I'm not posting as often because I'm spending more of my free time out driving around and taking additional pictures of lost Orange County tiki shrines for my June presentation. Yesterday turned out to be "Santa Ana Tiki Apartment Complexes Day" -- and I visited quite a few..
I won't share all the details with you now, but I thought I'd offer proof that I'm out doing something productive.
The fellow in the photo above is Jim. He's in charge of security at a still-very-tikified apartment complex near The Block at Orange. When he saw me shooting photos through the fence of waterfalls, rooflines, tikis, etc, he didn't shoo me away. Instead, he gave me a tour and told me all kinds of interesting details about the place. Thanks, Jim!
This sign has nothing to do with tiki, except that it graces what was once a Polynesian-themed complex in Santa Ana. .
Poor Leback! Why is he sad?
I will find this very interesting. Back in 1962 we lived in a house on E Rose Ave (just east of Tustin Ave). Across the street were Polynesian style apartments. A few days ago I was looking at apartments for rent on Craigslist and found an ad for them. I sent it to my sister because they had really nice photo's of the whole area. Brought back many memories.
ReplyDeleteI think that's the Ie Maru or Maru Apartments. I have an old postcard for them somewhere. It's on my list of places to shoot an "after" photo.
ReplyDeleteChris - Will we get a sampling from Duttons Jungle Gardens / The Palms on Orangethorpe Ave at your talk on June 10th? I'm all over it if you have the goods!
ReplyDeleteKen: Well, I will certainly discuss Jack Dutton's Jungle Gardens. Is there something in particular you wanted to know? Or did you just want to hear the story about Jerry again? :-)
ReplyDeleteWell, we can skip Jerry's sad story. But a layout / aerial view of the place would be appreciated. I don't recall ever seeing one.
ReplyDeletehttp://orangecounty.craigslist.org/apa/1708078076.html
ReplyDeleteThis is a link to the apartments in Orange. They are at 1855 E Rose Ave. They were on Craigslist. I do not remember what they were called back in 1962 when we lived there. But they were much more Polynesian.
Linda Hammond
Good detective work!
ReplyDeleteAnd don't forget Kamia Village in Garden Grove, with Tiki decor by Paul Orloff of Downey's Exotical.
Anonymous: Those were the Ie Maru Apts. I stopped by there the other day and there's no tiki decor left. The rooflines are great, but the last of the tropical plantings have been marked for removal.(Day-glow orange spray paint on the banana trees, etc.)
ReplyDeleteKevin: Thanks for the reminder. It wasn't on my list! Do you know if any of the decor is still there? Or has it been de-tikified like so many other complexes?
I just bought some stuff from Orloff a couple weeks ago.