O.C. Fair, SAAAB, Harris Co., Placentia, etc.

With the Orange County Fair opening in just a few days, here are a few images of Fair plans and preparations in 1949. That was the first year the Fair was held at the current Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa. You can see how much of the old Santa Ana Army Air Base (SAAAB) was still standing as the conversion process began. Today, the footprint of the SAAAB is now occupied not only by the Fairgrounds, but also by Orange Coast College and Vanguard University. (In fact, a few original SAAAB buildings can still be found at the Fairgrounds and Vanguard.)

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The images above date from May 1949, and come from the Bob Geivet Collection at the Old O.C. Courthouse Museum. (Digital scans are available through the O.C. Archives.) The second image shows animal pens being built. The third image is a background detail, showing some of the the SAAAB barracks.

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The Harris Company department stores of the Inland Empire actually got their start in O.C. as dry goods merchants Phil Harris & Bro. in Santa Ana and Harris & Falkenstein in Anaheim around 1900. Arcadia Publishing has just released a new book about the chain, which closed in 1999.

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A recent Register article featured the 100-year-old John Wagner House in Placentia.

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The topic at the next meeting of the South O.C. Genealogical Society will be “Newspapers: A Gold Mine of Information.” The meeting will be held July 19 at 10am, at the Family History Center, 27976 Marguerite Pkwy, in Mission Viejo. The speaker will be Connie Moretti. For more information, call (949) 581-6292.