In Walter Knott's Footsteps: Norco

Employees tending the Knott's short-lived attempt at a second nursery location. (Photo courtesy Orange County Archives)

On Saturday, Phil, Katie and I headed east, out of Orange County (*gasp!*) to do a sort of "Walking in Walter Knott's Footsteps" tour. Our first stop was Norco, where we found the site where the Knotts started a second berry stand and nursery. It never took off like the original Knott's Berry Farm in Buena Park, where selling plants through a nursery was an important part of the Knott family's business model.

The photo above shows the Norco stand and nursery in about 1930, at the southeast corner of Hamner Ave. and 3rd Street. (They also grew some berries not far away.) The photo below shows what the same spot looked like as of Saturday.

No berry plants available at the driving school. (Photo courtesy author)

Our next stop was in Newberry Springs, on the Mojave Desert, where Walter and Cordelia Knott homesteaded some land and went broke. Then we spent the rest of the day at the old mining town of Calico, which the Knotts purchased, rebuilt, and turned into a tourist attraction in the 1950s. In the coming days, I'll share photos of the homestead and Calico, along with additional information to shed more light on the Knott's story.

Postcards from Anaheim

Here are a few more postcards from Tom Pulley's collection -- This time depicting Anaheim. The postcard above shows the Municipal Light and Water Plant. (Nod to Steve Faessel.) The image below shows an earlier incarnation of Anaheim High School.

This last image (below) is from 1916 and is just one of many similar generic card designs featuring Dutch children. (Their accents always seem more German than Dutch to me, but I could be wrong.) The pennants or other decorative motifs featuring the cities names were always added later, allowing the same cards to be sold anywhere as "local." I don't quite understand what the appeal was -- But then I don't really understand the appeal of Family Circus, Precious Moments or Hello Kitty either.

Huntington Beach historical documents

Self-described "info sherpa" Richard K. Moore writes, "...With the assistance of library volunteer Stuart Gitlin, the [Huntington Beach Public] Library has digitized over 300 historical documents about the City of Huntington Beach and the Library. These scanned Adobe PDF files are useful to anyone interested in researching local history. For example, a popular school assignment is finding out how a local street got its name."

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All these documents are now available on the library's website. (This project seems like the logical next step after the historical booklets Alicia Wentworth used to put together.) I'm sure I will spend way too much time reading through this stuff in the coming weeks.

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Today's photo shows the Huntington Beach Pier, the Golden Bear, the Pav-a-lon and other downtown highlights in the 1930s. The crossed arches stood over the intersection of Main St. and Pacific Coast Highway. The photo comes from the collection of Barbara A. Milkovich.

Mission, Evangeline Hotel, Maze Rock, Disney, etc

Today I'm posting three photos of Mission San Juan Capistrano taken in 1923. All three come from the Pierce Collection, which is held by the Old Courthouse Museum. The one above shows the Serra Chapel. The other two are fairly self explanatory, except to mention that the girl sitting on the fountain is Helen Pierce.

The historic Evangeline Hotel (1906) in Huntington Beach has dropped in price again,... to only a million dollars.

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The Bowers Museum blog has added posts about the business ledger of Don Tomás Yorba and the "Maze Rock" from Trabuco Canyon.

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Major Pepperidge recently posted some 1971 images of Lion Country Safari and the Japanese Village & Deer Park.

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Stuff From The Park recently added posts about Knott's Berry Tales and about an event I'm sad I wasn't around to see: "Dixieland at Disneyland." Can you imagine getting to see Louis Armstrong, Kid Ory, The Firehouse Five Plus Two, and all those other talented musicians perform for the (then) low fee to enter Disneyland?

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And speaking of Disneyland, Vintage Disneyland Tickets recently posted some great Disneyland concept art from a 1955 McCall's magazine.

Knotts, last-minute persimmons, and Arts & Crafts

Well before Walter and Cordelia Knott made their fortunes with berries and chicken dinners, they went broke trying to farm on the Mojave Desert. Farming on the desert may sound crazy, but today there are thriving farms in the area. Also, Walter had already experienced some success in the Coachella Valley -- land many considered relatively worthless in those days. Today's photos (all from the Orange County Archives) show the Knotts on their Mojave homestead in the late 1910s.

The photo at the top of today's post shows Walter and probably Virginia Knott. The image immediately above shows Cordelia with the children (probably Virginia and Russell Knott). And the photo below shows Russell with some furry friends.

I'll probably post more about the Knotts' desert experiences in a week or two.

