Want to attend my lecture on the same topic at the Orange County Historical Society this Thursday evening (9/14/2023)? CLICK HERE for details.
Wednesday, September 13, 2023
About those Al Capone stories in the Register and Orange Coast magazine...
Sunday, September 10, 2023
OC/Q&A: South Santa Ana Edition
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Diamond School, South Santa Ana, circa late 1890s. |
Q: I've heard the name "Gospel Swamp" applied to areas from Huntington Beach to Garden Grove. Where was it actually located?
A: Today, every neighborhood with a puddle claims it was part of Gospel Swamp, because it's such a great nickname. However, contemporary records indicate that the name was originally and primarily applied to the marshy area at what's now the south end of Santa Ana -- from McFadden Ave. down through the South Coast Metro area. Soon, the name drifted over the Santa Ana River a bit, into parts of Fountain Valley. But no, the name did not apply to such far-flung locales as Westminster Garden Grove, or Huntington Beach.
The name comes from the late 1800s, when frequent evangelist meetings were held for the benefit of the local farmers -- many of whom were Protestants from the South. The locals began to call this rural area "Gospel Swamp" and its residents "Swamp Angels."
Q: A few years ago, they added a big arch over Main Street, just north of Warner Ave., reading "Historic South Main Business District." How did it get there, and why is the area historic?
A: The arch was built in 2007 as part of a redevelopment project. For most of its history, largely Hispanic South Santa Ana centered around the Holly Sugar Factory on Dyer Road. The plant opened in 1912 and was demolished in 1983. Many local residents worked there, and other businesses sprang up to serve them.
The arch itself is a replica of one that stood over Highway 101 near Chapman Ave. before the I-5 Freeway was built.
Q: Nothing says California like palm trees. Where’s the best place in O.C. to appreciate them?
A: South Coast Plaza has an amazing collection of well over 50 varieties of palm trees from all over the world, including rare ones like Howea belmoreana, Rhapis excelsa, and Dypsis leptocheilos. Rows of Cuban royal palms along Bear St. (56 in all) are the only such stands of this species between Florida and Hawaii. The Segerstrom family, who owns the mall, is fond (not frond) of palms and even planted an additional 100 trees to honor the centennial anniversary of their family's arrival in Orange County.
If you go on a palm jungle scavenger hunt, be sure to check every nook and cranny, including parking lots, road medians, and the wing formerly known as “Crystal Court.” Adventure awaits! But unlike most tropical safaris, you should worry more about texting drivers than venomous snakes.
Thursday, September 07, 2023
OC/Q&A: Wildlife Edition
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A magic lantern slide image of a California condor, 1900 (Courtesy San Jose Public Library) |
Q: Are there any California Condors in Orange County?
A: There have been no confirmed sightings of California condors in Orange County in about a century. But this largest of all North American birds - with a 10-foot wingspan - was once common here. In the 1980s the last 22 condors were captured for a breeding program. More than 200 are in the wild again, but they're still endangered. Once, the condors were decimated by poisoning by ranchers and hunting. Today, habitat destruction, lead poisoning (from eating bullet-riddled animal carcasses), power lines, and "green" wind turbines are their downfalls. Still, they're rebounding, so watch the skies for enormous ugly birds.
Q: What are the strangest animals native to Orange County?
A: Not counting the two-legged kind? Well, historian Jim Sleeper passed along a story about blind fish that lived in the underground lakes and peat springs deep below what’s now Fountain Valley, Huntington Beach, and the southern end of Santa Ana. (Not to be confused with the infamous “blind mullet” of Newport Harbor.) These fish were occasionally brought up from deep wells. No more than two inches long, the species had lived in total darkness for so long that it gradually de-evolved to having no eyes.
Frankly, the Fountain Valley Blind Fish makes a more memorable team name for Fountain Valley High School than the rather conventional Barons.
Q: If possums aren't native to California, why are they in my yard?
A: The possum, a native of the Southeast, was first introduced into California near L.A., around 1890. Homesick Southerners continued to bring more possums into the state up through the 1930s, both as food and as a source of cheap fur. Often, possums escaped, and soon these adaptable and prolific omnivores ranged across much of the state. Around 1900, Santa Margarita Ranch superintendent Bill Magee introduced possums to the Santa Ana Mountains when he turned loose a pair he'd purchased from a circus in Capistrano. The marsupial in your persimmon tree is likely their distant relative.
