The Anaheim Colony

To Mickey Caldwell, a house is more than a place to make dinner and find shelter from the rain. It is inhabited by the ghosts of the
people who built it and lived and loved in it.

The older the house, the more people have passed thorough its front door, bickered in it's kitchen, and slid down it's laundry shoot.

Caldwell is among dozens of volunteers who have spent the past year roaming downtown neighborhoods with pencils and clipboards,
peering from the sidewalk into the porches and yards of strangers' houses.

"There's a value to them, a living history," she said. "There's still a downtown if we fight to keep these houses preserved."

Caldwell and other history buffs have been working to create the cities first protected historic district - one that includes not just a
few streets, but the entire original pioneer colony that became Anaheim.

Their job has been to look past the peeling paint, security doors and scruffy lawns of aging homes that once were graceful and
charming and to envision the day when they could be again.

If successful, the residents will have done something that others have failed to do for 25 years: create the cities first ordinance to
preserve historic buildings.

"We want to turn around people's perceptions of what this neighborhood is, "said Mike Tucker, who owns a 1915 bungalow on Zeyn
Street. "It's not cheap housing, it is old historic housing."

WITHIN A WILLOW
FENCE

In 1857, German immigrants from San Francisco paid $750 each to join a 1,165 acre wine making cooperative on the banks of the
Santa Ana River. A willow fence was built around the Anaheim Colony, as it was called, to keep cattle herds from trampling the
grape vines.

As the colony grew, increasingly wealthy settlers built sturdy, but mostly modest houses, in the German tradition that scorned
ostentation.

Many of those homes remain within North, South, East and West Streets - the boundaries of the old colony.

Today, the homes on Clementine Street, North of Pearson Park give the lie to a notion that downtown Anaheim is little more than
shabby bungalows and strip malls.

Eleanor Faessel's house, across from the park's duck pond and stately trees, was built in 1921 by Charles Boege, a trusted city
treasurer who created the major scandal of the day when he was convicted of embezzling $3,500 from the city.

Houses in this neighborhood, built in the 1920s and 1930s, have whimsical details like turrets, diamond-paned windows, plaster
cornices, striped canopies and river rock chimneys.

Several doors north of Faessel's house, hamburger king Carl Karcher lives in a sprawling Spanish Revival home highlighted by
tilework and surrounded by verdant trees.

Nearby, a house with peaked roof and dormer windows was built by Lotus Louden, founder of the Anaheim Bulletin. Louden helped
drive the Ku Klux Klan from the City Council.

MAKING
CHANGES

As currently envisioned, creation of the historic district would not ensure preservation of some 1,100 old buildings within the original
township. Property owners would still have the right to make changes as they see fit.

But they would be required to meet with historic planners at City Hall first, to learn about their buildings' past and how the
architectural character of the building could be preserved.

Owners would then be asked to follow voluntary guidelines that emphasize the original character of the building.

For example, preservation buffs would like to see antique wooden windows repaired, rather than replaced with aluminum frames that
appear awkward on an older home.

Preservationists believe these changes detract from what historians call the architectural integrity of a building, and can lower its
financial value.

Under the proposal presented to the City Council last week, voluntary remodeling guidelines would apply only to buildings 50 years
or older that haven't been altered substantially.

History buffs don't want to see their neighborhood suffer the fate of the Pickwick Hotel, a Mission Revival gem that was razed in
1988 to make way for a new City Hall.

"Everyone veers toward making everything mandatory, but I still think you should educate people so they want to do it," Mickey
Caldwell said.

DIVINE
GUIDANCE

Lisa and Corey Loprest had no particular interest in history before they bought a dilapidated house on Elm last year.

They only became aware afterward that their Victorian house, built in 1897, belonged to some of the city's most important pioneers.

John and Margaret Rea owned 80 acres of walnut groves named the Katella Ranch after their daughters, Kate and Ella. The dirt
road to the ranch later became Katella Avenue. The Reas sold their house in 1922, and it was moved to 125 Elm Street.

Today, the three-story wooden home sits on a shabby commercial side street and needs repairs, which the Loprests have undertaken
even though historically accurate fixes cost more and take more time than off the shelf hardware.

