Tuesday, November 27, 2007

French Park Home Tour

Santa Ana is a city rich with historical enclaves that were partially consumed to make way for high-density apartment complexes, parking lots, and other breeding grounds for some of the problems that continue to plague this unique city. The French Park neighborhood is a prime example.

This small community with tree-lined streets is located just west of the Santiago Street Lofts. In it, you will find a rich mixture of antique homes built in the 1890’s into the 1920’s.

In the late 1970’s, an effort was put forth to preserve and restore Santa Ana's oldest historic neighborhood. In 1979, the Historic French Park Association was formed to solve community problems and to enhance and restore the historical features of the remaining original buildings. The French Park Historic District was formally established by the City Council in 1984.

Every couple of years, a small group of the homeowners living in French Park open up their doors to the public for the French Park Holiday Home Tour.

I had the opportunity to get a sneak peak of the house featured in the photo at the top. Let me tell you, as a big fan of the ambiance of the Haunted Mansion ride at Disneyland, I loved it!

The French Park Holiday Home Tour runs from December 8-9, starting at 10AM-4PM, rain or shine.

Tickets are $20 if you pre-order by December 1st, and $25 thereafter.

You can also purchase tickets through their website or by mailing in this form.

Courtesy of the HFPA Board of Directors, I have been given two free tickets to be given to the first person that can email me the correct answers to these questions.

  1. Name three styles of homes that set the standards for French Park.

  2. How many square blocks is the French Park Historic District (residential district)?

  3. Before being renamed French Park, what was the original name of the park?

All of these answers can be easily found at the French Park website. Good Luck!

1 comment :

Anonymous said...

Ben, if you'll shoot me the name, I'll have the winner's tickets at WillCall.