Tuesday, September 05, 2023
OC/Q&A: Weather Edition
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Snow at Valencia High School, Placentia, 1949 (Courtesy Placentia Library District) |
Q: Has Orange County ever had a snowfall that covered the whole county?
A: That last occurred on January 11, 1949. The foothills got about five inches of snow, but most of the county got less. Tustin historian Juanita Louvret writes, "You had to work hard to gather enough snow to make a decent snowman."
Still, Orange County looked like a winter wonderland, and almost everyone with a camera photographed their suddenly transformed neighborhoods.
Prior to 1949, you have to go back to Jan. 12, 1882 to find a record of another significant snowfall here.
Widespread snowfall was reported by some locals March 1, 2023, but those better acquainted with cold weather recognized it as “graupel” -- tiny wads of slush, not snowflakes. The graupel melted almost instantly upon touching the ground.
Q: Was the 1938 Flood the worst in O.C.’s history?
A: In terms of deaths (more than 50) and property damage, 1938 was our worst natural disaster. But for sheer volume of water, January 1862 brought us the ultimate frog-strangler. Historian Jim Sleeper wrote that the peak flow through Santa Ana Canyon in 1862 was “320,000 cubic feet per second, compared with 100,000 in 1938...” The Western half of Orange County became an extension of the ocean for a while. Luckily, there was hardly anyone around in 1862 to complain about it.
Q: With no groundhogs in Orange County, what signs of nature predict our local weather?
A: Local Indians once believed that gophers relocating their burrows to higher ground was a sign of an approaching rainy season. According to historian Jim Sleeper, the early pioneers had innumerable "sure signs" -- from heavy acorn growth, to whales hugging the coast, to maple leaves all turning color at once. These methods were all as dependable as ol' Punxsutawney Phil.
Monday, September 04, 2023
San Juan Capistrano, 1860-1960
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Mission San Juan Capistrano, 1865 (Edward Vischer) |
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Gen. Andres Pico, circa 1850 (Courtesy Seaver Center) |
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Map of California (detail), 1868 (A. C. Frey & Louis Nell) |
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Marcos Forster and family (Courtesy Los Angeles Public Library) |
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San Juan viewed from the hills west of Rio Trabuco, circa.1887. (Courtesy O.C. Archives) |
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San Juan Capistrano's second Santa Fe depot, 1890s (Courtesy OC Parks) |
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Judge Richard Egan (Courtesy SJC Historical Soc.) |
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DiseƱo map for Boca de la Playa, circa 1846. Clear as mud. (Courtesy Phil Brigandi) |
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Fr. Joseph Mut (Courtesy SJC Historical Soc.) |
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C. F. Lummis (center) at Mission San Juan Capistrano, circa 1904 (Courtesy O.C. Archives) |
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San Juan Hot Springs (Courtesy O.C. Archives) |
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Monsignor St. John O'Sullivan, 1934 (Courtesy University of Southern California) |
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The Great Stone Church at Mission San Juan Capistrano (Courtesy O.C. Archives) |
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Postcard depicting swallows' mud nests at Mission San Juan Capistrano. |
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Mission Pageant poster, 1924 |
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Tour guide at Mission San Juan Capistrano, circa 1930s (Courtesy O.C. Archives) |
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Chief Clarence Lobo |
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Camino Capistrano, San Juan Capistrano, circa 1959 (Courtesy O.C. Archives) |
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Aerial view of San Juan Capistrano, 1959 (Courtesy O.C. Archives) |
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Orange County Historical Society members at Los Rios District, 2016 (Author's photo) |
Friday, September 01, 2023
OC/Q&A: Agriculture Edition
Q: I'm told Huntington Beach had an indoor mushroom farm. True?Ocean View Mushroom Growers. (Photo courtesy Mary Urashima)
A: There was, indeed, fungus among us. Ocean View Mushroom Growers had 36 dark, air-conditioned growing houses full of compost and mushrooms. The compost was made from a pungent blend of race track bedding, wine residue, cow belly and chicken manure, and pickers wore lighted miners’ helmets so they could work in near-darkness. Owner Victor Di Stefano, grew up around the mushroom business in Pennsylvania and, after serving part of his WWII Navy hitch in Southern California, decided to settle here and go into the business himself. By the mid-1950s he’d settled on a parcel on Golden West St., north of Ellis Ave. He had 220,000 square feet of growing space, and a good crop yielded five pounds of mushrooms per square foot. When the farm shut down in the 1980s, the city began a long battle to acquire the property. A lot of locals who were used to the farm’s smell had to hold their noses for the gross construction/development expenditures for the city Sports Complex that replaced it.
