Saved Santa Ana Landmarks : Adeline Walker, Civic Leader, Is Dead at 81

Adeline C. Walker, an Orange County civic leader and historian, has died of heart failure at her Santa Ana home. She was 81.

Walker led the battle to preserve several historical landmarks in Santa Ana, including the Old County Courthouse and the Dr. Howe-Waffle House, which now is a museum displaying turn-of-the-century medical implements.

“She was one of Santa Ana’s first ladies,” said Scott Morgan, executive assistant to Supervisor Roger Stanton. “She was very active in community affairs, historical matters. She gave unselfishly of her time, almost to excess.”

Saved Doctor’s Home

Walker was responsible for saving the home of Winella Howe-Waffle, Santa Ana’s first doctor, from the wrecking ball.

The Victorian house was slated for destruction in a road-widening project until Walker convinced city officials to save and move the home, Morgan recalled. Walker also persuaded Orange County officials to provide a site for the building at Civic Center Drive and Sycamore Street.

“She virtually did everything single-handedly,” Morgan said. “. . . It was a labor of love, and probably is the single best example of historical preservation in Santa Ana.”

Walker ran the museum, organized fund-raising events, provided furnishings and even planted jacaranda trees around the house. “It’s going to be hard for five or 10 of us to do the job she did by herself,” Morgan predicted.

Walker helped found Let’s Improve Santa Ana, a volunteer group that organizes beautification projects, helps to preserve landmarks and seeks to increase public awareness of the city’s historical legacy.

Community Beautification

She initiated the volunteer group’s annual student essay competition, designed to encourage Santa Ana schoolchildren to think about community beautification and improvement, and was a constant advocate of improving Santa Ana’s parks and trees lining the city’s streets, Gary Ott, parks superintendent, said.

Walker was also an important part of the city’s annual Arbor Day tree plantings.

“She was very active in the Santa Ana community for many, many years, a great activist for community improvement,” Ott said. “ . . . She will be sorely missed in this community.”

Santa Ana police officers found Walker’s body in her home Monday. A spokesman for the Orange County coroner’s office said she had died of natural causes, probably the previous morning.

A funeral service will be conducted at noon Saturday at Fairhaven Cemetery in Santa Ana.

Walker spearheaded the campaign to register the Old County Courthouse as a state historical landmark, Morgan said, and lobbied for the building’s renovation, which is to be completed early next year.

“That’s the saddest thing, probably,” Morgan said, “that she didn’t live to see the reopening of the courthouse.”