The Anaheim Historical Society -
A History of Its Own

When the Anaheim Historical Society celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2001, we spoke with Andy Deneau and received a wonderful letter from Diann Marsh, Founding Members of the Anaheim Historical Society. Their memories have been a wonderful contribution to our understanding of our own history.

Diann Marsh began her letter with the following:

"Dear Members of the Anaheim Historical Society:

"We are proud of you! It is heartening to see that after 24-plus years you are still together and doing very well. We have a lot of memories of the society's early days and would like to share them with you. You will see that they are personal memories and that others may have a different view of some of the happenings in those early days....

"When we moved to Anaheim in September of 1975... we were excited about owning our first old house (321 N. Philadelphia) and wanted to learn more about Anaheim History.

Diann and Robert Marsh purchased the Backs Honeymoon Cottage. The house was built in 1911 as a wedding present when Fred Backs Jr. married Jessie Melrose. Both of the newlyweds came from original pioneer families.

"I asked a neighbor if there was an Anaheim Historical Society. She said she did not know, but the fellow over on the corner of Claudina would. That person turned out to be Andy Deneau."

Andy was then Chairman of a new Bicentennial Museum Committee, appointed by the City Council, whose purpose was to make recommendations for the founding of an Anaheim Museum. At the time, Andy owned the Ferdinand Backs House that was later moved to Vintage Lane.

This sketch of the Backs house is the artwork of Diann Marsh, done before the house was moved to what is now Vintage Lane. Coincidentally, the original owner of Diann's house was the son of Ferdinand and Louisa Werder Backs, who were the first owners of Andy Deneau's home!

"The first meeting of the Bicentennial Museum Committee in May of 1976. The location was at the Bethel Baptist Church and it drew a large crowd of people. As each person spoke, I was impressed with the Anaheim history represented by so many of the attendees. All I could say for myself was that I was new here, but really impressed and enthusiastic.

Bethel Baptist Church - Artwork by Diann Marsh

"The committee met throughout the summer and concluded with a report to the City Council in August 1976, then went quietly out of business. Some committee and audience members continued to meet informally at Andy Deneau's home, sharing thoughts and plans for an historical society.

First board meeting

"It was at that point that we decided to form the Anaheim Historical Society. Andy Deneau, Harry Boyd, Elizabeth Hargrove, Jane Cook, Helen Janss, Midge Taggert, Helen Lockhart, Jeremy Janss, and I met in Andy's dining room when his house was on the corner of Cypress and Claudina streets.

"At our second meeting at our house, Andy Deneau was elected President, I was Vice-President, and Bill Jones was Secretary or Treasurer.

First Money

"Of course, we had no money. Andy's grandmother, Elizabeth Hargrove, donated $100.00 to start a checking account. Another $100.00 came when Andy, Jane, and I were exploring one of the first houses slated for demolition as part of redevelopment. It was the old Shaffer House, located on Harbor near Lincoln. It was one of the few houses made of single-wall construction left in town. Lying on the table beside the unmade bed in the abandoned house were several bills totaling $100.00. We figured it was part of a drug drop and we might as well have it instead of some criminal, so we added it to the Society bank account.

First General meeting

"We worked hard putting our first event together. We wanted to Invite Miv Schaaf to be our first speaker. She had a column in the Los Angeles Times Sunday Edition and was very well known. She lived in a wonderful old Craftsman house in Pasadena, loved old houses, and was really into historic preservation. When I called her she agreed to come and speak for free, but said she would not play her guitar.

"We reserved the old Salvation Army church on Claudina and Cypress, then across from Andy's. For some reason I thought that Miv did not drive, so Robert and I offered to drive up to Pasadena to pick her up. As we started back to Anaheim, our station wagon decided to die. We ended up with Miv driving us to Anaheim and we had to have our car towed.

"We arrived at the church and were greeted by a good-sized crowd who were wondering what had happened to us. Meanwhile, the church bell, which could only be reached from the attic, began to peel loudly. We had already been told that we could not ring it. The mystery of the unknown bell-ringer was never solved... but a few people noticed that Bill Jones was somehow missing.

Old Salvation Army church by Diann Marsh

"After the meeting, we went across the street to Andy's house for refreshments. He had created a wonderful table using my green Depression glass dishes. We served make-it-yourself sandwiches, hot German potato salad, hot pretzels, German chocolate cake and, of course, beer.

"It wasn't too long before we had 36 members. I wanted to hug each and every one of them! A few, including Blanche and Burt Morley, Bessie Frey, and Hedwig (Hadie) Lang Bloodgood were very respected old time Anaheim citizens, and went against 'the flow' by becoming members of our group."