Q: Was Orange County ever a wine region?
A: The padres at Mission San Juan Capistrano grew “mission grapes” for a dessert-type wine, some of the Ranchos had vines, and the Los Angeles Vineyard Society founded Anaheim in the 1850s as a vineyard and winemaking colony. But the industry ground to a halt in 1885, when a Pierce’s Disease wiped out most of the vines. But occasionally, hobbyists or entrepreneurs would make wine from non-local grapes. My favorite local label (not the wine, I just like the labels) was Trabuco Loud Mouth, made in Holy Jim Canyon until a 1980 brush fire destroyed the wine press. Today, a handful of local winemakers today include the Laguna Canyon Winery, Newport Beach Vineyards & Winery, Hamilton Oaks Vineyard in Trabuco Canyon, and the Pozzuoli Vineyard & Winery in Tustin.
Q: Was the Hass avocado really developed in La Habra?
A: Almost. This most popular of all avocado varieties was developed by mailman Rudolph Hass (rhymes with the thing you sit on) in a small grove at his home in La Habra Heights, just over the border into Los Angeles County. All Hass avocado trees today descend from a single seed he planted there in 1926. Rudy's mail route was in La Habra, so some folks assumed his tree was located there too. The mother tree finally died and was cut down in 2002.
Thursday, August 24, 2023
OC/Q&A: Huntington Beach
Helme-Worthy House (right) and M.E. Helme Furniture Co. Building (left) prior the construction of The Strand.
Q: What are those old buildings that are now nearly surrounded by The Strand shopping center in Downtown Huntington Beach?
A: Those buildings are still owned and occupied by the descendants of the man who put them there: Matthew E. Helme, a furniture dealer, Socialist, and one of the town's original councilmen. His efforts helped bring paved roads, streetlights, a modern fire department, municipal gas and water systems, and cityhood to Huntington Beach. His house, at 6th and Walnut, was originally built at 5th St. and Euclid in Santa Ana around 1880. He used mules to roll the house on logs to its current location in 1903. The following year, he built the M.E. Helme Furniture Co. building behind the house. In a city that's bulldozed most of its history, it's heartwarming to know these buildings are now on the National Register of Historic Places and are currently (if slowly) being restored.
Q: Why do locals call Golden West College "UBL?"
A: Until about 15 years ago, there was a large discount furniture store between the college and Edinger Avenue. "UBL" stands for "University Behind Levitz." Plenty of other institutions of higher learning have similarly cheeky nicknames. Santa Ana College is "UCSB:" the "University of California at Seventeenth and Bristol." And some say "UCI" stands for "Under Construction Indefinitely." Yours truly transferred from Tangerine Tech (Orange Coast College) to Cal State Disneyland (CSU Fullerton).
Q: The Huntington Beach 4th of July Parade is great, but the crowds can be terrible. How do we solve this?
A: We could take a tip from the Huntington Beach Fish Parade of 1926. The brainchild of City Councilman E. B. Stevens, this fishing-themed parade wound 85 miles through the county, reaching La Habra, Olive (the north end of Orange), and even over the county line into Norwalk. The parade's bathing beauties, bigwigs, and bands -- all piled into open-topped vehicles -- were undoubtedly frazzled by the end of the day. But there were plenty of good seats available along the route.
Friday, June 30, 2023
Unusual names from Orange County's past
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Ulysses Goates, Knott's Berry Farm employee, 1950s. |
- W. H. Tinklepaugh (Robbed the Fox Fullerton Theatre in 1929. Pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity)
- Eltha Mustard, Geneva Mustard, and Biney Mustard (Family lived in Santa Ana, 1930s-'40s)
- Carbon Petroleum Dubbs (Lived on Easter Hill, North Tustin)
- Girtha Edith Ostrander (Mother of Sondra Myracle of Orange)
- Euphrates Hare (Westminster pioneer)
- Thelma Blackbeard (Lived in Newport Heights)
- Gertie Gurney (Property owner in La Habra)
- Noah Counts (La Habra resident)
- Beaver Goodykoontz (WWI veteran from Villa Park area)
- Ulysses S. Lemon (Longtime local newspaper publisher. Died in Fullerton in 1929)
- Floddie Moan (Los Angeles resident and sister of Melchi W. Hart and Stella Organ)
- Stella Organ (Daughter of Santa Ana's Harris Hart)
- Dummer Kiah Trask (Lived 1860-1914. Trask Avenue is named for him.)
