Thursday, August 24, 2023

O.C. Q&A: Huntington Beach Edition

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Helme-Worthy House (right) and M.E. Helme Furniture Co. Building (left) prior the construction of The Strand. Q: What are those old building...
Friday, June 30, 2023

Unusual names from Orange County (and environs)

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Ulysses Goates, Knott's Berry Farm employee, 1950s. Twenty years ago, I started keeping a list of some of the curious, colorful or unusu...
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 ...
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 photog...
Wednesday, April 12, 2023

A Bit of Hawaii and Financial Skulduggery on Clay Ave.

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I stumbled across this row of Hawaiian-themed apartment buildings last week while taking a walk north of Yorktown Ave. and west of Beach Blv...
Friday, March 31, 2023

Solve the Mystery of Henry Serrano's Door

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Do you have information about this door, which was given by Henry Serrano (of the pioneer Serrano family) to a respected historian and archa...
Monday, March 27, 2023

"Only a Nobody Walks in O.C."

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Portrait of José Andrés Sepúlveda, circa 1856 by Henri Joseph Penelon (Courtesy Bowers Museum, via Santa Ana Public Library) The modern obse...
Friday, March 24, 2023

A Few Notes About the Irvine Bowl, Laguna Beach

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The Irvine Bowl and the adjoining festival grounds weren’t the original home of The Festival of Arts and Pageant of the Masters, but they h...