Homing In on a Victorian Treasure
Traffic forced the city of Fullerton to widen Lemon Street 20 years ago, and in the way was an old, deteriorating, unoccupied two-story house near Commonwealth Avenue. Someone decided it might as well go to the scrap heap.
Fortunately for the rest of us, Molly McClanahan and Jorice Maag didn’t agree.
The Victorian house was built in 1894 by the city’s first physician, George Clark, who lived there with his wife, Edith, and their three children. He also ran his practice from there. Dr. Clark served on the board of the city’s first hospital, and he started its first orchestra. Edith was considered one of the leading society ladies of Orange County.
The house had gone through numerous owners over the decades, and it had long lacked the splendor of those turn-of-the-century years when the Clarks hosted local civic leaders at Thursday afternoon teas. Its porch railing was gone, as well as the fencing around the yard. The walls and floor were in disrepair. The whole thing was a pile of wood standing in the way of progress.
You should see it now. The old Clark home is currently called the Heritage House. Splendidly restored, it’s the centerpiece of the Fullerton Arboretum, 26 acres of botanical gardens on the north side of the Cal State Fullerton campus. Tours are given every Sunday afternoon. I don’t see how McClanahan and Maag can keep from busting their buttons with pride every time they see it.
On May 11, Heritage House celebrates its 20th anniversary with a garden tea and vintage hat show for the public ($12). It will be put on by the Victorian Society, to take you back in time to the Victorian era when the Clark family thrived in Fullerton. Maag and McClanahan will be on hand to give a short history of how the house was saved.
It was McClanahan who first heard that the house was to be demolished and rushed to her friend Maag for help. The two of them started the campaign to save it, but they didn’t do it alone. Dozens of others pitched in to make sure the house was structurally safe to move, to get it on the National Historic Registry, to come up with pictures of the original. The North Orange County Board of Realtors agreed to take the house’s restoration as a project. And city officials agreed to help with moving costs.
It was fortunate that at the same time the McClanahan-Maag forces were hoping to relocate the Clark house, a group of ecology-minded students and faculty at Cal State Fullerton were trying to put together plans for the arboretum. (Those acres were scheduled as another parking lot on the original master plan.) Arboretum planners offered to take the house and make it open to the public.
“I have to admit I’m quite proud of what we did as a community,” Maag says now. “I think it’s in the perfect place for people to enjoy it.”
Garden Bargains: The Fullerton Arboretum is doing a little sprucing up of its own this weekend for its annual Green Scene Garden Show on Saturday and Sunday. More than 50 exhibitors will be on hand to sell plants and flowers. Included will be seminars on potting and floral displays. The Heritage House will be open both days, filled with floral arrangements.
The sale and show are 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday. A potter I recently met there made this suggestion: “Come early. The best stuff is usually gone by noon.”
As the Worm Turns: There’s also a flower and garden festival Sunday at Mission San Juan Capistrano (8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.). A special treat: a worm petting zoo for the youngsters. Yes, you get to feel the little squirmers ooze between your fingers. It’s all part of teaching children how worms contribute to the environment by recycling garbage and turning it into fertilizer.
Teaming Up: Team MacPherson, the Irvine-based auto dealership, set a $50,000 minimum goal for donation to Orange County schools in the wake of the county bankruptcy. Every time a car was sold at one of its five dealerships, $50 would go to the school selected by the customer. How’s it doing so far? Last week the plan reached $250,000. It runs through Memorial Day. . . .
Educators are happy to have business take an interest in students. There’s a huge business-education partnership conference today at the Westin South Coast Plaza hotel at which the two sides can explore more ways they can work together. Special guest: Miss America Shawntel Smith, whose platform has been to improve opportunities for students to train on the job.
Wrap-Up: Last Sunday I took my first tour of the Heritage House and was amazed at how many original pieces from the Clark family had been preserved. That includes their elaborate stove, an icebox, Edith Clark’s organ and many original lighting fixtures. Dr. Clark’s serpentine roll-top desk and chair are in the room he used as a medical office. The office also includes many of his original tools. Doctors in those days were big on herbs for medicine, and his kit for making them into pills is on display. Visitors were wide-eyed at a contraption that looked like a weapon--it was a tonsil remover.
The docents who led our group were enthusiastic and knowledgeable about the Clarks and the Victorian era. They were also mother and daughter. Heritage House officials are excited to have Suzanne Feighery, 36, and Megan Feighery, who is 11, on their docent staff. It’s so important, they say, to get the young involved in preserving history.
Megan Feighery has a good sense of humor too. Her favorite tool from Dr. Clark’s office: the bleeder. It’s a hand-held set of blades doctors would run down your arm like a brush to extract bad blood. If you take the tour, stay clear of it.
Jerry Hicks’ column appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Readers may reach Hicks by calling The Times Orange County Edition at (714) 966-7823 or sending a fax to (714) 966-7711.