- Melvin C. Roach (Married in O.C. around 1928)
- Rev. Myrna C. Cronic (Preached in Anaheim in 1939)
- Dick Biggins (Acting Clerk of West Orange County Municipal Court, 1981)
- Stephen A. Rumps (O.C. Sheriff's Deputy until Jan. 1983)
- Farnum Phipps
- Minnie Clynick (Santa Ana resident, circa 1930s-1960s)
- Delbert & Dimple Kerley (married couple, lived in Santa Ana in 1930s)
- Thomas Twaddle (San Bernardino resident, as of 1890)
- Noah Cheatum (Contractor working on San Clemente in 1962)
- Fanny Sparks (Phil Brigandi observed, "That's one of the side effects of Olestra.")
Tuesday, May 09, 2023
Furniture from the Trabuco Adobe
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Trabuco Adobe ruins, circa 1930s. Now inside the boundaries of O'Neill Park. |
People often come to me with "old stuff." When I can't immediately tell if I'm being offered trash or treasure, I tend to grab the item in question and figure it out later. Over the years, I've saved some important things that way. But sometimes the answers don't come easily. Here's a case where a group of artifacts which finally proved to be a mixed bag of relatively significant items mixed with one particular artifact that may yet prove to be downright amazing. Or not.
In 2019, archaeologist Holly "Sonny" (Windolph) Shelton of Grand Junction, Colorado contacted Mission San Juan Capistrano with an offer to donate four pieces of furniture which had been removed from the historic Trabuco Adobe about a century earlier. This adobe had been an estancia for the Mission and its ruins, located on the Rancho Santa Margarita side of O'Neil Park, are a reminder of what was perhaps the earliest "permanent" building in Orange County outside of San Juan Capistrano. Theoretically, this furniture could have dated back as early as the Mission Era. And even if it wasn't that early, it's association with the Trabuco Adobe alone made the furniture historically interesting.
The Mission turned down Shelton's offer. So on August 28, 2021, Shelton emailed the same offer to the Historical Parks division of OC Parks:
She wrote, “During the late 1930s or 1940s my grandfather, Leo Windolph of San Juan Capistrano, purchased a parcel of land in Trabuco Canyon, in an area now encompassed by O'Neill Regional Park. Several deteriorating adobe structures were situated on the property.”
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Painting of Trabuco Adobe ruins, circa 1920s by Anne Robinson |
The only adobe structure there at that time was the Trabuco Adobe. And indeed, further research has shown that her family was farming that part of the Plano Trabuco (where the adobe is located) in the early 20th Century.
The adobe, Shelton continued, “had previously been used by Mission San Juan Capistrano . . . and still held a number of mission-related antiquities such as ornate candlesticks, Santos, and other items. In addition, there were several pieces of furniture, all constructed by hand of wood and wrought iron . . . Mr. Windolph felt these articles belonged to the Church and contacted a Father at the Mission who did come and took all but the furniture back to San Juan Capistrano Mission.” [See entry re Windolph, in Talbert's Historical Volume & Reference Works, Vol. 3, pg 687]
Here, the family lore becomes a little hazy, but none of the important information conflicts with the known historical facts about the furniture itself. Some details, however, are missing from the story.
For instance, a key turning point seems to have come when the roof was torn off the Trabuco Adobe in the early 1920s to provide tile for Fr. St. John O’Sullivan’s restoration of the Mission’s Serra Chapel. Either the furniture was removed at that point and put into storage (perhaps in a nearby barn) or it was left, as Shelton suggests, still in situ until the 1930s or 1940s. The degree of weathering on most of the furniture suggests the former.
Portion of the Trabuco Adobe ruins, inside a wood shelter, 2012 (Photo by author) |
“Eventually, of the aforementioned furniture,” Shelton wrote, “I inherited two high-backed chairs and a large table and bench. . . As I have no heirs or family and feel the items should not remain in Colorado, it is my intention to return them to an entity located as close to their place of origin as soon as possible. As the Mission has declined my offer I am pursuing other alternatives. . .”