First publication

Diann continued, "We decided to publish a coloring book for children. I did the plates and the drawings in the back of a print shop on Lincoln. At that time there were only a few vacant stores in a diversified and busy downtown. One of our members, Helen Lockhart, lived in the Rosemarie Apartments above a furniture store on Lincoln. She had one of those airy apartments with a built-in breakfast nook, large picture windows, and a little door in which the milkman would place her milk. I was so inspired when I looked up at the capitals along the frieze of the Rosemarie Apartments. There were angels smiling at me and the classical Gladding-McBean tiles were a rich turquoise and grey. This was the first plate I ever drew.

"We didn't have any money to publish our book. I took my chest of Grand Baroque silver to the pawn shop on Broadway. Having never been in a pawn shop before, I was shocked to learn that they only loan you a fraction of the value! I left in a big hurry. With no funds in sight, I decided to do something that I had not done in 24 years of marriage, through thick and thin. I asked my father for a loan of $1,000.00. He agreed, and we were able to have the book published and bound. It was such a crude product, but all the copies did sell and we were able to pay my father back quickly. The Society gave a reception to introduce the book. Sandy Brown prepared a beautiful tea table and the Society gave me red roses. It was the first of many talks given to Anaheim groups about the book.

"We had our first 'table' at an all-city function at the Carousel of Anaheim, cultural showcase. We displayed our books and brochures. Later, Andy wrote the Eight Decades, Eight Neighborhoods book. Hadie Bloodgood, who had lots of enthusiasm and talent, began the Biographical series. I can still remember her telling her wonderful stories of Anaheim in the early 1900's.

Incorporation

"After several months of thinking that a local lawyer was processing our incorporation, we found out nothing had been done. It gave us the same feeling you would have if you suddenly found out you didn't have any insurance. Our daughter Elaine worked for a lawyer in Riverside County. She offered to do the paperwork for us, with the help of her boss. They took some soccer team non-profit by-laws that they were working with, and adapted them to fit the Historical Society. As I recall, Elaine's boss did the work for $750.00, and then donated it to the Society. We had a luncheon afterward, and Elaine was presented with roses form the Historical Society, and made a Lifetime Member."

First Home Tour

"In 1977, the Anaheim Historical Society had one of the first historic home tours in Orange County. The YMCA of Orange County had a tour, but I do not remember if it was historic houses. For several years we had gone to the Redlands Historic Tour and were familiar with the idea. In those days it was not hard to get a mention in Sunset and Westways magazines, so we were able to do so.

"Since we had little manpower, we had to commandeer our teenagers and every kid in the group over six to act as docents. (After several years of this, our kids made excuses to leave town on tour weekends.) I still remember 12-year-old Christi Jones and how pretty she looked with her long dress and auburn hair.

"Our refreshment table was at the house on Broadway and Illinois. We were prepared for about 200. A few hours into the tour on Saturday, Laurie Jones, who was refreshment chairman, called and said she didn't know what to do because she was running out of refreshments. We ended up with over 1000 people on those two days.

The back of the flyer for the 1977 Anaheim Historical Society tour. Thankfully, most are still standing and still being enjoyed by "Old House Lovers" to this day

"It was hard to get people to agree to open their houses. Bill and Fay Rardon at 312 Broadway were kind, gentle people who agreed several months in advance to open their house. We did not know it, but they thought we were talking about bringing a handful of society members. After they found out what the tour was all about, they repainted their walls and woodwork, plastered the ceilings, put down new tongue-and-groove floors, stripped and repainted the doors, and redid their kitchen. When we went over to give them some tickets early Saturday morning, I brushed up against a door frame and got wet paint on my sleeve. They were not the last owners to work all night before a tour, either. The results were beautiful!"

Diane talked about how fondly she remembers that first home tour, especially when she goes on tours where they "make you stand and listen to a long lecture in each room." In one of the houses on the Anaheim tour, the owner baked a vanilla cake on the first day. "It smelled so good and we needed some more refreshments, so she baked more cakes on Sunday."

"At the same house, a lady commented on the beautiful piano. She was invited to sit down and play. The owner picked up his violin and they gave a delightful impromptu concert. Meanwhile, Bill Rardon was in house on Broadway making a stew, as tour goers wandered through and inquired about his recipe.

"We got together at the house on Broadway after the tour was over on Saturday, and were amazed to discover that the 500 or so people who had tromped through the houses that day had been so respectful of the homes that the carpets didn't even need to be vacuumed before the Sunday tour. We were really happy with our success...."

Thank you, Diann, for sharing your recollections with us!