JAUNTS : Take a Walk in the Park and Through History : An hourlong tour of the public space highlights such venerable relics as a fig tree and an old cannon.

Plaza Park is Ventura’s oldest park--so old, in fact, that during the 1870s and 1880s livestock grazed on its 3.6 acres.

Just how old, you ask? The downtown park shows up on the fledgling city’s first official map in 1869.

These and many other historical tidbits about the park and the surrounding neighborhood will be shared by historian Richard Senate during a city-sponsored tour Sunday.

The hourlong walk begins at 11 a.m. at the park, bounded by Thompson Boulevard and Santa Clara, Chestnut and Fir streets. The cost is $4 for adults and $3 for seniors and children under 12.

If you’re impressed by those lofty, old Moreton Bay fig trees, Plaza Park has a real gem. Planted in 1874, the tree rises more than 70 feet and has a spread of 128 feet. According to Senate, it’s one of the state’s oldest and largest.

The park has also attracted some lofty figures during its history. On a campaign swing to the West Coast, Theodore Roosevelt stumped for the presidency at the park.

And bandleader John Philip Sousa put in an appearance back when brass band concerts in the park were all the rage, Senate said. At that time the park sported a gazebo, which was torn down just before World War II.

The park’s most historic relic is a bronze cannon that never saw action on U. S. soil. In fact, the cannon originated about 200 years ago in Manila, in the Philippines, in a foundry run by Spanish priests. It was inscribed “San Buenaventura,” apparently named for the newly founded mission here.

The cannon was mounted at Fort Santiago in Manila to protect the local harbor. It remained there until 1898, when it was captured by American forces during the Spanish-American War. It was junked in a military scrap pile in San Pedro until a Ventura city official spotted it in 1902, Senate said.

“The City Council requested that the Navy give it to the city, and it arrived in 1903,” he said. “Almost no one knows it was used to defend the city of Manila.” Today it serves as a memorial to all soldiers.

Senate’s tour includes a look at the historic Mitchell block, those Victorian brick homes that border the park on Thompson Boulevard. Perhaps the most striking is the original home of Mary Mitchell, a three-story building with a tower in the center that combines a number of architectural styles.

The tour also takes in the mural in the post office, next to the park on Santa Clara Street. Painted by Gordon Grant, the stark, bleak mural of local farmers and ranchers was a WPA (Works Progress Administration) project painted in 1936.

Details

* WHAT: Tour of historic Plaza Park in Ventura.

* WHEN: The one-hour walking tour on Sunday begins at 11 a.m. in the park at the Thompson Boulevard and Chestnut Street corner.

* WHERE: The park is bounded by Thompson Boulevard and Chestnut, Santa Clara and Fir streets in Ventura.

* COST: $4 for adults, $3 for seniors and children under 12 years.

* FYI: Registration is required with Ventura’s Park and Recreation Department. Call 658-4726 for information. Registration also will be accepted at the First Sunday in the Park arts and crafts fair in Plaza Park the morning of the tour. Look for the fair’s information booth.