Backyard History: A Visit to Heritage Hill Historical Park (photos)

[Morrigoon]

After 3 years of driving past it, thinking, "I should really check that out one of these days," I finally visited the Heritage Hill Historical Park about a mile from my house.

Heritage Hill is in Lake Forest on Serrano just a stone's throw off the corner of Lake Forest and Trabuco (Behind the large Ralph's center).

The park sits on, and includes, the oldest structure in Orange County, the Serrano Adobe. Other structures have been relocated to Heritage Hill: The Bennett Ranch House, El Toro Grammar School, and St. George's Episcopal Church. And there are some structures which have been built in place, such as the reproduction Native American hut, the outdoor oven and firepit, etc.

So let's begin our little tour:

SERRANO ADOBE

As I mentioned, this is the oldest standing structure in Orange County. Owned by the Serrano family (of course). It was not the first Adobe, as the Serranos had built another previous to this. After the Serranos, it was also owned by the Whiting Family (of Whiting Ranch fame). The property was extensively refurbished in the 1930's when it was expanded in back, and a former barn area was turned into a bedroom. The Heritage Hill folks are trying to remove "exotic" plants and restore the landscaping to more native plants.

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Much of the furnishings are not Serrano originals. Some belonged to the Whiting family, but most are donated items accurate to the period, intended to give you an idea of how it looked. There are also some really awesome vintage dresses displayed around the property. This is probably the oldest style dress on display.

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Here's another cool one, a little more recent style (and by recent I mean only 100 years old)

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Awesome lamp hanging in the living room

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Bonnet on display in one of the bedrooms

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The dining area is part of the added-on structure

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Ladies' vanity items. The tool in the foreground is a finger stretcher for kid gloves because they had to launder them and they'd shrink. There are also two buttonholers laying on top of the spats, and the cup thing in front of the photograph is a hair receiver - ladies would save the hair that came out when brushing, and wind them into rat tails for hairpieces (or make it into jewelry like the bracelet on display in the bell jar at the back)

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Apparently Mrs. Whiting picked these beds up down in Mexico

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More to come...

[Morrigoon]

This little guy is the "resident" bluejay.

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Every good ranch needs a triangle to call the boys to dinner, right?

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A stone grinder for corn

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These are reproductions, an open fire pit and a brick oven. The oven, interestingly enough, was built from bricks salvaged from the El Toro Grammar School's 2nd location, a 2-room schoolhouse that replaced the 1-room school that I'll show you later. The 2-room school could not be saved, I guess.

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b321/morrigoon/April09/P1120183.jpg

A 150-year old pepper tree, one of three planted by Mrs. Serrano, and the only one still standing. (The others having fallen victim to some tree disease that causes hollow limbs which became a danger, so the trees were removed years ago).

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[Morrigoon]

ST. GEORGE'S EPISCOPAL CHURCH

So Mr. Whiting was a developer, and promoted moving to California. This included traveling to England to promote it, and also writing a book, "Fruit Farming for Profit in California." To serve this English settlement, St. George's Episcopal Mission was built. Originally it did not have pews, but chairs, with bags on the back (sewn by the ladies of the congregation)

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Some nice oil lamps

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By the way, the interior was originally redwood, and was whitewashed over at some point.

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Here's a lovely dress that's on display in the church, probably the most spectacular of all the displayed dresses (though the construction of some of them is quite beautiful)

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b321/morrigoon/April09/P1120193.jpg

The congregation originally met at the El Toro train depot. A structure which, sadly, was not saved, though the Historical Park does have the plans and would like to construct a reproduction some day.

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b321/morrigoon/April09/P1120195.jpg

And here's a photo of the church in its original location

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The docent was telling us how the organist for many years was this one lady who always wore her little black hat, kind of a signature thing, if you will. She would change the decoration to go with the season, you see two here. Although I think we can rest assured that the velcro on the hat is not original.

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Off in a side room, there's a model of Old El Toro showing buildings in their original locations.

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b321/morrigoon/April09/P1120201.jpg

Just a cool picture of the bell tower

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More to come...

[Morrigoon]

An outhouse and old water pump outside the El Toro Grammar School original 1-room schoolhouse (which is actually 5 rooms: the school room, a girls' cloakroom, a boys' cloakroom, the teacher's office space, and another small room used for a library).

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The grammar school is another building that was originally lined in redwood brought down from N. CA, but the building had fallen into serious disrepair when it was recovered and moved to the park, and the restoration team had to go with knotty pine as a less expensive replacement material. So imagine this room much darker.

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There are chalkboards all around the room, displayed as being used for separate assignments for each grade. The older kids' desks have inkwells. The younger kids' do not, as they used slates and slate pencils.

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The library

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This is great, the Rules For Teachers

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After the new 2-room school was built, the building was used as a church, so there are a few churchy items on display as well, mostly in the "teacher's office" room

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Another great display dress

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"Roll a hoop" toys.

