FOCUS : Harmony in the Hills
It is a study in contrast.
Sprawling new estates sprout out of green cactus- and grass-covered hillsides like renegade mushrooms after a spring rain. They are trilevel architectural masterpieces with three-car garages, stained-glass windows and expansive decks with panoramic views that look down on the canyons and on their neighbors in the valley.
Down the hill in the flats, compact, boxy, wood-frame houses spill out onto the landscape, sometimes crowding two and three to a lot. Some of them resemble the “shotgun” houses in the South (you can fire your shotgun through the front door clean through the back door and never hit a wall). More than a few share a sweeping view of the neighbor’s laundry hanging out on the line or the family car parked conspicuously in the yard.
Unlike today, water shortages were a non-issue in the neighborhood’s early days after county pioneer Alfred B. Chapman completed the A.B. Chapman Canal in 1871, bringing water from the Santa Ana River. Chapman formed a water company but was eventually forced out by local farmers, who formed their own Santa Ana Valley Irrigation Co. (And water is still making news here. Last week the Orange County Water District dedicated the Santiago Creek Recharge Project at Prospect Street and Bond Avenue, at the western edge of the neighborhood.)
With the water flowing, corn, barley, grapes, apricots and oranges thrived on family homesteads for nearly two decades. But in the late 1880s, the tranquility of a simple farmer’s life was altered when a real estate boom hit the area after railroads began promoting excursions from the Midwest. Property values skyrocketed, and established farmers soon wised up to the law of supply and demand and began selling their acreage for far more than they would have earned selling produce.
Among those farmers caught up in the exodus to the West was a congregation of 69 Quakers from Indiana (the Society of Friends) who arrived in 1886. In true community spirit, one Friend donated two acres of land, three provided funds and financier David Hewes, who had a ranch in the area, donated a bell for the new church. The completed building was dedicated in a ceremony on Dec. 8, 1887. A week later, fierce Santa Ana winds blew the building from its foundation, destroying the structure and everything inside.
Undaunted, the Friends rebuilt their church on Chapman Avenue where it served the community for more than 80 years. A plaque commemorating their pioneer spirit is displayed on the wall of Moreno’s Mexican Restaurant, which occupies the landmark site today.
While the Quakers persevered and succeeded in their new home, the rest of the area wasn’t as fortunate. Grand expectations of Midwesterners flocking to the area were overblown and the bottom fell out of the real estate market. In a snowball effect, banks sensed the panic and choked off loans by raising interest rates; speculators became leery and bailed out by selling their property for whatever price it would bring; in cases when there were no buyers, the land reverted to the original owners. In short, the anticipated boom turned into a bust. Many of the original farmers eventually moved back, and soon apricot, orange and walnut trees began to appear along the mesa, along with rows of eucalyptus trees to mitigate the Santa Ana winds. But winds change.
The neighborhood and the rest of the community were at peace, but the world was at war. Farmers began leaving their homesteads to do their patriotic duty, and this changed the complexion of the neighborhood once again. As men went off to war, farms were left short-handed, and an urgent request was sent south for families to move back to the land from which they had been displaced after the Mexican War.
Today the Latino community is a viable force in the neighborhood, congregating mostly in the flatlands where their great-grandparents resettled. It is the place where their children now romp through vacant fields in wild grass up to their waists, where vestiges of the old mom-and-pop mercado and the neighborhood cantina still do a good business. And it is a place where migrant workers still come to work in the fields, oblivious to the new white-collar neighbors moving in on the hill.
This quiet little neighborhood that backs gently into the foothills along Santiago Creek may be a study in contrast but it is also a study in harmony.
Population Total: (1989 est.) 11,441 1980-89 change: +15.8% Median age: 31.2
Racial/ethnic mix: White: (non-Latino) 53% Latino: 40% Black: 1% Other: 6%
By sex and age: MALES Median age: 30.9 years FEMALES Median age: 31.4 years
Income Per capita: $15,334 Median household: $47,980 Average household: $51,606
Income Distribution: Less than $25,000: 21% $25,000-49,999: 32% $50,000-74,999: 30% $75,000-$99,999: 10% $100,000 and more: 7%
