Mission Viejo : Faithful Hex Sign Works in Reverse: Attracts Woe

In the Pennsylvania Dutch country Frank Hall hails from, hex signs are familiar symbols. As folk legend goes, the colorful painted signs that dot Pennsylvania homes and barns help ward off the “evil eye” and bring good luck.

Lately, however, the hex sign Hall displays on his Mission Viejo home is causing his neighborhood association to cast an evil eye in his direction.

According to Hall, the Evergreen Homeowners Assn. has been asking him since last October to remove the symbol that has adorned his home since he moved in a year ago.

“I’ve grown up around the signs and they are a part of my heritage,” protests the 50-year-old Internal Revenue Service employee. “I think it adds to the tract.”

The round, 15-inch hex sign which rests between two upstairs windows bears the image of a double-eagle, which Hall said symbolize strength and courage in the Pennsylvania Dutch tradition. Before he moved to Mission Viejo, Hall said the sign hung over the garage of his home in Huntington Beach for seven years.

Hall, who complains that he has been singled out for harassment by the homeowners association, said he has personally received no complaints about the hex sign from any of his neighbors. In fact, he said, the association ignored a statement signed by 141 people in the tract who said it was not offensive to them.

Wally Rau, a spokesman for the property management firm retained by the Evergreen Homeowners Assn., said an unspecified number of complaints have been lodged against the hex sign, which he said violates the agreement that homeowners in the tract sign upon purchase.

Called conditions, covenants and restrictions, the agreements don’t specifically prohibit placing hex signs on a house, Rau said, but they do forbid any “changes, alterations, additions or modifications without written permission” from the association.

Hall said that while the homeowners association offered to let him move the sign to a part of the house that will make the symbol less visible, he plans to keep it where it is. In the meantime, he plans to run for the homeowners association’s board of directors next month.