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| Easter Hill, with the Marcy Ranch headquarters in the foreground, circa the 1920s. |
The hill itself was part of a 17,000-acre parcel of the Irvine Ranch that James Irvine, Sr. considered worthless for agriculture. It was sold for chump change in 1910 to retired Armour Grain Company president George E. Marcy of Chicago. The primary crops on Marcy's ranch were lemons and Valencia oranges. It was managed by ranch superintendent Albert A. Leake.
"Marcy built ranch headquarters on Newport Avenue near the present Marcy Drive," writes Tustin historian Juanita Louvret, "The property ...included both citrus orchards and grazing land as well as a park with a lake, swans and peacocks."
Marcy died in 1939. His widow, Carrie, sold 822 acres of the ranch -- including the hill -- to retired oil executive Walter R. Cowan in 1944. Cowan subdivided the land into the Cowan Heights residential area.So where exactly do those fabled Easter services come into the picture? The details have been obscured by time.
"Several hills in that area were used for Easter sunrise services," historian Jim Sleeper told the L.A. Times in 1973. "There's no way of knowing who used that one, or when."
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| Another large, simple cross on another Southern California hilltop. |
Longtime O.C. Historical Commissioner Don Dobmeier -- who was once the gardener at Easter Hill -- says, with more certainty, that "Easter Hill was named by Mr. Marcy. He used to invite his church up to this scenic spot for Easter sunrise services each year. "
In about 1950, Cowan sold Easter Hill to engineer Carbon Chatley Dubbs (1911-1982). Dubbs was the wealthy son of Carbon Petroleum Dubbs, and grandson of Jesse A. Dubbs -- chemists whose contributions to the field of oil refining generated a large family fortune. Carbon C. and his wife, Junia, had seen the hill while flying their airplane over Tustin, and decided then and there that they wanted it. According to Don Meadows, "There wasn't even a road up there until Dubbs put one in."
Like his grandfather, Carbon C. Dubbs had a creative streak, and among his inventions was a type of light-weight but sturdy concrete block made of pumice. (One wonders if the blocks, like the air-bubble-filled volcanic rock they were made from, could float in water.) The blocks Dubb's Carduco company manufactured in Stanton were six inches by twelve inches by four feet. Even made of pumice, these blocks, according to Dobmeier, proved to be too heavy at 96 pounds each. Dubbs himself got a bad back from carrying them around. A later version was shortened to two feet in length and weighed half as much.
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| A 1949 illustration for a related C.C. Dubbs, patent: "Process & Apparatus for Molding Porous Concrete Products." |
The Dubbs raised their two children, Jack and Carbon P. (a.k.a. "Dubby") in the house, and left their mark on the property, including many bird of paradise plants. There were also twelve pepper trees gracing the property, all of which are gone today.
Gimeno remembered seeing a wooden cross "propped up among the rocks" when he first visited the site in the early 1950s. That cross was still on the property, leaning against a wall, when the Dubbs sold the property to Priscilla J. Yale of Tustin in 1973. It may have been the cross used at the Easter services that gave the hill its name. Mrs. Dubbs wrote a monograph about Easter Hill, but I've never seen a copy of it.
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| The Easter Hill house as it appears today. |
What great stories. It's personal histories like this that make history connect with our present day.
ReplyDeleteHaving grown up on Foothill Blvd I remember Carbon Dubbs house very well. My Dad knew them and once said they has a large snake collection there. I also remember the cross. As I recall, it was seasonal, but that was a long time ago.
ReplyDeleteMy father was the manager, and I worked at the Country Garden Store (17th @ SA Fwy) in the late 60's and early 70's. Mrs. (Junita) Dubbs was a frequent customer at the nursery and gift shop. I had the pleasure of making many deliveries of plants and Christmas trees to the Dubbs' residence. The estate and view from the house were spectacular. Mrs. Dubbs was a very gracious lady, even to a 19 year old nurseryman. Ken Myres
ReplyDeleteMy grandfather rented this house in the early 90’s. I have fond memories of playing there when I was young. Thank you for sharing the story and pictures.
ReplyDeleteI grew up (late 60s-70s) in North Tustin and we all called that Dubbs Hill. Now I know where the rumor that he invented carbon paper came from.
ReplyDeleteRan across this article as I was trying to learn about Jack, the youngest Dubbs, and an old friend. My memories (and stories) of the Dubbs’ home are fading in my aging brain. My high school boyfriend was Jack’s close friend. We double dated often, and had many great evenings at his home. Jack was a wonderful man, and enjoyed being a Dubbs. I thought that Carbon provided the concrete for Disney’s Monorail. But I may be wrong. The home was amazing, as mentioned by several others. But the view, truly awe inspiring. Tustin was a magical place in the mid 20th century. Wish I had realized how magical.
ReplyDeleteMargo (Beck) Smalley
TUHS Class of ‘63
Priscilla Yale Held an open house, and my friends and I went up and saw the house on the hill. It was awesome, and they said that Dubbs sandblasted the wooden frames before they poured the concrete, so that the concrete would look like wood grain. What really impressed me was the huge Mayan calendar in the bedroom over the bed. The thing must have weighed a ton. It was an
ReplyDeleteincredible, awesome house! I might have the open house invitation somewhere in a storage box.
Thank you very much for the detailed history! My family moved to a mid range house at the bottom of that hill in 1965. It was halfway between the rich kids of "The Summit" and the El Modena barrio (think White Tortilla Kitchen yum) My father was an engineer and would talk about "Carbon Dubbs". As kids we hiked up the dirt road on the south side to his house and would hang out below a big wall (motivation: we thought he was a gazillionaire and would throw money at us) and asked him for water...he directed us to a hose spicket. :-/ When I was twelve the Register paper route that I delivered went up Daniger to the base. It was such a beautiful area...groves..and Eucalypis everywhere...The OC Sheriffs were paid by the Irvine company to protect their land, and some wayward friends of mine that rode dirtbikes would actually get in chases with them going up the dirt road (them in their plymouth fury land yachts. In my late teens we we were up on the hill watching the sunset, and we noticed a party that appeared to be a wedding going on. We went and got our best suits on and crashed it! Bucket list (see the inside of the closest thing to a mansion back then) checked.
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