Anaheim, Newport Beach, UCI, and monkeys

Today's photos show DeGroff's Delicatessen and market in Anaheim in 1949. Maybe some of you will have a memory or two of this place?

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There's been another step in the right direction for the endangered Mariner's Medical Arts complex. Jaime Murillo, Associate Planner for the City of Newport Beach writes, "...The final draft of the assessment, prepared by Chattel Architecture, is now online... After discussing the findings of the report and the historical significance of the building with staff, the property owner (Westcliff Investors, John Bral, managing partner) is cooperating fully with the City to preserve the original building, including an extensive redesign of the proposed project to do everything possible to preserve and protect this important structure. Staff will continue to work with the property owner to assist in developing an alternative plan that would allow a minor addition to the original building, designed in accordance with the Secretary of the Interior's Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties, while preserving and rehabilitating the original structure."
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The lobby of UCI's Langson Library currently features an exhibit entitled "Immigrant Lives in the OC and Beyond." It features a number of books, documents and other items from the Library's collection that deal with immigrant populations throughout the history of Orange County. The exhibit will be up through late April.

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In case you missed it, the Register recently featured an article about the Santa Ana Zoo's monkeys. Why is this mentioned on a blog about local history? Because the cantankerous Judge Prentice originally donated the land to the city with the stipulation that the zoo always house at least 50 monkeys. Almost 60 years later, Prentice's decendants have found the zoo to be two monkeys short and are suing. Sheesh!

The Orange County Herald

Today's image is an advertisement for the Orange County Herald newspaper. This ad was printed in the 1901 Orange County Directory, which undoubtedly was an example of the Herald's "job printing of all descriptions." The quality of the printing was better than the image above would indicate. I've only posted a photograph of a photocopy of the original ad.

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The Herald was established by Napoleon "Nap" Donovan as The Santa Ana Herald in April 1878. Donovan soon turned it over to James Layman, beginning a long history of ever-changing managment and ownership. In 1880 the Herald was purchased by Santa Ana pioneer Jacob Ross. Then, in Nov. 1881, James Alonzo Waite became publisher.

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In Turn The Rascals Out!, historian Jim Sleeper writes, "Two things in life bothered Alonzo: Santa Ana farmers who didn't grow tobacco when it was bringing two-bits a pound and Republicans anywhere."

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Waite remained until his death in the late 1880s, and was succeeded by his son, Ed. The paper was sold to Rev. A.T. McDill in July 1890 and switched to a Republican bent just in time for the elections. In addition to its politics, the paper also changed its name to The Orange County Herald.

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In 1892, McDill sold the Herald to H.W. Bessac of Los Angeles and the curiously named Ransom Q. Wickham of Santa Ana. One year later, it sold yet again, to Linn Shaw and E. S. Wallace. It appears the paper went defunct under their watch in 1903.

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[Most of this information came from Jim Sleeper's invaluable, Turn The Rascals Out!, and from J.M. Guinn's Historical and Biographical Record of Southern California.]

History at Fullerton Public Library

This book case housed the original Fullerton Public Library. It sat in William Starbuck's Gem Pharmacy on the southeast corner of Commonwealth and Spadra (Harbor) Blvd from 1888 to 1902. Eventually, of course, the library grew into the excellent system it is today. Meanwhile, the old cabinet is now housed on the fourth floor of Fullerton's Main Library, next to the Albert Launer History Room.
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I stopped by the Launer Room today to search for a few old photos. It's a small but really wonderful collection of materials, from photos and maps to directories and local history books. Librarian Cathy Thomas is extremely helpful, knowledgeable and enthusiastic. And some of her regular patrons are also quite helpful on questions of Fullerton history. (Thanks, Joe!)
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If you haven't visited, please do so. And when you do, take special note of their framed map of "Orange County Adobes,... Trails, Ranchos & Springs" (similar to this one) above Cathy's desk. I'm going to ask Santa Claus for one of those next Christmas.

Historical Preservation in Huntington Beach

Reminder: Phil Chinn, Dana Supernowicz and Chris Jepsen (me) will discuss Historical Preservation in Huntington Beach tomorrow, Saturday, Jan. 24, 4:30-6:30pm at the Huntington Beach Art Center. There will be a Q&A session after the panel discussion.

