In Heart of Tustin Are Signs of Ornate Old Days

Close by the busy junction of the Santa Ana and Costa Mesa freeways, the heart of this former farm town is a quiet reminder of bygone times.

While most of its agricultural land has been replanted with housing tracts and shopping complexes, the burgeoning community has preserved its past in an area called Old Town Tustin. That’s where you’ll still find vintage buildings, Victorian homes and grand old trees.

Although Tustin’s population has soared from 2,000 to 43,000 since 1960, the downtown business section was bypassed by development, a blessing for history buffs.

The Tustin Area Historical Society has established a museum with local memorabilia and also published a brochure to guide visitors on a walking tour of Old Town.

A Hot Time in Town

Downtown Tustin is traditionally closed on Sundays, but next month there’ll be a hot time in the Old Town. In conjunction with the third annual El Camino Real Chili Cookoff on Sept. 27, a public birthday party will celebrate Tustin’s 60th year as a city. The museum will be open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The center of Old Town’s half-mile-square area is the intersection of Main Street and El Camino Real. They are the original thoroughfares of Tustin City, which was founded in 1870 by a carriage maker from Petaluma, Calif.

The real estate venture of Columbus Tustin got off to a very slow start. Even at the time of its incorporation as a city in 1927, Tustin’s population was little more than 900.

To savor the small-town tranquillity that still exists in old Tustin, drive south from Los Angeles on the Santa Ana Freeway (Interstate 5) to the 1st Avenue exit. Head east about a mile to El Camino Real, then turn right and go three blocks to Main Street.

Look to the northeast corner for the Knights of Pythias building, with the chamber of commerce office and the Tustin Area Museum next door. At either place you can pick up the free walking-tour brochure.

Artifacts in the museum’s display cases recall Tustin’s farm days when the area was planted with field crops, nuts and citrus. A map shows the boundaries of the original Spanish and Mexican ranchos in Orange County.

Different Styles

You’ll also see items from early Tustin businesses, as well as old-time fire equipment that includes the town’s first fire engine, a 1912 Buick. Labeled photos will help you identity different styles of Victorian buildings found around the town.

The museum is open from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. the first Saturday of each month, and also staffed Tuesday and Thursday, usually from 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. You can also enter through the chamber of commerce any weekday from 9 a.m. to noon and 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is free, but donations are welcome.

The tour brochure will guide you to several dozen sites, mostly along Main Street but also on side streets. The round trip by foot is about two miles, and rest stops for food or drink can be made at two historic buildings.

Among them is the McCharles House around the corner on C Street, built in 1885 and framed by two enormous eucalyptus blue gum trees of the same era. The Victorian home has been turned into a restaurant and teahouse run by Audrey Heredia and her daughter, Vivian. You can dine upstairs, downstairs or on an outdoor patio.

Lunch is served from 11 a.m. and tea from 2 p.m. (both until 6 p.m.) daily except Sunday. Dinners from family recipes are offered Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Reservations: (714) 731-4063.

Farther along C Street look for the 1883 bell that called students to Tustin’s first school. You also can see an 1880s board-and-batten house, once the home of Columbus Tustin’s daughter. Beyond is a blacksmith shop that’s been in operation for 75 years.

Back on Main Street, the building with Ionic columns at the corner of C Street once served as a general store and now is a popular restaurant called Rutabegorz. You can order soups, salads, sandwiches and other tasty items from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily except Sunday.

West on Main Street are several blocks of homes with a wonderful assortment of architectural styles. (If the street and sidewalk are still torn up for repavement, walk along the south side.)

A landmark is the century-old Stevens House, now incorporated in a $6-million office cluster called Stevens Square. Tustin pioneer Sherman Stevens had redwood shipped down the coast from Eureka to build the elegant Victorian.

Older Mansion

On the opposite corner at B Street, you’ll see an even older mansion, the 1881 edifice built by businessman David Hewes. He donated the golden spike that celebrated the meeting of the first transcontinental railroad at Promontory Point, Utah.

Farther along Main Street is a more recent home that’s notable for its construction materials--rocks collected by a civil engineer while on jobs in the Rocky Mountain states. Opposite at Nos. 420 and 430 are two grand 100-year-old homes built with redwood and square nails.

On the other side of El Camino Real at 160 E. Main St. is one of the oldest structures in Tustin, a frontier-style building that’s been a sheet metal works for nearly 60 years. It dates to the 1880s and saw use in early years as a drugstore, pool hall, meat market, shoe repair shop and residence.

South on El Camino Real at No. 434 you’ll see another frontier type of the same period, built as an office for Tustin’s first doctor and now home to a clothing shop called Jabberwocky.

A few steps beyond, turn into Jamestown Village, a 1960s shopping center that has several antique stores. Shaded by an immense live oak is the Little Tree Church, an eight-seat chapel that’s sometimes used for weddings.

Return to Los Angeles via Interstate 5 north.

Round trip from Los Angeles to old Tustin is 72 miles.