Historic Area Retains Flavor of Bygone Era : Old Orange: City’s Old Towne still has that “Fourth of July picnic” feel, which attracts residents and keeps them there.
For most of her 61 years, Lorna Deshane has lived just blocks from where she was born at St. Joseph Hospital in Orange. She lives in the neighborhood where she grew up and still enjoys swimming in the pool she watched over as a teen lifeguard. Deshane is happy to report that not much has changed in this historic part of Orange known as Old Towne.
“The area has retained that old Fourth of July picnic flavor, which is really unusual in this day and age,” she says. “My neighbor, who I went to high school with, says that every time he drives onto our street he expects to see Andy of Mayberry R.F.D.”
Today Deshane lives next door to her childhood home, where her father still lives in what was originally a two-bedroom home that he paid $3,200 for in 1942. The purchase included an adjacent empty lot, where he grew a victory garden until the end of World War II. In 1945 he built a 975-square-foot, one-bedroom house on the land for $5,000. This was rented out for years until Deshane moved in 11 years ago after living in various parts of Old Towne for most of her life.
It’s this quiet, days-of-yesterday feeling that attracts people to Old Towne and keeps them there, says Orange Realty broker and Old Orange resident Dan Slater. “There’s a feeling of long-time establishment here, even many of the trees have been around forever.”
Consisting of a square mile in the city of Orange, Old Towne has the second largest concentration of pre-1940 homes in California, said Slater, who is president of the Old Towne Preservation Assn., which works to preserve and protect the area.
Old Towne features well-preserved homes and commercial buildings in a variety of architectural styles. Some of the homes date as far back as the 1880s. Old Towne is bounded by Cambridge on the east, Walnut on the north, La Veta on the south (with the exception of the Nutwood tract, which extends to Hart Park) and Batavia on the west.
The hub of Old Orange is the well-known traffic circle, which is officially called the Plaza Historic District. This bustling area is regularly visited by antique lovers from near and far, as it has one of the largest collections of antique stores in Southern California, Slater said. The plaza is also known as the home of the International Street Faire held every Labor Day weekend. This popular event gives fair-goers a chance to fill up on foods from all over the world.
Most of the homes that surround the traffic circle were built in the late 1800s and early 1900s by middle-class folks, with a few prominent homes owned by wealthier residents, Slater said. While many of the homes are small- to medium-sized and fairly simple, virtually every home is different and they all have features that you aren’t likely to find in today’s homes.
“Old Orange homes have features such as built-in ironing boards and buffets, wall-to-wall hardwood flooring and elaborate woodwork on doorways, cupboards and windows,” Slater said. “Many of the lots are large . . . and you’ll often see second houses and granny units.”
The average home in Old Towne runs $200,000 for a two- or three-bedroom, one- to two-bath house of up to 1,400 square feet, Slater said. You can find some lower-priced homes at $150,000, which would get you a two-bedroom, one-bath, 700- to 800-square-foot house in good shape, or a 1,000- to 1,200-square-foot home that Slater says needs a lot of work. Higher priced homes run $400,000 to $450,000 for up to 2,500-square-feet, four bedrooms and two bathrooms.
While there aren’t many condos in the area, you’ll find apartments scattered throughout Old Towne, with a high concentration in the southwest quadrant, Slater said. Many homes have bachelor apartments, which owners often rent out, and there are even apartment buildings, including the Flats on the traffic circle. This collection of 30 apartments is found above several antique stores and Felix Continental Cafe in an 89-year-old building that was once a general store. Rent rates in Old Orange range from about $450 to $900.
Whether they’re lured by an 80-year-old house with a service porch or a studio apartment over a garage, people attracted to Old Orange yearn for something different. For Rob Howe, who grew up in tract houses, Old Orange has proven a welcome change.
Howe, 35, a wholesale warehouse worker and his wife, Dannae, 32, an interior designer, moved to California from Phoenix a year ago. They looked all over Orange County for a home when they first arrived and fell in love with the Old Towne area immediately.
“Rather than being full of cookie-cutter tract houses that all look the same, Old Orange has a variety of homes with different architecture and craftsmanship,” he said.
The Howes bought their 1922 California bungalow-style home for $189,000. The 980-square-foot, two-bedroom, one-bath house is in need of repair and much smaller than the home they left in Phoenix, but the Howes wouldn’t have it any other way.
“Although we have a lot of work to do on our home, it’s worth it. We really love the simple lifestyle here. You don’t see a lot of high tech, and that’s refreshing,” Howe said.
Steve Marconi, 26, an electronic sales representative, came to Orange from San Jose to live in a 1947, 1,148-square-foot, three-bedroom, one-bath home that he and his wife bought a year ago for $190,000. He also enjoys living in an older home.
“It’s neat living in a quirky house that has a history behind it,” he said.
Many newcomers to Old Orange also like the area’s friendly atmosphere. “People look out for each other in Old Towne,” he said. “There is a small-town community atmosphere here that’s hard to find elsewhere in Orange County.”
Marykate Marconi agrees. “I’ve lived in other parts of the county where I never even met my neighbors,” said Marconi, 27, the manager of a vocational rehabilitation service company. “Here, the neighbors know each other well. It’s not unusual to say hello to a half-dozen people or more when you take a walk, which many people do here.” Most areas of Old Towne have generous sidewalks.
There’s no doubt that Old Towne has retained its friendly, small-town charm, says Teresa Smith, 46, a social worker who has lived in Old Orange her entire life and whose father came to the area as an infant. “It’s a close-knit environment here where you can greet people on their porches, admire their rose gardens and pet dogs over the fence.”
Teresa and her husband, Bill, 46, a distribution foreman for the Southern California Edison Co., bought one of the oldest and largest homes in Old Towne 17 years ago. At the time they paid $70,000 for their 105-year-old, 3,000-square-foot, six-bedroom, three-bath house on an oversized 90 by 150 lot, with a rental unit in the back. Over the years they’ve filled the home with four children.
As a lifelong resident of Old Orange, Teresa has seen a population explosion in the area, which has brought some inevitable changes. “When I was 10 years old, there were 10,000 people in Orange, now there’s 100,000. The traffic has increased as a result. The downtown plaza, though it remains the same on the outside, has also changed. Over the years the antique shops have replaced a variety of stores.”
When Teresa was a child, and even when she was first married, Old Towne residents could take care of all their needs right in the nearby circle. “You name it, the circle had it,” she says. “There was a drugstore, hardware store, stationers, fabric storeC. Penney department store, hamburger shop, church, library, movie theater, bank, post office, grocery stores and even a doctor.”
Today the circle still offers a variety of services, such as restaurants, a coffee shop, library, post office and banks, within walking distance for Old Towne residents.
The city of Orange was founded by Andrew Glassell and A. B. Chapman, who acquired the land that would become Orange in trade for legal services they had rendered. In 1871 they subdivided the land into salable lots, reserving eight lots in the center for the plaza. The streets branching out from the plaza were then named after the city’s founders.
Life in Orange was quiet until the late 1880s when they had a real estate boom. A railroad rate war caused an influx of immigrants into California at that time, and many Victorian-stye homes were built by pioneers of Scandinavian and German heritage. Many of these homes still grace corner lots in Old Towne, giving it a turn-of-the-century flavor.
At a Glance
Population 1993 estimate: 9,841 1980-90 change: +19.7%
Median age: 30 years
Annual income Median household: 34,723
Household distribution Less than $30,000: 42.0% $30,000 - $60,000: 39.9% $60,000 - $100,000: 14.6% $100,000 - $150,000: 2.9% $150,000 +: 0.8%