“. . . Approximate sizes are: Table 5ft L x 3ft W x 3ft high; bench 5ft L x 1.5ft W x 1.5ft high; chairs 4.5 feet high at back and 2ft wide. Condition: As they are quite old but have been indoors, the wood is slightly weathered but structurally sound, wrought iron in good condition, leather sling seat, and back of chair #1 professionally replaced from a pattern of the original leather which was so old it had begun to crumble. Chair #2 is all wood. The bench has been stained and sealed but is reversible.”
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The refinished "Chair #1" (Photo by author) |
OC Parks also rejected the offer but kindly passed the email along to the Orange County Archives, which unfortunately is not in the business of accepting such large artifacts. County Archivist Susan Berumen then passed Shelton's email along to me.
I accepted the furniture myself with the idea to study it, pull together as much information as possible about it, and then carefully find an appropriate home (or homes) for it.
In September 2021, Shelton’s brother, Doug Windolph -- at great inconvenience to himself -- delivered the furniture to me at a predetermined storage site in Orange County.
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Six-foot table with moving straps still around it. (Photo by author) |
Soon it became clear that two of the pieces – the table and the bench -- were definitely not from the Mission Era. Historian Eric Plunkett suggested measuring the furniture, and indeed the table and bench measured neatly in feet and inches rather than Spanish varas and fractions of varas.
Moreover, the table and bench were carefully crafted to look like mortise and tenon construction but were actually held together with hidden nuts and bolts. And finally, the furniture was not built of woods that were readily available in Early California and the wrought iron supports showed a level of sophistication uncommon on the rugged frontier. The table and bench were likely built as “Mission Revival” pieces circa 1900-1920. They were probably purchased during that time and added to the Trabuco Adobe with an eye toward having it appear “at home” in such a structure.
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Six-foot long bench. (Photo by author) |
The refinished chair with leather sling seat is likely also from the early 20th Century, although it’s harder to tell for certain. It may be early, but the fact that it was refinished makes it difficult to tell a great deal more about it.
That said, the table, bench and refinished chair’s century-old connection to the Trabuco Adobe make ALL of this furniture historically significant, regardless of its exact age. Very few artifacts from this early estancia survive, from any era. Moreover, they still look – as intended – right at home in an adobe structure and accurately depict the style of furniture one would have seen in Southern California during the Mission Era. Thus, being simultaneously historical artifacts AND historical reproductions, in mid-2022 I offered them to the San Juan Capistrano Historical Society, which graciously accepted. At the time, they were restoring/rebuilding a historic adobe in the Los Rios District as part of their museum and I asked that these pieces be “displayed for educational purposes, and interpreted through signage that reflects the history of the Trabuco Adobe.”
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"Chair #2" (Photo by author) |
The fourth piece of furniture – still under study and not donated with the rest – is what Shelton identified as Chair #2. This chair is in rougher condition than the rest of the furniture and has clearly had a couple pieces (including the seat) replaced at some point in the past. But this chair bears many indications of being very early. It has traces of paint seemingly consistent with the Spanish/Mexican Colonial era. It features no obvious measurements in feet or inches, but numerous measurements in fractions of varas.
Also, Chair #2 is made of pine or fir, which would have been the only lumber available locally prior to expanding trade in the 1830s. The construction techniques – aside from the aforementioned replaced pieces and two holes that seem to have been drilled at a later date -- are consistent with the Mission Era as well. (Admittedly, such furniture has often been replicated by others over the generations.) A number of historians have provided their observations regarding the chair so far, including longtime Rancho Los Cerritos curator Steve Iverson, who also happens to be a master woodworker.
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Detail from "Chair #2" (Photo by author) |
Meanwhile, the reappearance of this collection of furniture has led Eric Plunkett to do additional original research into the Trabuco Adobe as well as the story of furniture manufacturing at Mission San Juan Capistrano. Among his earliest findings were the fact that the Trabuco Adobe is older than most thought and that it was used initially for shepherds rather than vaqueros. He has also learned exactly who the master carpenter was at the mission and the names of the neophytes he trained. (See The Trabuco Adobe: The Oldest Adobe Outside of Capistrano in O.C.?)
