By Pete Zarustica Over the years, Orange County has been marked by much more than amusement parks, beaches and housing tracts. Houses of worship have played a key role in the history […]
OC’s three famous churches
Not always fair weather for OC Fair
By Jim Tortolano If it’s July, it must be time for hundreds of thousands – perhaps over a million – of Orange County residents to head down to Costa Mesa for the […]
Westminster’s English roots
By Jim Tortolano Westminster is a city best known for its mall and its large Vietnamese population, clustered in an area known as Little Saigon. So what’s with the Olde English-style architecture […]
The charm of Old Town Tustin
Second in a series of places of historical interest in Orange County. By Jim Tortolano Much attention lately has been focused on the burgeoning downtowns of Santa Ana, Orange and Huntington Beach. […]
A.G. Cook planted Garden Grove
First in a series about the “Founding Fathers (and Mothers)” of Orange County and its cities. By Jim Tortolano The Civil War had been over for just nine years. General George Custer’s […]
OC turns 125 … sort of
By Pete Zarustica Orange County is (almost) officially 125 years old. On June 4, 1889, residents of the southeastern wing of Los Angeles County (typically referred to as the Santa Ana Valley), […]
FC bridges past to present
Editor’s note: First in a series of visits to historically significant locations in Orange County. By Jim Tortolano Orange County’s most senior institution of higher learning is a “junior” college. Technically, Fullerton […]
Book: ‘New Deal’ for Orange County
By Jim Tortolano Although Barack Obama in 2012 made strong inroads into Republican domination of Orange County during presidential elections, only once in history has O.C. swung toward the Democrats. That was […]
The historic house on the hill
By Wayne Sherwood Any one who has ever shopped at Mother’s Market on Beach Boulevard, near Adams Avenue, has seen the beautiful Victorian house sitting on the bluff nearby. This splendid, Queen […]
Mendez: a big step towards equality
By Jim Tortolano The road to the triumph of the civil rights movement in America in the Sixties traveled through Orange County in the Forties. Most history books point out the significance […]
