It took six months of organizing, lobbying and hard work to taste the sweetness of victory when the Anaheim City Council agreed to reduce the density of their neighborhood on the General Plan and Zoning Maps for the area.
Resident's battle to preserve their neighborhood's character led them to fight problems of crime, transients, dive bars on Anaheim Blvd, and blighted houses.
As pleased as they were by their city hall victories, these residents of Lemon and Zeyn streets said they gained something of perhaps greater value.
They became a neighborhood.
"It's about 20 years since this seemed like a neighborhood," said Rosa Togel who has lived on Zeyn Street for 59 years, "But I think it started rolling again". For Togel, 75, and her sister Hertha MacLachlan, 79, living in the neighborhood is a simple matter of continuity. They moved into their white, wood frame house on Zeyn Street 59 years ago with their parents. Togel, who is unmarried, never left. MacLachin lives 2 blocks away on North Street.
When the Togels purchased their house in 1928, among their neighbors were the shoe repair man, the local baker, an attorney, a doctor, and the owner of the SQR Department Store.
In 1928, Anaheim marked its 50th anniversary as an incorporated city. Pearson Park, which opened in 1927 attracted visitors from throughout the county. The 20 acre park featured a swimming pool and bathhouse, a 2,500 seat amphitheater and athletic fields.
Besides trips to Pearson Park, the primary recreation in the 1920s and 1030s was taking walks downtown, Togel said.
"Everyone went there to window shop or visit awhile".
Among the original owners of parcels in the area were Theodore Schmidt, one of the original vineyard society members, August Langenberger, a financier and city councilman (whose orange grove gave way to Pearson Park), Benjamin Dreyfus, a vineyard owner who served as mayor and John P. Zeyn, an original member of the vineyard society who also served as mayor.