County’s Oldest City Shows Its Family Album : Photo Exhibit in Anaheim Recalls Years of Change

Orange County’s oldest city is showing off its baby pictures in “Anaheim: A Pictorial View,” an exhibit of historical photos on display at the Anaheim Museum.

Spanning 1870 to 1962, the prints tell the story of the city’s growth from a German wine-producing colony to the home of that world-famous mouse. Informative captions and an extensive chronology of the city’s history accompany the prints, displayed in the museum’s South Gallery.

In fact, the local-history lesson begins when you arrive at the steps of the museum itself. Built in 1908 as the Carnegie Library and renovated in 1987 as the museum’s first permanent home, the building was designed by architect John Austin, creator of the Shrine Auditorium and Griffith Observatory.

Established in 1857 by German immigrants, Anaheim (or “Home on the Ana (River)”) flourished as a wine-making center, once boasting as many as 50 operating wineries. But in the 1880s, the so-called Anaheim Blight wiped out the grape vines, and citrus soon became the dominant industry. With the 1950s came the Santa Ana Freeway and Disneyland, tourism and manufacturing quickly replaced the groves as the top moneymakers.

“Anaheim: A Pictorial View” gazes lingeringly at the city’s infancy. A shot of an abandoned winery, shaded by a tangle of overgrown vines, remembers the untimely end of the Wine Period. A 1900s-era photo of Center Street, once the city’s main boulevard, shows the street in all its unpaved glory, back in the days when the horse-drawn trolley of the Anaheim Streetcar Co. ran its length, shuttling passengers between the Southern Pacific and Santa Fe railroad depots.

As several prints show, Anaheim entertainments were simpler in the decades before Mickey and Minnie. In one, circa 1910, a congenial crowd downs a few brews at the (all-male) Center Street Saloon. In another from the same period, a more sedate group of city fathers, distinguished-looking in top hats and morning coats, pause for a portrait in a spiffy new Cadillac 8 (decked out for the “Glorious Fourth” in stars-and-stripes bunting) in front of the recently dedicated Carnegie Library.

The city’s extensive downtown redevelopment lends nostalgic interest to the show’s modern photos. In a series of four prints taken in 1962, viewers can take in the north, east, south and west views from the corner of Lincoln and Anaheim boulevards. Today, only one structure--the six-story Kraemer Building--still stands.

Also running in the lower-level Children’s Gallery is “In Touch With History,” a hands-on display of like items from different eras that allow children to compare modern toys, tools and household articles with those of yesteryear.

In the Anaheim Room, a permanent exhibit shows the span of Anaheim history, from pre-Columbian fossils found in the Anaheim Hills area to a mint-condition Maytag washing machine from the post-war suburban boom.

The Anaheim Museum is open Wednesday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday from noon to 4 p.m. A $1.50 donation is suggested for each adult admission. The museum is at 241 S. Anaheim Blvd. Information: (714) 778-3301.