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This program should be of interest to anyone who would like to see our remaining historic sites preserved, or who would like to know about the potential financial benefits of restoring or preserving your own historic (50 years or older) building. We'd like to (finally) get a preservation movement going in H.B., and perhaps you can help.

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The program will be part of the Art Center's “Ebb & Flow” exhibit, honoring the centennial of the City of Huntington Beach. The Register ran an article about the exhibit yesterday.

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The news clipping above is from the Huntington Beach News, in Nov. 1931, announcing the opening of the Standard Market at 128 Main St. The market was demolished during downtown's "redevelopment."

Willard Smith, directories, libraries, La Jolla, etc.

I recently uploaded images from the Willard Smith collection onto the Orange County Archives' Flickr account, and this is one of them. This image shows (left to right) Laguna Beach Mayor Frank Champion with Orange County Supervisors George Jeffrey and Willard Smith, standing near the end of the Street of the Blue Lantern in Dana Point in 1930. The new car was on loan from El Capistrano Motors in San Juan Capistrano.
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The Launer Local History Room at the Fullerton Public Library has put a bunch of their old city directories online. This is incredibly useful! They are also looking into scanning some of their historic newspapers in the future!
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The Leatherby Libraries at Chapman University are now scanning C. C. Chapman’s speeches about citrus, making them full-text searchable. They should have all his sermons, speeches, and correspondence digitized by this summer.
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Placentia City Hall will soon exhibit a 40-foot-long pictorial timeline of local history. There will also be a rotating gallery covering various aspects of Placentia’s history.
The Placentia Library and Historical Society are working to record the history of the La Jolla community, which was destroyed by the building of the 57 Freeway. (La Jolla was a mainly-Hispanic agricultural community, famously devastated in the 1938 flood.)
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The City of Huntington Beach centennial celebration now has an official website.

Crate labels, Roy Sakioka and blue minks

When we think of local crate labels, we usually think of citrus. But Orange County has great soil for growing all kinds of crops. For instance, we were once the celery-growing capital of America.
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Above is a celery label from Sakioka Farms, which is still in business. Katsumasa "Roy" Sakioka came to the U.S. from Japan in 1916 with very little but eventually built one of the largest fortunes in Orange County - first through farming and then in real estate. You can read much more about the Sakioka family in this L.A. Times article from 1989.
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What all that has to do with blue minks is beyond me, but it makes for a snappy label.

Bullock's and other defunct department stores

Today's first image shows the Bullock's department store at Fashion Square (now MainPlace) in Santa Ana in 1960. My friend, Lisa A., is collecting old boxes, ephemera, and artifacts relating to O.C.'s defunct department stores. She's especially interested in china from the stores' tea rooms and in items relating to Bullock's. If you're willing to part with any artifacts you have from stores like Buffums, Bullock's, The Broadway, Robinson's, May Co., etc., please send me an email and we'll try to give them a good home. (I already looked through my stash of recycled gift boxes, and only found one box lid from Robinson's.)

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The next image shows concept art for Bullock's Fashion Square.

John G. Bullock opened the first Bullock's store in downtown Los Angeles in 1907. In 1929, a snazzier branch called Bullock's Wilshire opened on Wilshire Blvd. (Although now used as a law school library, Bullock's Wilshire still stands as one of the most beautiful deco buildings in L.A.) The company was purchased in 1964 by Federated Department Stores which expanded the chain to other states.

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During the 1980s, as series of takeovers took bite after bite out of the company. The remaining stores retained their name, but were sold to Macy's. The South Coast Plaza Bullock's in Costa Mesa remained one of the chain's flagship stores until it was renamed I. Magnin in 1990. In 1995, Federated reappeared on the scene, bought the bankrupt Macy's (and its subsidiaries), and consolidated everything they owned in California under the Macy's name. This was the final nail in Bullock's coffin.

Huntington Beach history

Today's image of Huntington Beach (probably around 1950) comes from an online slide show about California oil from the Washington Post.
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There will be several events in conjunction with the “Ebb & Flow” exhibit on Huntington Beach history (Jan. 17 to Feb. 22) at the Huntington Beach Art Center.

