Here's an ad for the Pacific Electric Railway's "Red Cars" and buses, from the Dec. 31, 1950 issue of the Huntington Beach News. Today they'd also tell you that it was "green" to take mass transit.
Today's photos show what is now known as George Bellis Park, at 7171 Eighth St. in Buena Park. The first photo is undated but probably from the 1940s. The second photo is from 1956. I was curious to know who George Bellis was, did some digging, and found the answer interesting,...
The citizens of Buena Park were alarmed when they heard that the new Santa Ana Freeway (I-5) was going to cut their town in half. The plans showed a 27-foot-high berm bisecting the community, with only one pass-through, on Grand Ave., connecting the two halves. Moreover, the plans called for only one freeway exit for the city. By most accounts, it would have ruined the city.
What a soft hair style!
Before I give myself a little Christmas vacation from blogging, I'm posting an assortment of images from Orange County Christmases past. The image above shows the parlour of the Keech House at 201 E. Washington St. in Santa Ana in about 1910. It remains one of the city's most attractive homes even today. Among his various accomplishments, E. E. Keech was one of Orange County's first prominent attorneys. He also founded the Orange County Law Library, was a president and founding member of the Orange County Bar Association, and trained a young Earle Stanley Gardner (creator of Perry Mason) in the law. I'm sure I'll be writing more about Keech and his interesting family in the coming year.
The third photo, (below,) shows the Church of Reflections (next to the Lake of Reflections) at Knott's Berry Farm at Christmas in 1963. Both the church and the lake were recently removed, although bits of the church have been incorporated into a new version of the building on the other side of Beach Blvd. This removal, along with the removal of the Little Chapel by the Lake, meets the Constitutional requirement of separation of church and theme park.
My final image for today, (below,) shows Santa Claus visiting the Orange County Board of Supervisors at the County Hall of Administration in December 1988. Supervisors Tom Riley and Don Roth are contributing gifts to a toy drive. Later, Roth resigned in a scandal that involved him accepting gifts.
If I don't post again before the 25th, I'd like to wish you all a Merry Christmas! 
I just added about 100 images to the Orange County Archives' Flickr account. The two sample images above are both from Fullerton in 1927. The first (top) shows the entire Fullerton Police Department. (Back row, from left: Ernest Garner, Steve R. Mills, Frank Moore, Robert C. Mills. Front row, from left: John Trezise, Chief James M. Pearson, John Gregory, Jake Deist.) 
In honor of all of those who are still doing their last-minute Christmas shopping, here are a couple photos of Rankin Dry Goods (a.k.a. Rankin's Department Store) around the time of its opening in 1917. The building still stands at 117 W. 4th St. (at Sycamore) in Santa Ana, but the business is long gone.
Reader Barry Kazmer sent me this photo of the 1962 Orange County Fair. He writes, "I also have a bunch of photos of the O.C. Fair Rodeo from 1964 as well. I did that for a summer school class in Anthropology I took. I used the RCA (Rodeo Cowboys Association) as a foreign culture and I managed to get an A in the class.”
Today's image is the cover of a 1932 coloring book from the California Fruit Growers Exchange. The illustration isn't identified as Orange County, but it might as well be. The CFGE created the iconic "Sunkist" brand around 1907, and in 1952 they changed their name to Sunkist Growers, Inc. A marketing powerhouse, the CFGE even made orange juice a standard breakfast drink for most Americans. As Phil Brigandi likes to say, they "could have even taught Walt Disney a thing or two about marketing." (Thanks to Doug McIntosh for the image.)Episode Two: "Dawn of a New Era"
This is the map of Indian village and burial sites in Orange County that Herman F. Strandt created in 1921. This post is sort of an addendum to my Dec. 13th entry. (The map comes by way of Jim Sleeper, by way of Mike Boeck, by way of Mike Bornia. My thanks to all of the above.) More information about Strandt can be found in Paul G. Chace's paper on Locating the Buck Ranch Prehistoric Burial Ground, Huntington Beach, California -- which is an interesting bit of reading in its own right.
The 1909 postcard above makes me wonder what kind of person schedules a "stag party and smoker" for 10:00 Christmas morning. Out of curiosity, I drove past and photographed 506 S. Sycamore in Santa Ana.
(Continued from 12-1-08) The last stop on our Irvine Ranch Conservancy tour was at Orange County’s most mysterious archaeological site. Historian Jim Sleeper describes it as "a peculiarly carved one-ton sandstone rock... [once at] the center of an Indian camp. Numerous 'pot hole' rocks surround the stone, which resembles an elfin throne." (Rancho San Joaquin Gazette, Vol. III, No. 1)
The rock was a well-known landmark to Irvine Ranch cowboys. According to Sleeper, it “was finally excavated and examined in 1954 by Herman Strandt, and amateur archaeologist from Anaheim… He carefully measured the three-foot high stone, calculated its eleven different planes… and chalked on its sides a number of unnoticed ‘dipper-like’ petroglyphs which have since disappeared. …At the time of Strandt’s study, the [rock] also bore the initials ‘RF’ on its top and front.” (Both this quote and the black and white photo above come from Jim Sleeper’s 3rd Orange County Almanac.)
Having shared what little is known about this curious site, I’m going to step back and discuss the aforementioned Mr. Strandt (pictured above).
Today’s photo shows Disneyland around Christmas in 1966. These days the castle is slathered in a LOT more holiday décor. Recently, the castle’s walk-through was rebuilt and re-opened.
A key duty of the Orange County Grand Jury is to act as a watchdog over "all aspects of county government, including special districts, to ensure the county is being governed honestly and efficiently..." (The photo above shows the 1954 Grand Jury in the Department 2 of the Old O.C. Courthouse.) Each year, they submit a report on their findings. Here are a few interesting quotes from early Grand Jury reports:1900 – “We… recommend that a complete list of all county indigents, together with the amounts drawn from the county by them, be published in the weekly papers of the county each month.”
1901 – “The [Orange County Board of] Supervisors, we think, should receive special commenation for their manner in spending the public money for a new court house.”
1902 – “We recommend that the City of Santa Ana vote bonds and secure their own electric light service.”
1905 – “In regard to the county library, we recommend that an inventory be taken of all books, amounting to near four thousand volumes.”
1906 – “We recommend/demand the re-establishment of the county rock pile, with a penalty that any one who will not do a fair days work shall be confined to the dungeon upon a ration of bread and water.”
1908 – “At Fairview [School], the scholars have been allowed to dig a hole some ten or twelve feet deep on the playground,… offering an opportunity for serious injury.” (Fairview is now part of Costa Mesa.)
1909 – “[The] Serra School [is] situated in an old house and but for the flag we would have passed it by. It is in good condition.” (Serra is now called Capistrano Beach and is now part of Dana Point.)
Today's photo shows Downtown Orange in December 1937. The photographer was standing in front of Watson's Drug Store, looking west at the Plaza.
Today's mystery photo comes from a school somewhere in Orange County, around 1955. About half the children have cameras on their desks, and the second boy from the front is wearing a "Davey Crockett" t-shirt. Clearly, this was not a modern school room, even by mid-'50s standards. Someone suggested it might be Fountain Valley Elementary School, but that was pretty much a wild guess. As always, any help you can offer in identifying this photo would be greatly appreciated.
I've recently written about two historical plaques placed on the Irvine Ranch by this group, so I thought I should provide a little background on them.
I'm afraid the next chapter in the ongoing Irvine Ranch series must wait until next week, when I can do more research. Hopefully it will be worth the wait.