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Check out the bench in front of the teacher's desk. The back can flip either way. A nice innovation for this use.

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Teacher's desk

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On display in the cloakrooms, lunch pails made from tobacco tins

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More to come...

[Morrigoon]

Outside view of the school

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b321/morrigoon/April09/P1120150.jpg

And the church

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b321/morrigoon/April09/P1120151.jpg

Back out near the front gate, there is a slice of an old oak tree, and in front of it. a Time Capsule place here in 1991 (when Lake Forest became a city)

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This is a little butterfly-attracting garden and path put in by scouts.

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b321/morrigoon/April09/P1120228.jpg

They have a little wedding gazebo area as well. Used to have grass, but either they have trouble growing it, or the bunnies ate the grass.

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b321/morrigoon/April09/P1120159.jpg

Here's a reproduction of a Native American settlement. This would house about 10 people

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b321/morrigoon/April09/P1120149.jpg

There's a shed-type structure that houses a kind of visitors' center in the front (includes this buggy and a rotating exhibit of local artifacts, currently marine fossils recovered from the Serrano Creek after El Nino)

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b321/morrigoon/April09/P1120166.jpg

..And a library in the back, only open one Saturday a month or by appointment

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Oh and there's a gas pump that the Bennetts used to have behind their house

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A frelling HUGE wagon... how on earth did you get into the driver's seat of these things?

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Hitching post in front of the Serrano Adobe

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More to come...

[Morrigoon]

And now, the Bennett Ranch House, built in 1909

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Awesome windows

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Furnishings typical of the era but not original. The fireplace was originally in the corner, but used to smoke badly, so when the house was being expanded (they had 6 kids), Mrs. Bennett asked the workmen if they could move the fireplace. This apparently helped.

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A very old radio (vacuum tubes!)

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Mr. and Mrs. Bennett

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Some repeat here, I was trying to capture the architectural details like the columns. The shelving was originally mesh-enclosed until later glass was put in.

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The girls' bedroom

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Bathroom

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Boys' bedroom

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Another bedroom

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Can't go upstairs, too rickety

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The Bennetts originally had a grandfather clock, but until it/one gets donated to the park they display a smaller grandmother clock instead

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b321/morrigoon/April09/P1120254.jpg

One more look at the living room

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On the wall in the kitchen

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At one point Mrs. Bennett's wood stove was replaced by a new-fangled electric stove. Mr. Bennett purportedly did not think the food tasted as good cooked on the electric stove, he preferred the wood.

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b321/morrigoon/April09/P1120257.jpg

Oh, this is pretty cool actually. Before iceboxes (or I guess before ice delivery?) the way to keep things cool was to keep them down in the cellar. But of course, the access to the cellar was outside, which was not always convenient at night or in bad weather. However, cooling cabinets like this could be put in, with vented shelving bringing cool cellar air up into the cabinet. In the hole at the bottom you can see the egg drawer, and things like milk or other perishables could be kept on the higher shelves.

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b321/morrigoon/April09/P1120258.jpg

Speaking of seriously cool... this early electric appliance could cook an entire breakfast simultaneously. Sausage would go on the top, the next drawer down toasted bread, below that a drawer for bacon, and at the bottom, a drawer in which you could poach eggs.

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b321/morrigoon/April09/P1120259.jpg

And a really early electric toaster

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b321/morrigoon/April09/P1120260.jpg

Some other kitchen goodies like a meat grinder and a device for whipping meringues, an orange juicer, and a pepper/coffee grinder

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b321/morrigoon/April09/P1120261.jpg

An old broom, a rug beater, a carpet sweeper, and a collapsible indoor clothes dryer (the dowels would be pulled up, then tipped outward. Pretty cool design, actually)

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b321/morrigoon/April09/P1120262.jpg

I think the ice tongs and old vacuum are pretty obvious

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Two different kinds of butter churn

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And one last look into the kitchen

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(the end)

[Morrigoon]

I made an error earlier, when I said that the beds were brought from Mexico by Mrs. Whiting. Actually, they were brought in by a later owner (and avid antique collector), Mrs. Baker. Mr. Baker was often called "Bake" by way of a nickname, which eventually led to the naming of Bake Parkway.

Incidentally, I corrected the error thanks to this LA Times article (http://articles.latimes.com/1998/jul/23/entertainment/ca-6302), which describes the park.

The park is open 9-5, Wednesday through Sunday, and is free unless you're taking a large group on the tour, in which case the tour is $2pp. But in small groups the tour is also free, and takes place at 2pm.

There's a picnic area with shade structures over it as well.

[Tom]

Excellent report! I must make my way down there sometime.

[DreadPirateRoberts]

Great pictures! I'll put this on the list of places to visit.

[cirquelover]

Thanks for sharing your pics! It reminds me of where my Grandma used to teach. Her sisters school house is a part of their local museum. It's always fun to tour places like that and get a feel for how it was.