CLIPBOARD

Welcome to the friendliest place in the West.

Since Walter and Cordelia Knott and their cousin, Jim Preston, leased 10 acres of Buena Park farmland back in 1920, the surrounding area near the corner of Crescent and Grand avenues has changed from orange groves and orchards.

Yet, thanks to the Knott family, the core of the neighborhood has held on to California’s Old West heritage with the grip of a blacksmith.

“Walter Knott was a man who had a dream and the spirit of a pioneer,” said Stuart Zanville, director of public relations at Knott’s Berry Farm.

Early in the 1920s, the Knotts farmed berries and vegetables. Walter Knott was among the first to bypass produce middlemen. And with his sales profits, he built a small shack next to the family house. At the roadside stand, Walter handled all the produce and Cordelia sold homemade preserves, candies and sandwiches. With the Knott family pitching in together, business prospered.

By 1927, land values were at an all-time high. Knott was given an option to buy his property at $1,500 an acre. Preston dropped out of the deal, but Walter and Cordelia Knott had seen potential profits in the small plot of land. Knott contracted to purchase the land at the given price.

A year later the bottom fell out and land prices plummeted. While others defaulted on mortgages, the Knott family stayed and that same year built the first permanent building on the property. The early 1930s were marked with small successes.

A new berry, blending the loganberry, blackberry and raspberry, was being developed by Anaheim resident Rudolph Boysen. Based on Knott’s reputation as a berry farmer and seller, the U.S. Department of Agriculture asked him to take over Boysen’s straggling plants. Three years later, Knott christened the new strain “boysenberry.” While the berries were popularized at his roadside stand, it was not the boysenberry that created Knott’s Berry Farm.

“Mrs. Knott never intended to go into the restaurant business,” Zanville said. “Her goal was simply to battle the effects of the Depression.”

In 1934, Cordelia Knott served her first chicken dinner on her wedding china. Five years later, more than 400,000 chicken dinners had been served.

“In the early 1940s, the average Sunday diner had to wait four hours to be seated,” Zanville said. “Knott decided to create some diversion for the waiting diners.”

Drawing on his mother’s stories of the Old West, he brought in the Gold Trails Hotel (built in 1868) from Prescott, Ariz., and created the first themed park in the nation.

Each year, more attractions were added. Wagon Camp, featuring an outdoor theater with live entertainment and the Butterfield Stagecoach, was created in 1949. With its success, Knott’s Berry Farm paved the way for the tourist industry in Buena Park and Orange County.

But Knott’s Berry Farm appeals to more than tourists.

Its surrounding neighborhood is made up of houses that are small and affordable, divvied up into differently named tracts with corresponding street names.

“My son lives over on Jackson Street in the President’s Tract,” said Elnora Kaufman, a 32-year resident of the area. “When my son’s in-laws come to visit from Bakersfield, they walk to Knott’s for dinner or to take the kids on the rides. We’ve always enjoyed having the park in our back yard.”

Buena Park Mall, the fourth largest mall in the county, shares that back yard. Although currently undergoing a face lift, the multilevel shopping center offers more than 250 shops and restaurants, and features an eight-screen movie house.

For local realtor Jean Atchue, the mall is a strong drawing card for her properties.

“This may not be the largest mall, but it is among the nicest,” Atchue said. “These are quiet neighborhoods with friendly people of all ages and incomes living here. It’s kind of a one stop shopping center . . . people like that.”

With the mall, banks, restaurants and Knott’s Berry Farm all within walking distance, it is hard to imagine that the residents of these housing tracts also enjoy their own West Coast replicas of the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall and Declaration of Independence.

“Walter Knott was astounded that the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were both signed at Independence Hall,” Zanville said. “He had always dreamed of building a re-creation of the hall for people on the West Coast who couldn’t get to Philadelphia.”

Built by Knott in 1966, the white steeple of Independence Hall towers over the single-story homes. The building is an exact brick-by-brick replica of the Philadelphia landmark, and inside the hall is filled with 18th-Century clothing, firearms and memorabilia. Free to the public, the hall may be the park’s least-known attraction.

“Walter Knott’s goal was to build a theme park that retains all the good things people remember about our past,” Zanville said. “I believe he surpassed his initial goal.”

Although Knott’s Berry Farm has seen five decades of changes, the nation’s oldest theme park retains all the good things people remember about the California Gold Rush and wild west.

With its strong sense of community, and grounded in Orange County history, southeast Buena Park is a reflection of the pioneer spirit Walter Knott so admired.

Population Total: (1990 est.) 3,685 1980-90 change: +3.5% Median Age: 31.4

Racial/ethnic mix: White (non-Latino): 70% Latino: 21% Black: 1% Other: 8%

By sex and age: MALES Median age: 29.6 years FEMALES Median age: 33.0 years

Income Per capita: $11,474 Median household: $27,932 Average household: $29,500

Income Distribution: Less than $25,000: 44% $25,000-49,999: 43% $50,000-74,999: 11% $75,000-99,999: 2%