The Road to Art Country
Art and About…. …. The Road to Art Country by Anca Colbert As one leaves the Pacific Ocean to veer from the Pacific Coast Highway to Highway 33 toward Ojai, the eyes catch sight of the sunlight over the hillside on the left. Sometimes just a glimmer of light, other times a bright shimmering over [...]
Art and About… of Dogs and Their Artists.
Ojai Quarterly Magazine, Winter 2011 Issue ART AND ABOUT…… …… of dogs and their artists. By Anca Colbert From large shepherds to small bichons, dogs are a most visible part of life in the Ojai Valley. They seem to have a particularly important place in the physical and emotional geography of artists’ studios. Two famous [...]
World War II Comes to Ojai
The World and Ojai Change Forever, from The Ojai Valley News, 1991 Betty Jo Bucker Strong of Ojai was attending services at the Ojai Presbyterian Church on December 7, 1941, when news broke that Pearl Harbor had been bombed: “That Sunday’s afternoon excursion for us teenagers was immediately canceled, and we all just stood in [...]
Old Nordhoff Brochure – 1910
Downtown Ojai Renovation: 1919 Article
Civic Improvement Ojai, California How an Old, Uninteresting Town Was Made Beautiful By FREDERICK JENNINGS Architect & Engineer August, 1919 LESS than three years ago what is now the quaint mission village of Ojai, California, was a ramshackle old town called Nordhoff in a mountain pocket forty miles south of Santa Barbara. It was an [...]
Transformation of Ojai: 1916-17
The Transformation of Ojai, by Richard Requa San Diego Union 1925 One morning in early spring, some 10 years ago, two men were sitting on the edge of a raised rough plank sidewalk in front of a dilapidated shack. A remnant of a sign over the battered, creaking door informed the curious visitor in letters [...]
Architect of Downtown Ojai: Richard Requa Biography
1922 Biography of Richard S. Requa from Clarence A. McGrew, City of San Diego and San Diego County, Volume 11 (Chicago and New York: The American Historical Society, 1922, pages 32-33.) RICHARD S. REQUA is senior member of Requa & Jackson, architects, which recently succeeded the firm of Mead & Requa. The public generally not [...]
Shangri-La: Ojai’s Untold Stories
“Shangri-la: Ojai’s Untold Stories,” the final exhibit for 2012 at the Ojai Valley Museum, will run for three months, October through December 30, 2012. It features historical, primarily unknown personalities, who were directly related to Ojai and who have had great influence on the town and the nation. The five “Untold Stories” featured in this [...]
Ojai Museum Book Event
Ojai Valley Museum hosts local book fair and signing on Friday, July 13, 2012 from 5 to 7:30 pm.
Faria Home Now Cluff Vista Park
The Faria property along Ojai Avenue is now the location of Cluff Vista Park. The Faria family patriarch, Manuel del Terra Faria, was a Portugese immigrant from the Azores. The family built their home in Ojai during the 1920s. There was a main house and guest house at the back of the property along Rincon Street. [...]
Our Town: Helen Baker Reynolds (Part V) “School”
Helen Baker Reynolds (Part V) by Ed Wenig [This week we quote from the chapter “School”, in the book “Family Album” by Helen Baker Reynolds.] “The grammar school stood just across the road, opposite our side gate. It was a drab, square, two-story building, topped with a cupola housing the school bell, and with two [...]
Our Town: Helen Baker Reynolds (Part III) “Days Ritual”
Helen Baker Reynolds (Part III) by Ed Wenig This is the third in a series of articles consisting of quotations from passages in Helen Baker Reynold’s book, “Family Album”. The Following is from the chapter, “Day’s Ritual”. “Our household was a smug little world. Father was its Absolute Monarch, whose cardinal principle in dealing with [...]
