Here in what is the southern “tip”...

Here in what is the southern “tip” of Placentia, a subtle reminder of Orange County’s past stands aside for its pedestrian present. A wooden trellis on Crowther Avenue designates the site of the Ontiveros Adobe. Mounted on a stone under the trellis, the plaque shares space with several industrial parks west of Kraemer Boulevard at Porter Way.

Juan Pacifico Ontiveros received a Mexican land grant for the Rancho San Juan Cajon de Santa Ana (35,970 acres) in 1837. He built the adobe that bears his name in 1841. The land subsequently was parceled out: 1,165 acres were sold to German colonists for $2 an acre to found what became Anaheim; other portions later evolved into Fullerton and Brea, as well as Placentia.

“The Ontiveros Adobe would have been the oldest standing adobe in North Orange County,” said Cecil Rospaw, vice chairman of the Placentia Historical Committee, a nine-member group appointed by the City Council.

The adobe’s site (a total of 3,900 acres) was purchased by Daniel Kraemer, an Illinois farmer. The adobe ultimately ended up in the hands of one of his grandsons, Ben Kraemer, who modernized it as late as 1940--into a California bungalow.

“It had been lived in over the years and had been so modified that it had lost a lot of its historical character,” said Jack Slota, assistant city administrator. “Even the historical society didn’t think it was worth the recovery.”

“It’s very difficult,” Rospaw said. “I toured with two very well known county historians. (He was with the Orange County Historical Commission at the time.) They both gave reports to the city saying that while you could find the old adobe and the original square nails, they couldn’t justify the expense ($100,000 to the city of Placentia) to restore the original adobe.”

The (Ben) Kraemer family never found oil on their property, Rospaw said. But in the 1970s there was a chance to sell the land. The estimated price: $70,000 to $80,000 per acre, a latter-day form of striking it rich. “It’s an absolute tragedy,” said Rospaw of the loss of the Ontiveros adobe, “but in this (historical preservation) you have to figure out what can be done and what can’t be done.”

What couldn’t be done this time was having the taxpayers foot the bill for the restoration. The result is the series of heartless industrial parks spanning Crowther Avenue.

The only people liable to pay homage at the Ontiveros Adobe historical site plaque are workers at neighboring industrial centers or truck drivers making deliveries there. Children traveling by at top speed on their bicycles appear to have no time to stop and read the marker under the wooden arborway, much less grasp the image of a time and lifestyle so far removed.

In a neighborhood whose residents are 55% Latino, it is no surprise to find something like Placita Santa Fe (“Old Town”). Populated with establishments such as the Mexican Supermarket and restaurants such as El Farolito and Mi Ranchito, it is a commercial area serving locals.

But there is one that has attained countywide acclaim: Santa Fe Avenue’s Tlaquepaque Restaurant. Raul Davis opened the bakery and family restaurant in 1963, and fruit pickers once jammed the place for breakfast before heading off to work in the surrounding orange groves. It still opens every morning at 6 (even though the orange groves are gone), filling the morning air with wondrous aromas. In the 1970s, Davis’ father, also named Raul, hired El Mariachi Uclatlan to perform for an hour every Friday at lunchtime. The group, which first made its mark in the county at Tlaquepaque, opened the El Mariachi restaurant in Orange in 1981.

The one-hour Friday lunchtime performances that got mariachi music in Orange County off the ground now stretch from noon to 2 p.m. The Mariachi Estrellas de America, a polished eight-piece band, is a weekly feature at the Tlaquepaque.

One wonders what Juan Pacifico, who had to settle the claim for ownership of his rancho in the U.S. Supreme Court, would make of it all.

Population Total: (1990 est.) 11,841 1980-89 change: +26.4% Median Age: 26.5

Racial/ethnic mix: White (non-Latino), 36%; Latino, 55%; Black, 3%; Other, 6%

By sex and age: MALES Median age: 26.6 years FEMALES Median age: 26.3 years

Income Per capita: $12,490 Median household: $31,893 Average household: $34,250

Income Distribution: Less than $25,000: 37% $25,000-49,999: 41% $50,000-74,999: 16% $75,000-$99,999: 4% $100,000-and more: 2%