• Opening reception, Jan. 16, 6-9pm
• Native American Life in H.B. featuring Bill Kettler, Jan. 18, 2-4pm
• Preservation of Historic H.B., panel discussion with Chris Jepsen, Phil Chinn, Dana Supernowicz and others. Jan. 24, 4:30-6:30pm
• Surf film event, Feb. 22, 1-5pm (details TBA)

Tours of the exhibit will be held every Friday, Saturday and Sunday, on the hour, 1-3pm. Two new Huntington Beach history books, Ebb & Flow by Joe Santiago, and A History of the Golden Bear, Huntington Beach by Robert Carvounas, should also be available for purchase at the Art Center.
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I know it's a bit last-minute, but tonight is the election meeting for the Huntington Beach Historical Society. The meeting will begin at 7pm in the "barn" behind the Newland House Museum, 19820 Beach Blvd.

Capistrano, the Golden Bear, and aerial photos

Today's photo is a current view of the Great Stone Church at Mission San Juan Capistrano, taken from the parking lot of the Mission Inn Motel. The motel is scheduled to be torn down next week. Dating from 1960, and having a fairly ordinary design, the motel isn't very exciting. But archaeologist Doug McIntosh will be watching for (and watching over) any interesting stuff that may be discovered under the motel. What a fascinating job!
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Chris Epting had a column in the last H.B. Independent about Robert Carvounas' new book on the Golden Bear. Robert's sending me a copy of the book (and a second copy for the County Archives), and I'm really looking forward to reading it. It should soon be available at the Huntington Beach Art Center.
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Chris will be signing his own books at Author's Festival Day, 2:30-4:30pm, Jan. 27 at the Huntington Beach Central Library.
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The Water Resource Institute at CSU San Bernardino recently posted many historical aerial photos of Southern California on their website. Some go back as far as the 1920s.

Lion Country, Huntington Beach, Juan Flores, etc.

Today's image is a map of Lion Country Safari in Laguna Hills. Remember Bubbles the Hippo who escaped from Lion Country Safari three times in 1978? Doug Irving had an interesting story in the Register recently detailing Bubbles' fate.
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Speaking of interesting stories, check out Gustavo's article about Juan Flores in the current OC Weekly. He does a fair job of peeling away the layers of distortion, romantic fiction and socio-political rhetoric that attach themselves to such events over time. My only question is this: What's the backstory on the hanging photo on page 14?
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Docent Bob Huttar will lead an Irvine Ranch Conservancy hike on Sunday, Jan. 18, called "The Tales & Stories of Historic Santiago and Limestone Canyons." The hike is rated "easy," which makes it sound even better. Check their website for details.
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In honor of the City of Huntington Beach's centennial anniversary, a display of historic artifacts, models, videos, photos and documents will be exhibited from Jan. 17 to Feb. 22 at the Huntington Beach Art Center, 538 Main St. The opening reception on Jan. 16, 6-9pm, is open to the public. (I'll post more information about related events soon.)
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Local historian Hedwig "Hadie" Bloodgood lived through much of Anaheim's history and carefully passed on her memories to current and future generations. She died Jan. 10th at the age of 104. A service will be held Jan. 17 at 11am at Hilgenfeld Mortuary Chapel with interment to follow at Anaheim Cemetery. I'm told the Anaheim Historical Society's files are filled with her work, including a series of excellent biographical sketches.
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Last week also saw the death of Don Callender, founder of Marie Callender's pies and restaurants. In 1948, he helped found All-American Pie in Long Beach - a wholesale pie business based on his mother Marie's recipes. In 1964, he opened the first Marie Callender's pie shop and restaurant, which still operates on Tustin Ave. in Orange. The second and third restaurants in the O.C.-based chain were in La Habra and Anaheim, respectively.

MCAS Tustin and Hobby City

Today's photos show the Lighter-Than-Air (a.k.a. blimp) Hangars at Marine Corps Air Station Tustin. The base began in 1942 as Naval Air Station Santa Ana. It closed after WWII, but was reopened in 1951 (during the Korean War) as MCAS Santa Ana. It was renamed MCAS Tustin in the 1980s. It closed for good in 1999.

