Wilshire Square to Open Homes for Fall Arts Festival

Homes decorated to commemorate the city’s history, the arts and the Mexican Day of the Dead Festival will be opened to the public in the Wilshire Square neighborhood this fall.

The Wilshire Square Neighborhood Assn. is sponsoring the open houses, along with music, food, arts and crafts, as part of its first Fall Festival of the Arts.

The celebration, set for Oct. 5, will expand on the city’s campaign to create an artists village, association co-chair Chuck Dobson said.

“Santa Ana always has a bad name. All everybody reads about is the gangs,” Dobson said. “This is a good way to promote the city.”

The event also is a way of raising money for the neighborhood association to pay for such projects as a quarterly community newsletter.

Eight homes will be decorated, each with a different theme, Dobson said. The price of admission to tour the homes will be $8 for adults and $3 for children. Admission to other Fall Festival events, ranging from music to an outdoor beer garden, will be free.

The celebration will be in the area bounded by Main and Flower streets and McFadden and Edinger avenues. Festival hours will be from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Dobson said the neighborhood association has sponsored home tours in past years but decided to focus on specific themes because standard home tours have become common in other communities, such as historic French Park.

“It’s an extension of what we were doing in the past,” Dobson said, “with a twist.”

Information: (714) 836-1227.