» The Logan Barrio -- New Book!
 

   We are very proud to announce the newest in our Living History
   series: Santa Ana's Logan Barrio: Its History, Stories,
   and Families by local author, and former resident, Mary Garcia.

   The Logan Barrio is one of the several original Mexican barrios in
   Santa Ana with roots going back to 1886.  These neighborhoods
   were among the first in the city and were the childhood homes of
   today's judges, lawyers, and business leaders.  (Not to mention
   some important moms and dads who worked hard to create a
   better life for their families.) In its 88 pages, Mary does a wonderful
   job documenting the early days of the barrio and the families,
   businesses, and schools that were there. Currently, the book is
   available through our online store (and at our local events)
  

   We're also proud to announce that the book is available at our
   friends at Libreria Martinez bookstore at 1110 N. Main St.and at
   St. Teresa's Catholic Gift Shop, 300 E. 4th St. #102 - both in 
   Santa Ana. (714 973-7900)

»  2007 Governor's Award Winner:  The Society has won a 2007 Governor's Award from the
   California State Office of Historic Preservation for our historic cemetery tours. We're pretty
   humbled by the honor but we've always felt that the tour is an exciting program to interest people
   in local history.  Now, on the tenth anniversary of the Society holding the event, we have this
   honor.  Kudos to all of the volunteers who have every participated.  A huge thank you to all the of
   actors and actresses (particularly those of the Orange County High School of the Arts) and to
   Fairhaven Memorial Park who continue to allow us to use their wonderful property as our stage. 
   And we can't say enough to all of the event chair people over the years -- in particular Roberta
   Reed and Alison Young, who have been performing that role over the last few years. Click here
   for more information.

SAHPS board member Roberta Reed (3rd from left) receiving award from Wayne Donaldson,
State Historic Preservation Officer (l), and Ruth Coleman, Director of the California State
Parks (r). Husband and former-SAHPS president Nathan Reed also attended
the award reception representing the Society.

» Downtown Walking Tour -- Our Downtown Architectural walking tours are available on the first
   Saturday of each month -- only by reservation at least 3-4 days in advance.  Do not show up
   without a reservation.  (Our volunteer tour guide will only be there if prior reservations are made.) 
   This is a 2 to 3 hour tour of downtown beginning at about 2:30 pm.  Call 714 547-9645 in advance. 
   Leave your name and phone number. Our tour guide will contact you to confirm the reservation.
   Click here for more information and to see photos of a few of the buildings you will see.

» Photos are now Up!  Our 10th Award-Winning Historic Cemetery Tour was wonderful.  Once
   again the OCHSA students and a few local actors did an amazing job. We've just posted photos

   from the event.  In the next few days, we'll post the credits and the volunteers who made our

   award-winning event happen once again! Click here to see the photos!.

»  Santa Ana Naval Air Station Photos Now Online: Our good friends with the Tustin Area
   Historical Society have posted some great photos of the early days of the Santa Ana Naval Air
   Station (the blimp hangers).  Before they start tearing one of them down in the name of
   "progress" (we need more shopping centers and houses in that area), you might want to look
   at the old photos and maybe take some quick peaks of what is still there while you're shopping
   at the new Costco.  Visit the Tustin History site at www.TustinHistory.com and click on the
   links to go to the Lighter-than-Air (LTA) Blimp Airbase Photos.

»  Vintage Orange County History Books by Jim Sleeper available for a
      limited time!  The Society has obtained a few copies of the 1982 classic
     Orange County Almanac (3rd edition) and Great Movies Shot in Orange
      County.  Just as fact-filled and witty as they were 20+  years ago,
      Jim's classic books have a wonderful humor that makes history fun.

      These are tough books to find but we have them and we have new copies! 

      Go to our online store for info.

» SAHPS on YouTube
   You know it had to happen. Thanks to board member Jared Solano, we now have a special
   compilation set of cemetery tour videos posted on YouTube.  You can visit them at the following
   links (Video 1, Video 2, Video 3) or see them on our website.  If this doesn't make you want to
   take the tour, nothing will. :-)  The video is possible thanks to David Jirik of Heliotrope Studios in
   Santa Ana.

»  Civil War Rembrance Project -- The Civil War Round Table of Orange County has been documenting
     the lives of Civil War veterans in Orange County to help us remember all of the men (and yes, women)
     who died in this struggle for the country we have today.  We have been proud to promote this through
     the publication of the Civil War Legacy in Santa Ana (and Orange County) as well as having it the theme
     of our 2002 historical cemetery tour.  We are honored to be able to include the documentation of the
     graves by project member Charles Beal. New material has been posted. Click here.

»  New Material: Santa Ana has a wonderful Register of the historic locations in the city. We're
   starting to post some of the original reports that were drafted by the city and telling about the
   buildings.  This will take us a while to post them all, but you can see what we've posted so far
   on our articles page.  We're also posting the listing of Santa Ana and Orange County locations
   on the federal National Register of Historic Places.  Go to our articles page to see that as well.

» Thank you Orange Coast Magazine!

   Their February issue had a wonderful story of historic love between three historical couples -
   including our favorite doctors - Dr. Willella and Alvin Howe. While the magazine's website
   doesn't post the article, the editors have graciously given us permission to reprint the article here
   on our site.  Click here to read it.  If you have the issue, check the article out starting on page
   136. You can't miss the photos of the good doctors and a few wonderful photos of the Dr. Howe-
   Waffle House which start the article off.

»  Our Salvage Sale Leaders, Nathan and Roberta Reed, were immortalized in artwork drawn by Register
     artist Sharon Henry in her regular Sketchbook series.  She's been kind enough to let us show the
     drawing that was in a September issue of the Register here.  Click here to see the drawing. (PDF file)

We Won Governor’s History Award!!

The Society’s history-based coloring book developed for local elementary students has won a coveted Governor’s Award by the California Office of Historic Preservation. The award will be formally announced at a special awards ceremony in November.

The Santa Ana History Coloring and Activity Book was created as part of the Society’s Living History program for local schools. Project leader Guy Ball noted, “We wanted to have something kids could have fun with and learn about Santa Ana history. We took old postcard images and had a professional artist create images that children could color. Then we worked with two local teachers on age-appropriate captions. While the book was created in English, we added Spanish-language captions to help youngsters who might not totally understand what we were saying about history.”

The results were overwhelming 5,000 initial copies, funded by a grant from the City of Santa Ana federal CDBG program, were quickly snapped up by teachers who lauded the coloring book as a great aid to teaching local history. The Society funded printing some additional copies, but that still wasn’t enough. The Floral Park and Wilshire Square Neighborhoods stepped up and each printed 1,000 more copies to distribute to their local schools. While we couldn’t afford any additional funding, the Society has posted it on our website for teachers to freely download and print as needed.

“We’re thrilled to get the recognition for this project,” continued Guy. “We knew it was a valuable resource by the response by the children and their teachers. But this award helps reinforce that the Society is on the right track in our projects to make learning about history enjoyable – whether it be this coloring book, our downtown walking tours, or our historical cemetery tour. Thanks to our members, our special donors, our volunteers, and the support from the City of Santa Ana, we can continue to do great things like this.

Click here to see a copy of the book in PDF   Click here for more info.