Author: admin

Uncover the story of Anaheim’s Chinatown with archaeologist Ivan Strudwick at the Orange County Historical Society’s meeting on Thursday, Feb. 7, 2019, 7:30p.m., at Trinity Episcopal Church, 2400 N. Canal St., in Orange.

Orange County’s largest “China Town” was established in the early 1870s near the center of the vineyard colony of Anaheim. From the mid-1850s to the 1880s, one of every ten California residents was Chinese. When Anaheim incorporated in 1876, about a sixth of the city’s population was Chinese. And by 1890, 75% of California’s agricultural workforce was Chinese.

“Many Chinese engaged in truck farming northeast of Anaheim and their vegetable wagons were a familiar sight,” wrote Anaheim historian Leo Friis. “Actually, Anaheim was a good place for Chinese to live. Its citizens never carried to extremes the prejudice found in many other towns.”

Anaheim’s Chinatown is depicted on 1907 and 1911 Sanborn maps near the center of the original colony, just west of the modern intersection of Anaheim Blvd. and Lincoln Ave. In 1924, this small community was demolished, ostensibly for health concerns, and the last building was torn down in 1940.

Our speaker, Ivan H. Strudwick, was born and raised in southern California. He attended California State University, Long Beach, where he obtained both his bachelor and master’s degrees in anthropology, specializing in archaeology. During a professional archaeological career spanning four decades, Mr. Strudwick conducted and managed all phases of archaeological and historic projects, including survey and excavation, laboratory analysis, research, and report writing conducted in more than twenty California counties and on three of California’s Channel Islands. Mr. Strudwick was the field director and primary report author for the first cultural resource management project ever awarded for San Clemente Island. He has also worked as Native American coordinator for large multi-year projects and has numerous professional publications. For the past twenty five years, Mr. Strudwick has been employed as a professional archaeologist at LSA in Irvine.

At OCHS’ February meeting, Strudwick will discuss Anaheim’s Chinatown and some of the artifacts that were found when this historic area was recently graded for development.

Thursday, January 10 , 2019

Meeting Begins at 7:00pm

Program at 7:30pm

Trinity Episcopal Church, 2400 N. Canal St., Orange, CA

This month we will kick off our Centennial Celebration with a look back at the history of the Orange County Historical Society. Historian and OCHS Board Member, Ellen Bell will take us back to our founding year of year of 1919. We’ll revisit the time and place and learn about a young county that was just starting to understand the importance of preserving its own history.

Back then, there were no Special Collections Libraries, or Oral History Archives or History Rooms. The county was young, but early pioneers were aging. In April of 1919, Terry Stephenson, editor of The Santa Ana Register began a weekly “Old Hunter Series,” where he shared tales of old pioneers of the Santa Ana Mountains. The articles inspired Santa Ana attorney Samuel M. Davis who called a meeting to “discuss the creation of a local preservation society.”On May 28th, 1919, the Orange County Historical Society was born. The rest, as they say, is history.

Come join us as we travel the 100-year timeline and mark the many “firsts’ of our society. Don’t miss the kick-off evening of this year-long party as we celebrate the rich heritage of the Orange County Historical Society, and a legacy of preservation that continues today!

What’s in YOUR attic? Dig into your garage, file cabinets, or grandpa’s sea chest for an artifact or bit of memorabilia that helps tell us something about Orange County’s past. The Orange County Historical Society’s popular annual “Show & Tell” program will be held Thursday, December 13^th at 7:30 p.m., at Trinity Episcopal Church, 2400 N. Canal St., in Orange.

Maybe you have Holy Jim’s Bible, a “Citron for Treasurer” campaign sign, a mint copy of Helena Modjeska’s People magazine interview, or a rusty old blunderbuss you found along Trabuco Creek.

Whatever vintage Orange County curio you may have tucked away, now’s your chance to trot it out, show it off, and tell us something about it. There will be a sign-up sheet when you arrive at the meeting. People will be called up to the podium in order of their position on the list.

We look forward to whatever surprises you may have in store for us!

And do you have a favorite holiday treat or family recipe that you’d like to share?  Please contribute to our holiday treat buffet!

Our meeting will be held on Thursday, November 8th, at 7:30 pm at Trinity Episcopal Church, 2400 N. Canal St., Orange. As always, members and the general public are cordially invited to attend.

From orange-shaped citrus stands, to the Brown Derby, to the giant dinosaurs of Cabazon, nothing says “Southern California” quite like our crazy architecture. Join author and historian Jim Heimann on a virtual tour through our audacious and innovative landscape of eccentric buildings at the Thurs., Nov. 8 meeting of the Orange County Historical Society at 7:30p.m. Heimann will discuss programmatic architecture (e.g. “buildings that look like things”): a unique and enduring expression of American vernacular architecture.

Americans’ predilection for wanderlust at the beginning of the automobile age prompted inventive entrepreneurs to address this new mode of transportation. Starting in the 1920’s, attention-grabbing buildings began to appear that would draw drivers going 35 m.p.h. to stop in for snacks, provisions, souvenirs, or a quick meal. The architectural establishment deemed them “monstrosities” and dismissed them. Yet they flourished, especially along America’s Sunbelt, as their owners heeded a creative impulse and constructed giant owls, dolls, pigs, ships, coffee pots, and fruit. Their symbolic intent was guileless, prompting their slow deletion in a chapter of America’s social and architectural history. Yet photographic documentation of the past 40 years has assured their place in the architectural hierarchy and has prompted this building type to continue to flourish.

Southern California native Jim Heimann is a historian, cultural anthropologist, author, educator, and the executive editor of Taschen Publishing America.  He has been active in the arts field for the past 45 years publishing numerous books and articles and is a faculty member of Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, where he has taught since 1988. A greatly expanded and beautifully illustrated third edition of his classic book, California Crazy: American Pop Architecture (first published almost 40 years ago) was released earlier this year.

Our meeting will be held on Thursday, November 8th, at 7:30 pm at Trinity Episcopal Church, 2400 N. Canal St., Orange.

As always, members and the general public are cordially invited to attend.

Our October meeting brings interesting insight into the character of some of our early Orange County pioneers.  Our guest speaker, handwriting analyst and expert Sheila Lowe, works with clients around the world and testifies in cases of handwriting authentication as well as personality assessment.

Sheila’s presentation will talk about the various aspects and use of handwriting analysis and she will be analyzing signatures and writing samples of famous people of Orange County – offering a peek into these people’s real character and honesty. Her books will be for sale after the lecture.

Her rich history in the field dates back to 1985 when she first qualified to testify as a handwriting expert.  Her Handwriting Analyzer software has been used around the world since the 1990s. Sheila has taught Introduction to Handwriting Examination at UC Riverside in the CSI certificate program, Introduction to Handwriting Analysis at UC Santa Barbara, and has presented seminars to bank managers to help them be better prepared when handwriting analysis is needed. She offers an online self-study course in gestalt graphology and lectures around the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada.

Our meeting will be held on Thursday, October 11^th, at 7:30 pm at Trinity Episcopal Church, 2400 N. Canal St., Orange.

As always, members and the general public are cordially invited to attend.