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Delivery day! (L to R) Chris Jepsen, Eric Plunkett, Sandra Windolph, Doug Windolph. Sept. 19, 2021 |
Monday, April 24, 2023
JoAn Burdick Gottlieb (1934-2023)
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JoAn Burdick at the Calico Saloon, Knott's Berry Farm, June 1954 |
My introduction to JoAn Burdick Gottlieb was a single remarkable photograph.
Soon after I was hired as the Assistant Archivist at the Orange County Archives, in 2003, we became the repository of Knott’s Berry Farm’s historical materials. In trying to identify, date and organize the thousands of photos we pulled from every nook and cranny of the Farm, I needed to identify the places, things, and especially the people depicted therein.
Naturally, among the photos of Knott’s Ghost Town were countless images of grizzled prospectors, train robbers, square-jawed sheriffs, bartenders, and high-kicking can-can dancers. Almost all of these images made Ghost Town itself the focus of attention. All except for one 1954 photo of a tall beautiful can-can dancer standing atop the bar in the Calico Saloon. That dancer – wearing a snazzier costume than the ones Knott’s usually supplied – was clearly the sole focus of the photo and Ghost Town just happened to be the backdrop. The dancer’s name turned out to be JoAn Burdick.
Most of the Ghost Town crew from that era were long gone by then, and I didn’t make an effort to track her down. Instead, she found me.
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(L to R) The author with JoAn and her dear friends Kathy and Bill Couture at the Orange County Historical Society, Feb. 7, 2019. |
If JoAn never told you about the high points of her life, many other tributes since her death have done fair job: Dancing, pageants, parades, Knott’s Berry Farm, Las Vegas, celebrities, her beloved Bernie, her dance and baton twirling school, motherhood, friends, and community volunteer work. But with all due respect to her many accomplishments, they aren’t the reason her passing generates such an avalanche of fond tributes.
Why then?
Because JoAn enthusiastically brought love and a glowing positive attitude to any room she entered. Because she fully immersed herself in being an active part of the community. (Something that her wonderful friends Kathy and Bill Couture helped facilitate in her later years.) And because she was a cheerleader for so many of us – sincerely and effusively telling us we were doing a great job and gushing about our successes to anyone who would listen. And no, I'm not just talking about me. I Everyone needs a JoAn or two in their lives.
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Halloween, 2021 at the Anaheim Public Library. |
In the years after we met, JoAn and her friends became regulars at meetings of the Orange County Historical Society, where I serve as president and program chair. She was also a regular at the Anaheim Historical Society which had a lot of overlap with another of her favorite community organizations, the Anaheim Halloween Parade. (Causes that are close to my heart as well.) Having played a role in the parade during its halcyon years, in the 2010s she played an even more active role as the parade was revived from the brink of death and once again made a charming and vital part of the community.
JoAn’s passing drew immediate tributes from dozens of individuals on social media, from community organizations, and even the City of Anaheim itself. A memorial I attended turned out to be a semi-secret event because the organizers knew that a publicly-announced memorial would bring out half the city, overwhelm the Anaheim Ebell Clubhouse, and possibly draw unwanted attention from the Fire Marshall. As it was, there were still maybe 175 people there. After a short memorial program and lunch, JoAn’s friends and family – one at a time -- volunteered their memories of her. Altogether, it went on for three hours. It easily could have gone on longer, but I assume the Ebell ladies wanted their hall back eventually.
I doubt I'll ever light up a room the way JoAn did. And I'll certainly never be able to twirl three batons at once while marching down Broadway. But I hope a little of what made JoAn special has rubbed off on everyone who knew her -- including me.
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JoAn speaks at the Orange County Historical Society, 2019. (Photo by author) |
Author's note: JoAn passed in January 2023, so this post arrives awfully late. It was written for inclusion in a booklet full of tributes to JoAn being assembled by a mutual friend. Ultimately, that project did not move forward, so -- considering what a fixture JoAn had become in the local history community in recent years -- I thought it appropriate to post it here instead. This little article is in no way intended to serve as a proper obituary, covering the breadth and depth of her life experiences. Rather, it's just a reflection of the JoAn that *I* knew. I will leave other stories to those who know those stories better.
Wednesday, April 12, 2023
A Bit of Hawaii and Financial Skulduggery on Clay Ave.
