Handed lemons, a town built its fortune
Stroll through Santa Paula’s downtown and you can’t help but be wowed by the city’s historic roots and Latino culture: It’s splashed across colorful murals that tell the story of how two unlikely pairings -- oil and citrus -- put Santa Paula on the map in the late 1880s. Today, ringed by several spectacular mountain ranges, it’s an unpretentious place with a rich history.
Beginnings
Bolstered by the fertile soil in the Santa Clara River Valley, oranges and lemons proved to be bonanza crops in the late 1880s, and it wasn’t long before Santa Paula touted itself as the Citrus Capital of the World. In 1893, the Limoneira Co. started growing lemons, Valencia oranges and walnuts on 413 acres. Today it’s a world-class producer and the town’s biggest employer.
While the citrus industry blossomed, the discovery of oil nearby yielded another harvest. In 1888, California’s first oil gusher let loose in Adams Canyon, just a couple of miles from town. That led to the founding of Union Oil Co., whose original headquarters downtown now house a museum dedicated to Santa Paula’s oil history.
With oil and citrus booming, and the arrival of the railroad, Santa Paula’s population swelled. When it incorporated in 1902, it was Ventura County’s second city.
The town hummed along until tragedy struck in 1928 when the St. Francis Dam near Santa Clarita collapsed. A wall of water roared down the Santa Clara River Valley to the sea, claiming at least 450 lives and destroying about 900 homes in the small towns that dotted the valley, including Santa Paula.
Santa Paula bounced back, and one bright spot in the reconstruction was the creation of the Santa Paula Airport in 1930. It drew Hollywood’s early aviation crowd and now houses a collection of vintage airplanes as well as a busy airstrip.
What it’s about
Santa Paula couldn’t be in a more scenic spot, set beneath the peaks of Los Padres National Forest. It is surrounded on the north and south by rolling hills and the rugged mountains of Santa Paula Peak, the Nordhoff Range and the Topa Topas.
The city has its share of beautiful houses. On tree-lined Santa Paula Street, the city’s showcase thoroughfare, large Victorian homes share the block with restored California Craftsman beauties.
High on the hillside overlooking the city, larger homes command drop-dead views of the valley. Among them is the sprawling Tudor mansion built in 1924 by Charles C. Teague, who long headed the Limoneira Co.
Downtown’s Main Street is dotted with century-old restored buildings. Four huge pillars mark the entrance to the stately Santa Clara Valley Bank Building. There are Western-wear and boot shops and Latino-run bakeries and markets. The town has a strong Latino influence; this group makes up 70% of the town’s population, according to the city Chamber of Commerce.
Housing stock
The upside of Santa Paula’s real estate picture is that housing here is more affordable than in more affluent areas of the county. The downside is that more than half of the housing stock is over 60 years old, according to Kay Wilson-Bolton, owner of Century 21 Buena Vista and a former Santa Paula mayor.
Adding new homes has been a hot-button issue in the city for years. But 75 houses are under construction on the hillside above Santa Paula Hospital, with prices ranging from $575,000 to $735,000.
“We have trouble breaking $1 million on a house,” Wilson-Bolton said. A house that would go for $1.2 million in Ventura would sell for about $800,000 in Santa Paula, she said.
The city has some distinctive housing pockets. One is the Oaks neighborhood off Highway 150, the road to Ojai, where giant oaks canopy the streets and large homes.
With 181 homes on the market now, Wilson-Bolton said the average listing price in the city is $546,000. It’s still possible to find a two-bedroom, one-bathroom home for about $240,000.
A recent drive through town netted this listing: a 2,665-square-foot Victorian with four bedrooms near Santa Paula Street for $659,900.
Good news, bad news
Santa Paula’s relatively low cost of housing, along with its non-suburban feel and proximity to Los Padres National Forest, are among its pluses.
On the flip side, the city is classified by the federal government as low-income, with 51% of its population at or below the poverty line. Also, school “test scores are lower than what we’d like to have,” Wilson-Bolton said.
Report card
Santa Paula students attend one of four school districts. Out of a possible 1,000, scores on the 2007 Academic Performance Index Growth Report are: Briggs Elementary, 690; Olivelands Elementary, 706; Mupu Elementary, 771; Bedell Elementary, 755; Blanchard Elementary, 698; Glen City Elementary, 730; McKevett Elementary, 775; Thille Elementary, 754; and Webster Elementary, 667. Also, Isbell Middle School, 689, and Santa Paula High, 671.
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Sources: Kay Wilson-Bolton, Century 21 Buena Vista, venturacountyrealestate.org; cde.ca.gov.