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The 15th annual Pitcher Park Persimmon Party will be held tomorrow, (Sunday,) noon to 3pm, at Pitcher Park, on the corner of Almond and Cambridge, in Old Towne Orange. (Sorry about the late notice!) Our friend Lisa Ackerman writes, "Pitcher park gets its name from the Pitcher family who owned the parcel for decades. They deeded the land over to the city for use as a passive park, and the Honey House and small Pitcher Park Museum and Fire Museum also occupy this postage stamp sized park. People can learn about all things persimmon there, buy persimmons and persimmon baked goods, a persimmon cookbook, and enjoy blue grass music, too! A fun little homespun celebration unlike anything else in Orange County. Or anywhere else, for that matter! Proceeds go to benefit the Pitcher Park Foundation, which educates school children and the community on our agrarian and community roots."

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Local architect Richard H. Dodd will lecture on "The Embodiment of the Arts and Crafts Movement," Nov. 18, 7-9pm at Sherman Gardens, 2647 E. Pacific Coast Hwy, in Corona del Mar. The event is free. Call 949-673-2261 to RSVP. Mr. Dodd will also be among the authors featured at the Orange County Historical Society's Authors Night on Dec. 10th, which I'll tell you more about very soon.

OCC, Neutra, Knott's, Tustin hangars & Mendez

Today I'm posting some photos of the old Richard Neutra-designed Art Center at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa. I took these photos in 2000, just before the place was demolished.

The old Art Center was extremely functional and was an inspiring place to work. It also very effectively accomplished the California Modern goal of blending indoor living and outdoor living seamlessly. I'm sorry I didn't get more and better photos of the place before most of it was cordoned off.

Remember the "Knott's Beary Tales" ride at Knott's Berry Farm? Major Pepperidge at Gorillas Don't Blog has posted a great "fun map" of the ride illustrated by Chris Merritt, along with some other great images from Chris's collection. .

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Despite earlier reports to the contrary, it sounds like the County is still looking for viable reuses for their historic Tustin Lighter-Than-Air Hangar. This is good news! If you have any economically viable reuse ideas, please feel free to post them in the Comments section below. It's certainly unofficial, but you never know who may be reading this blog or whether your suggestion might start a useful conversation. Indoor theme park? World's only indoor drive-in movie theater? I figure you can never have too many good ideas..

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A new documentary about the groundbreaking Mendez v. Westminster desegregation case was shown today at Fullerton College. (Sorry I didn't hear about this soon enough to post about it earlier. If you have an interest in this subject, you might keep your ear to the ground for future showings of, "Tales of a Golden State: The Mendez v. Westminster Story," by Erica Bennett.

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I'd like to reiterate something my Blogger profile has said from day one: "This blog is maintained in my free time. Views expressed here are mine alone." In other words, this is my blog, and I'm the one responsible for its content. That said, I definitely welcome your corrections, complaints, suggestions, kudos, or other comments. I do the best I can, but I always appreciate an assist. However, please contact me directly if you have a concern. We can almost always work things out and make corrections if needed. Thanks.

Bolsa Chica and WWII

Back for one more pass at Bolsa Chica in Huntington Beach. During WWII, the Bolsa Chica Gun Club's land became part of our nation's coastal defense. Bunkers were built on the ridge behind the old clubhouse, and the area was dotted with large gun emplacements. The photo above by Doug McIntosh shows one of the bunkers being demolished in 1994. The image below shows the area from the air in 1954.

The most noticable extant features of the WWII era at Bolsa Chica are the round concrete gun emplacements along the edge of the bluff. (Not shown in this photo.) These were never actually fitted with guns. The contractors didn't build them to the military's specifications. Ironically, these "rejects" are the once piece of this defense outpost that still stands today.
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Sorry I didn't get a chance to post over the holiday. As always -- many, many thanks to our veterans.

Old El Toro and photographer Ed Cochems

Jane Norgren brough in these photos of El Toro on the cusp of suburban development. (Probably the late 1960 or early 1970s.) The Old West was rapidly being overtaken by tract housing. A number of the old buildings in El Toro, including St. George's Episcopal Mission (seen in the first photo), were saved by moving them to Heritage Hill Historical Park.

Correction: Sue McIntire of OC Parks' South County Historical Parks division writes that the building with the cross on top "is actually the El Toro School.  When the new two-room school house was built in 1914 this one was purchased and moved to El Toro Road and was used as St. Anthony’s Catholic Church until 1968.  It sat vacant and took a licking from 1968 to 1976 when the County got it.  This picture says so much to me with the 1970s houses in the background and the school left to die. The actual end of the era…."

One of Orange County's best-known early photographers, Edward Cochems, will be the topic of a lecture by Michelle Light of UCI's Special Collections and Archives at a special event at the Old Orange County Courthouse, Nov. 19, 7-8:30pm. The program will feature Cochems work between 1920 and 1945, including many unpublished, unique images from UCI's collection. There will be a reception after the talk. RSVP to (714) 973-6610.