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THE
HISTORY
The Crystal Cathedral, Garden
Grove
photo courtesy of oc.book.com
The
past has been backed into a corner in Garden Grove,
but it hasn't quite disappeared. It exists in
an old farmhouse on Euclid Street. Stand in the
backyard, an you're effectively transported back
in time about 100 years.
The
Garden Grove Historical Society intended it that
way. The place is called the Stanley House, after
one of its original owners, and it serves as the
city's only museum. Though built in 1893, the
house represents what Garden Grove was throughout
the latter half of the 19th century: a farming
community.
Next
door to the Stanley House is a strawberry patch,
one of the few left in a city once known for its
berry fields. Today the city is a bedroom community
with a healthy share of thriving businesses.
The
stresses and strains of growth have taken their
toll. "Garden Grove," a name possibly
suggested by Mormons who had passed through Garden
Grove, Iowa, was an appropriate one for the budding
settlement of the 1870s, when it might indeed
have resembled a big garden, with its fields of
grapes, apricots and peaches.
But
in the late 20th century, with its freeway and
urban problems, including pockets of run-down
dwellings, the name to some is an anachronism.
Recent partnering with local corporations has
helped to focus attention the the city's redevelopment.
This 'Renaissance Garden Grove Program' will see
an increase in both homes and hotel rooms to the
city.
Garden
Grove has been a "capital of" from the
early days until the city was incorporated in
1956; the chili-pepper capital of the world in
the early 1920s, the poultry capital of the world
a little later, the egg capital of the world not
long after that, and the strawberry capital of
the world in the late '50s. The
last is what gave Garden Grove the Strawberry
Festival, a parade and carnival held every Memorial
Day weekend.
The
city has other claims to fame. A man named R.Q.
Wickham was renting a home in Garden Grove in
1888 when he launched a political movement that
would lead to the formation of Orange County.
Wickam
heard that his neighbors wanted to make a new
county out of the southern portion of Los Angeles
County. Wickam,
who was experienced in politics, drew up petitions
for a county charter to get the ball rolling.
Garden
Grove's past has its darker side, too. It was
home to a Japanese internment camp and a small
prisoner-of-war camp for German soldiers during
World War II.
Today
the city has a large Korean community, as well
as growing Vietnamese and Hispanic populations
that promise an even richer and more diverse future.
Historical
Site:
Stanley
House Museum - 12174 Euclid St.
Edward Ware, a prominent rancher, built the house
in 1891. It is a two-story, Victorian-style farmhouse
with eight rooms. His daughter, L. Agnes Ware
Stanley, was a schoolteacher. The house was deeded
to the Garden Grove Historical Society in 1970
by the Stanley family
Phone:
714-530-8871
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