I stumbled across this row of Hawaiian-themed apartment buildings last week while taking a walk north of Yorktown Ave. and west of Beach Blvd in Huntington Beach. Located at 704-732 Clay Ave between Beach and Florida St. (in Block A of Tract 837) the construction on the buildings was completed in 1965 -- around the peak of the Tiki or Polynesian Pop craze that swept America.
The standout features of these buildings are the multiple variations of the "Dickey Roof" design. This type of roof was introduced in 1926 by Hawaiian architect Charles W. Dickey and was based on the grass roof of King Kamehameha V's Waikiki beach house.
Another telltale sign of the buildings' island inspiration are the remnants of their original subtropical landscaping, including banana trees and bird of paradise plants.
Developer Eagle Enterprises, Inc., based in Garden Grove, purchased the land from Edgar R. "Ned" Hill & Dora A. Hill of Newport Beach in October 1963. Dora was the first woman to serve as mayor of Newport Beach. Ned had been in the boat building business and was the founder and president of a local bank.
Eagle Enterprises was operated by three brothers: Ward Maurice Wilsey, vice president; P. I. Woodrow Wilsey, advisor; and Ernest Reginald Wilsey, Jr., president. It appears that each owned a 1/3 interest in the business.
Construction on the apartments got underway in 1964, but by June of that year both the Gene Robinson Building Co. and Cal-Western Cabinet Co. (a.k.a. Lawrence E. Green) took out mechanics' liens against Eagle. Then it went from bad to worse. Eagle defaulted on its loans and the property was foreclosed on by the Costa Mesa Savings & Loan Association. Eagle Enterprises went bankrupt in 1965. The Savings & Loan had the work on the buildings completed by contractor Charles R. Swenson, who finished on Aug. 9, 1965.
At the end of 1966 the Savings & Loan -- recently renamed Mariners Savings & Loan Association -- sold the row of Clay Ave. apartment buildings to Donald L. & Carolyn J. Arritt. In 1967, the Arritts in turn deeded half interest in the lots to Howard V. & Waneta M. Mathews.
But the Wilsey brothers still weren't out of trouble. In 1970, a federal grand jury investigated the Wilseys and the defunct Eagle Enterprises and then idicted Ward and Woodrow for a number of crimes. The charges against Woodrow were more relatively minor (failure to file income taxes) and seem to have been dropped or dealt with through fines.
However, in 1971 Ward Wilsey was convicted not only of failing to report about $56,000 in income tax, but also filing false statements with federal saving and loan associations during 1963, 1964 and 1965. He'd also diverted corporate funds into his own pockets, billed several federal savings and loans for consulting work he never actually performed, and hid records from IRS agents. "Most of the apartment developments begun by Wilsey were foreclosed by the savings and loan associations involved," recalled The Tustin News (3-18-1972) upon his conviction. He was sentenced to ten months in jail and a $4,000 fine.
On July 10, 1975, the Arritt and Mathews families sold all the apartment buildings to George M. & Mary E. Heisick. It was the Heisicks, in 1976, who "broke up the set" and began to sell of the lots individually to a variety of new owners. From then on, each building would pass through a variety of different owners' hands, independent of the other buildings.
Friday, March 31, 2023
Solve the Mystery of Henry Serrano's Door
The wood door has carvings of initials, horses, other animals, and dates that range from 1885 to 1890. It is delicate with age and use and is held in a custom-built plywood box for protection. The measurements of the door (encased within its protective frame) are 73” tall by 36” wide.
We'd love to see the door displayed at the Serrano Adobe in Lake Forest's Heritage Hill Historical Park, if appropriate. When that possibility was mentioned, J nodded vigorously, indicated that the Serrano Adobe was indeed the right place for the door. But OC Historical Parks (which owns/operates the adobe) quite correctly requires more provenance than simply "this came from someone in the Serrano family" before accepting an artifact. Which means all of us (including, perhaps, you) need to band together to share/research more information about it.
I'll try to track that property and survey down and perhaps some of the other people involved in it, to see if the door is mentioned. But that may be a long shot.
I'm hoping some member of the Serrano family, or the Saddleback Area Historical Society. or a random El Toro old-timer, or SOMEONE will step forward and say, "Sure! I remember Uncle Henry telling me about this door and where it came from!"As an artifact, it's a wonderful, functional piece of everyday life that's made dramatically more interesting by the folk-art carvings and inscriptions added to it.