a New Year's Eve bash at the Rose Center, 14140 All American Way, 8pm-12:30am. There will be a classic rock band, dancing, dinner and champagne. Tickets are $55 per person. Call (714) 895-2860 for more information.

Today's post is made up almost entirely of interesting stuff I should have posted earlier this year. Somehow it all slipped between the cracks until now.

For starters, I just noticed this old open letter (link) from John Taylor, which covers a lot of the controversy surrounding the handover of the Nixon Library from the Nixon Foundation to the National Archives. It makes for interesting reading.

I also just discovered that Vic Stapf has a blog now. I've enjoyed his "Photos of the Forgotten" website for years, so I'm happy to see this new development. (Link) . Vic has also turned his collection of Disneyland-area postcards into a book, called Postcards From Anaheim. He describes the book as, "96 pages of the Googie glory that once surrounded the Disneyland theme park. Available now through the blurb.com bookstore in either hard or soft cover editions..."

The soft housing market means that Hobby City (on the Stanton/Anaheim border) will still be around for a while longer. The original plan was to tear out this quirky roadside complex and replace it with a bunch of condos. We've been talking about the phenomenon of "preservation through neglect" for ages, but now we seem to be experiencing "preservation through economic slump." In any case, read the latest about the Hobby City situation in the Register.

It recently occured to me that I'd never posted a link to the Home & Garden TV segment on the Daigle House. Although it's sort of a puff piece, it's interesting and proves that you never know what you'll find when you restore an old building. (Link)