Tustin & Lemon Heights - 1950s and 1960s

An OCThen reader named Steve sent us an e-mail several months ago about his memories of growing in Tustin during the 1950's and 1960's...

I was clicking onto some various sites looking for photographs of Tustin and surrounding areas and came across your project, very nice! My family moved to Orange County from Los Angeles in 1956. Our house was about seven miles from Tustin (as the crow flies and there were bunches of them!) The house was a custom built ranch style, built by a contractor named "Cain".

There were thousands of orange trees all around us and the tiny neighborhood, which was comprised of about thirty homes. The main street running north and south was Hewes Avenue. Seventeenth (two lane) stopped at Newport and ran all the way across to Santa Ana, going west. The area that was our spot was called Lemon Heights. Our yard was filled with avacodo, lemon and olive trees as was just about all of our neighbor's yards.

My school years were at Tustin Elementary and Tustin Union High School.

What a place and time! Tustin was a very sleepy quiet berg as I recall. The town was a mixture of small buildings, some were very old, there was a bank, drugstore, small market, lumber yard and a cafe (Ruby's Cafe) and a host of other mom-n-pop business ventures, "Reds Mobile service" (glass jar gas pumps).

Needless to say, the summertimes were the greatest, hiking through the groves, going to the beach (Corona Del Mar, Newport, Huntington Beach, etc.)

In 1961 I joined the Navy as was gone from the area, things changed very quickly, the huge ranch holdings were sold off to developers, the trees were ripped out piled up and burned, with in about three years there were about five thousand homes constructed in and around the vacinity north of Tustin, the rest is history! Even to this day the smell of orange blossom or lemon will bring those memories back, what a time and what a place! Could go on and on!

Regards;
Steve

We've published other memories of growing up in Tustin and Lemon Heights...

• Tustin in the 1950's - Linda Emery Smith


• Lemon Heights in the 1950s and 60s - Steve

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Lemon Heights in the 1950's and 60's

Lemon Heights is a small unincorporated community located off of Skyline Drive and Foothill Blvd, just north of Tustin. When I grew up in Orange County, Lemon Heights was known to us an upscale community, where the "rich folks" lived, to get away from the noise and commotion of the city. It apparently was a much different place decades earlier.

An OCThen reader named Steve (no, a different Steve), submitted his memories of growing up in Lemon Heights during the 1950's and 60's. Eventually, he moved away from Orange County, and then just recently returned for a reunion, only to find a Lemon Heights that looks much different than what he remembered...

Hi Steve!

Tustin California was a very small place back then, the year 1956! My folks had bought a new home in a small secluded neighborhood right in the middle of an orange grove! The area was Lemon Heights.

I went to Tustin Elementary for seven and eighth grade and then to Tustin Union High School. The area was pretty much "laid back" to say the least! Seventeenth Street was a two lane road running east and west from Newport Blvd all the way to Santa Ana, alot of it covered over with giant fir trees. The area smelled of lemon and orange blossom, eucalyptus and weed oil! The sound of bees filled the air no matter where you might go.

Saturday nights would be filled with dancing at the Wanger Studio on Main street in Santa Ana or get togethers at some classmates house, this was the norm!

After graduation, I joined the Navy and was gone for several years. I could not beleive how fast the area had developed into housing tracts upon my return just three years later, 1961-1964!

I married a gal I went to Tustin High with and we moved into the Viking apartments off of Tustin Ave and Seventeenth street. This was a small village of sorts as there was Walkers Market, Hahns Hardware, Village Cleaners, Lemon Heights Realtors, Market Basket, Fathers Bar(really great sandwiches and ice cold beer) and several other little shops and places of business.

It didnt take long for the growth pattern to take off like a wild fire and destroy the charm of a different time and place! I moved out to Huntington Beach and lived on Grove Circle, this little spot was just off of Warner Road and about a mile from PCH and the state beach. Truck farms were up and down Warner road with vegetable stands offering the best fresh produce around. Needless to say that area became another enity of packed home sights shopping malls and thousands of people all with in a very few short years!

Years went by and I had long sinced moved away from Orange County, I went to a couple of high school reunions and attended a getogether in 1987 with some classmates at the home Mr. and Mrs. Knaack of Cowan Heights. The house was located on a bluff over looking the Redhill and Skyline Ranch neighborhoods. The evening was filled of talk about Tustin, Newport Beach, Corona Del Mar, Santa Ana, Orange County history and rememberance.

The next morning I drove to my old neighborhood and very slowly made my way from one street to another the houses were freshly painted for the most part, beautiful lawns and close cropped shrubs, everything looked as if it were from another era! There was not a person on the street or in a yard, almost as if it was deserted, stone quiet! I lingered for a while and finally drove out and headed for home, McCammon Idaho.

One thing for certian, having lived in "that time and place" always brings back the most pleasant of memories, what a time and what a place, Orange County back then!

Best Regards!
Steve

If you have memories of Lemon Heights, click on "Post a Comment" at the end of this article, and share them with us.

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