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The top photo shows the base from the air in 1965. The black and white image shows the hangars with sheep grazing in the foreground and Old Saddleback in the background. For more photos of the base, see today's post on Viewliner Ltd.

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Things are looking up at Hobby City - one of O.C.'s last notable roadside attractions - in Anaheim/Stanton. There was an earlier plan to bulldoze the whole place and build condos. But with the dead real estate market, the owners are starting to bring new businesses into the 54-year-old complex and revitalize the place. Several new shops for hobbyists have already moved in. Sadly, the Doll Museum is gone. The scale replica of the White House will now be used as a venue for special events and can be rented out.

Edson House, Lemon Heights, Hanging Tree, etc.

The Edson House (1933), shown above, just became the first Mills Act house in unincorporated Orange County. This Spanish Colonial Revival home is at 2197 E. Lemon Heights Dr. in Lemon Heights, near Tustin. Both Royce Edson and his son, Norman Edson, lived in the home for many years.

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Remember my trek to the Hanging Tree? Well, the Irvine Ranch Conservancy is now offering hikes to the tree. The first public hike to this area is happening Jan 10th. Mike Bornia, who led our group, will also lead this one. Sue H. writes, "I hiked the beginning portion and this is NOT for anyone who has trouble going uphill. The elevation gain is short but steep through the orchards and up the ridge. They will start from the Irvine side, behind Portola Pkwy and Northwood High School." [Update: The Jan. 10th hike is completely booked. The Conservancy will probably be doing this hike again in April, so watch their website for that and other interesting treks into the wilderness.]

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The Santa Ana Historic Preservation Society has posted back issues of their newsletter on their website as PDFs. The issues run all the way back to 1986.

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Outside The Berm has a great post about the old "Jungle Island" attraction at Knott's Berry Farm in Buena Park.

Old Town Irvine & O.C. Historical Society

These three images of Irvine come from the collection of Tom Pulley. They were taken in the area now called "Old Town Irvine," near Sand Canyon Ave. and the 5 Freeway.

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Good news! It appears that Stan Oftelie is doing much better and will indeed be speaking, as scheduled, at the Orange County Historical Society meeting on Thursday night. (See Friday's post for details.) I'll see you there!

Irvine Lake

These images of Irvine Lake both come from Tom Pulley. The first is from a card postmarked 1948, and the second is undated.

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According to the Irvine Ranch Water District: "Irvine Lake (formerly known as Santiago Reservoir) was formed by the Santiago Dam, built in 1931. It was constructed by The Irvine Company and [the] Serrano Irrigation District (today know as the Serrano Water District). The lake was opened to the public for fishing in 1941. ...The lake stores approximately 28,000 acre feet of water. Originally the lake served the agricultural and farming communities surrounding Irvine Lake. Today the Serrano Water District provides drinking water to Villa Park and some parts of Orange. Irvine Ranch Water District uses untreated water from Irvine Lake to supplement its irrigation water only. IRWD is a partial owner of the lake, but Serrano Water District runs Irvine Lake and its concessions."

Laguna, Orange County Historical Society, etc.

Another New Year's advertisement, this time from the Jan. 1, 1937 issue of the South Coast News (which covered the Laguna Beach area). I assume the building shown here was one of Smith Construction's 1936 projects. It clearly faces Pacific Coast Highway, but I'm unsure of the cross street.
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The next meeting of the Orange County Historical Society (OCHS) will be held Jan. 8, 7:30pm, at Trinity Episcopal Church, 2400 N. Canal St., in Orange. The scheduled speaker is Stan Oftelie, discussing the "Orange County's Rogues Gallery" - a look back at political scandals and skulduggery of yesteryear. Stan is well known in O.C., but it's not well known that he's one of our best historians. Unfortunately, there's been an emergency that may (or may not) keep Stan from attending. On the small chance he cannot be there, I'm preparing a backup program focusing on photos of Orange County from the post-WWII years. I'll post an update when I know more.
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By the way, I know many of you belong to local and/or special interest historical organizations. In these tough economic times, membership in these groups is still a great value. Their (usually minimal) dues provide you with educational and interesting activities, programs and publications throughout the year, and also give you an important link to your community. In short, as Bartles & James used to say, "Thank you for your support."