For history-lovers

For history-lovers
This photo was on Pinterest, labeled “Tustin, 1920s.” Is that accurate, and what’s going on?

I just saw this old photo labeled Irvine 1920s. I don’t know if I can believe this. First, there was an Irvine Ranch, and somehow Irvine was recognized as a village or something with “Irvine” signs as early as the 1940s. Some employees lived in various parts of the ranch – small groups: cowboys, maybe irrigation specialists, survey teams, maybe ranch police, etc. The only town or city-style home was 2 miles from where I live in Tustin, on Irvine Boulevard above the Irvine Center, near the northwest corner of the ranch. (That ranch segment of First Street had a different name before the 1960s.) That’s where the family lived since the 1920s or earlier, including Joan Irvine Smith. Many family teenagers attended Santa Ana High School, about 5 or 6 miles due west. (Joan went to a private Catholic girls’ school up near La Canada where she rode horses.) The Irvines had 1 or more residences on the ranch, too. But the rest of the ranch was cattle land, citrus groves, other agriculture, some low scrub hills, some canyon country with at least one waterfall, and coastal land. This photo shows a procession of old cars I wouldn’t expect to be there in the 1920s. If they were trucks hauling fruit or produce, that would make sense.

Is that the old Irvine house at upper left with the hills in the background? Are they going to a wedding, a funeral, a picnic, a meeting of some kind? The roadside fences and side streets suggest that kind of organization. Were there homes south of the Irvine family home in the 1920s? Today that area would be classified as the eastern end of Tustin, built in the late 1970s. When we were children, Red Hill was the eastern terminus of Tustin, probably the smallest town in Orange County.

The cars also seem to be traveling somewhere, routed somewhere, as if to a destination. Could this possibly be a private ranch road leading to the county highway, where the Santa Ana Freeway (5) was later built?

My dad came to Orange County as an Army Air Corps cadet in 1943. He said at that time, “If you were on the county road and didn’t know exactly where to turn to get to Tustin, you’d sail right by and never even know it.”

The sprawling Marine Corps Lighter Than Air Station was located about 2 miles south of here too, with Red Hill on its west side. That’s where the huge blimp hangars were and still are. Not long ago, that base closed and soon became the Irvine Great Park.

From at least World War Two days on to the 1950s, that was also a Marine Helicopter base. I knew an old retired Marine tech sergeant – our parents’ age – who was stationed there for many years. He said the little town of Tustin was called “Knuckle Junction” because off duty Marines had so many fistfights there. In those days, there were only 1 or 2 places a Marine could go for a cold beer and to meet local girls in Tustin, or he’d have to go several miles farther into Santa Ana, even farther into Orange.

The base would have some personnel living off base probably in Santa Ana, as close as Tustin Avenue & 17th Street, where a popular market stood for many years. (Next to Benjie’s Deli on Tustin Avenue). Some civilian employees would live off base, too. So the base may be where these cars are going.

Another possibility is that the Irvine family allowed some or all people to use this road as a short cut between Santa Ana, Orange, Anaheim, or even Fullerton to the county highway. But to where? Laguna Beach? Dana Point, San Juan Capistrano? Maybe. Citrus business? Cattle business? Other agriculture? Land and real estate negotiation and sales? Even down to San Diego? That short cut, if that’s what it was, would save a 1920s driver half an hour, compared to the longer way to the county highway.

I just wouldn’t expect to see so many cars in one place then, though.

Are they on their way to a large land auction?

What’s your opinion, please?

Around 1975, the stretch of Irvine Boulevard east between the Costa Mesa (55) Freeway to Red Hill and beyond to the Irvine family house was a quiet highway with maybe 10 or 12 cars a minute. When computer, peripheral and software companies moved in, with the new Irvine community of Northwood, the road got busier every week as a shortcut and alternative to the freeways east-west and northwest-southeast .. all the way to Mission Viejo (Hewlett-Packard) and beyond. By the late 1980s, it was as busy as Bastanchury in north Orange County, or more so.

Tom Everly, ‘65 was principal of Columbus Middle School in Tustin, on First Street just east of the 55. Many Lancers have lived in Northwood.

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