"We are Christians who believe the Lord really led us to buy the house, " Lisa Loprest said.

AEROPLANES ON WEB

Many Craftsman Bungalows remain along North Zeyn Street in good condition, attracting people who like the wooden structures
with wide porches and doors.

Mike Tucker and his wife bought their 1915 Aeroplane Bungalow on Zeyn Street six years ago, moving from Lakewood in search of
a bygone era.

Their house is knows as the Aeroplane style because it has wide roof overhangs reminiscent of airplane wings.

Public interested in Craftsman architecture has become a cult, with its own magazines, clubs, and even furniture makers. True
believers journey to Pasadena, where entire neighborhoods are built out in that style.

Today, Zeyn Street's residents include retired people who arrived before Craftsman became chic, and younger couples seeking their
architectural dream.

Several years ago, Tucker became interested in investigating his house, spending hours in the Anaheim History Room at the Central
Library.

Later, when he decided to teach himself to create Internet Web pages, he used his historical research as a subject.

Today, Tucker's Historical Web site has been visited by thousands of people, who can read about the proposed historic district, take
home tours, and read a treasure trove of stories about the city's history.

"I've actually driven down the streets and seen groups of people with my Web pages doing a self guided tour - which is great,"
Tucker said. "You put that stuff out there and don't know if anyone looks at it."

CATALOG HOUSES

Neighborhood Coordinator Phyllis Mueller, who formerly worked in Pasadena, was hired by the City's Community Development
Department last year to help improve downtown residential areas plagued by low property values and blight.

One of her first activities has been to organize local history buffs to create a preservation district.

She would like to see downtown Anaheim get the same recognition for its old houses as communities such as Pasadena or Orange.

A volunteer committee of fourteen people and others spent more than a year digging into old ledgers and combing through microfilm
copies of old newspapers to create a historical record for some two hundred homes.

Volunteer researchers Gail Eastman, and her husband Ron, rode bicycles downtown seeking the twelve old houses they'd been
assigned, so they could document their current condition.

Then they spent many evenings at the library pouring over dusty handwritten old tax assessors' books and yellowing directories,
finding the stories of the people who once lived here. The couple spent almost twenty hours researching each house.

They also looked up their own house on Illinois Street, which they believe was a catalog home build in 1924.

Many homes in Anaheim were once ordered from Sears or other catalog businesses, then shipped west by rail, complete with lumber,
light fixtures and even nails.

If history buffs can gain community approval, they envision a new kind of catalog - monuments marking the boundaries of the historic
district, commemorative brass plaques on the doors of houses and a series of showcase home tours.

"Anaheim is full of places for tourists to come to, but it would be nice for people to come here to see our community and what we've
done," said Caldwell.

These 200 buildings were researched over the past year by volunteers and singled out in a
survey of central Anaheim residences with historic and architectural significance. They are
among an estimated 1,100 that remain of some 1,400 old buildings noted in an earlier survey.

East Adele Street

East Alberta Street

407
411
501 - 503

South Anaheim Blvd

440 - 454
703

South Atchison Street

East Broadway

202
224
312
324
403
507
510
1108

North Bush Street

South Bush Street

South Citron Street

South Claudina Street

South Clementine Street

East Cypress Street

South Dickel Street

East Ellsworth Avenue

West Elm Street

North Emily Street

South Emily Street

North Harbor Blvd

South Harbor Blvd

North Helena Street

South Helena Street

South Illinois Street

South Indiana Street

North Janss Street

South Kroeger Street

North Lemon Street

302
308
501
502
518
521
607
615
703
709 - 717
747

South Lemon Street

West Lincoln Avenue

710
1010

South Melrose Street

East North Street

215
219
1001

West North Street

South Ohio Street

North Olive Street

South Olive Street

115
116 - 118
119
402
409

North Philadelphia Street

South Philadelphia Street

North Pine Street

North Resh Street

North Rose Street

East South Street

West South Street

East Sycamore Street

West Sycamore Street

North Vine Street

North Vintage Lane

North West Street

South West Street

East Wilhelmina Street

North Zeyn Street