Today's image is a postcard depicting W.O. Hart Park around 1950. If you don't count the Plaza, Hart Park was the City of Orange's first park. Originally called Orange City Park, it was created in the 1930s by the City, working in conjunction with the State Emergency Relief Agency (SERA) and the Works Progress Administration (WPA). It was renamed in 1964 for longtime Orange Daily News editor William O. Hart..
In his book Orange: The City 'Round the Plaza, Phil Brigandi writes, "In 1927 the Chamber of Commerce led a major push to build a city park in Orange, but the proposed bond issue was defeated by local voters. In 1933, the city took up the challenge, acquiring 17 acres along the Santiago Creek east of Glassell Street."
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After some serious cleanup of the area, construction began in 1935. Phil continues, "The biggest project was channeling the Santiago Creek. Arroyo stone retaining walls were built by hand on both sides of the creek . The Orange Plunge was built jointly by the city and the WPA in 1935-1936 and was officially dedicated along with the rest of the park on May 1, 1937. A year later, the bandshell was added west of the Plunge and in 1949 the National Guard Armory was built at the East end of the park."
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Even before the park was completed, it became the home of the Orange Lionettes, a celebrated women's softball team organized in 1936 by the Orange Lions Club. Phil quotes the team's first manager and coach, Carl Schroeder: "I put the team together,... by going out and calling on young girls. My wife didn't much care for that."
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The world has an odd way of bringing threads together. Case in point: When screaming kids drove Phil Brigandi and I out of Del Taco at lunch on Wednesday, we went up the street and ate our tacos at Hart Park. Then today, out of the blue, Cynthia Ward asked if I'd post some historical info on Hart Park. And as for Carl Schroeder's somewhat skeptical wife,... I'm planning to have lunch with her (although not at Hart Park) in a week or two.
Great post... bummer though that all the photos you linked to on localhistory.cityoforange.org do not load for me.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteAnd this in turn relates to the Del Taco postcard you featured last week...
ReplyDelete"The circle of liiiiiife....."
And why can I delete a post - but not edit it?
ReplyDeleteDamn you Blogger!
I agree, Chris. Also, why does Blogger screw up long URLs posted in the comments? And why does it have trouble recognizing paragraph breaks? I have to put periods between paragraphs, and then turn them white so they can't be seen.
ReplyDeleteI have a memory of a park where I went as a child in the 1950s or 1960s. I lived in Santa Ana. A friend of mine suggested it might be Hart Park in Orange. I remember a pond, willow trees and ducks. Could Hart Park be the one I've been looking for? Sharon
ReplyDeleteI remember Hart park from the
ReplyDelete1960's. I have many fond memories of having picnics at Hart Park and playing with siblings and friends there often. What wonderful memories of a beautiful place!
In the late 50's thru the mid 60's my parents took me to the park. At the Plunge, you got a towel & locker for 25 cents. The lifeguards were coaches from the local schools. There were concerts in the bandshell. The park was beautifully landscaped and well tended.
ReplyDeleteW.O. Hart was my Grandfather. I am his daughter Rosemary's daughter Julia.
ReplyDeleteW.O. Was my great grandfather. His daughter Jean was my grandmother.
DeleteI watched some great punk bands at free concerts in the mid 80's.
ReplyDeleteWe moved to orange in the 1950s. When I was a youngster, A photo of me catching crawdads in Santiago Creek appeared in the Register. I took swimming lessons and leaned to swim at the Plunge. We went to the May Festival rides + midway on the South Side of the Park. I remember horseshoe games at the horseshoe pit and Bingo played at the rows of picnic tables. I attended elementary school at Holy Family on Glassell St. On Saturdays, I went to the Log cabin at the East end of the park next to the National Guard Amory. Stephen S "Red Dawn" Jones a Lakota Indian from South Dakota taught about the history of his tribe each Saturday and had a monthly meeting of his group at Bower's Museum on S Main ST . ... When I was a teen attending Orange HS, I built my 1st canoe. ... After the flood of 1969, when the floodwaters had crested and subsided some, I put in my new canoe at Tustin Street bridge, paddling down Santiago Creek, through the golf course past the land fill and Cambridge St, past Welche's Gravel pit through the parking lot at W O Hart Park, finally pulling my canoe out of Santiago Creek at the Parking lot entrance that comes down from Glassel St. ... I did it alone, and never mentioned to my parents that I did that till years later when I was an adult. I am pretty sure that I am the only one in the history of Orange, that ever paddled a canoe from Tustin ST all the way to Glassell ST.
ReplyDeleteHi does anyone know what the huge concrete blocks are along the edge of the park by the bike path ?
ReplyDelete