Thursday Door – City Tour
One morning my husband and I joined a Fullerton downtown tour. We started at 7:00 a.m. before the city got busy. We walked 45,000 steps recorded by several people’s apps.
According to Wikipedia, Fullerton was founded in 1887. It secured the land on behalf of the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway. Historically, it was a center of agriculture, with notable groves of Valencia oranges and other citrus crops.
Fullerton is in the Orange County. When the name Orange County was first proposed, there weren’t very many oranges. Most locals were growing grapes and raising hogs, but in an effort to better promote the area, the county looked to oranges. The name became official in 1889. Migrants poured in, and many planted small citrus groves. Around 1900, oranges became the county’s main crop. Millions of orange trees were planted.
Most of the homes in our neighborhood, including ours, have a Valentia orange tree in the backyard. We benefit greatly with a harvest of 1,500 oranges in the last crop. We squeezed and froze the juice for our daily consumption.
In 1886, the city began negotiations with George H. Fullerton, president of the Pacific Land and Improvement Company, also a Santa Fe subsidiary. They offered free right-of-way and half interest in the land to the railroad and name the city after him. On July 5, 1887, the negotiation came through and the railroad station is now the intersection of Harbor Boulevard and Commonwealth Avenue.
Downtown Fullerton, with its palm tree-lined streets and low-rise historical buildings, is full of old California style and character.
The city was built on level ground, which makes walking around the area easy and a great way to explore. It rains on average twenty days out of the entire year.
Fox Theater is a landmark feature from the inception of Fullerton City. The City Council considered demolishing it but the citizen organized a campaign to save it. The group raised funds to strengthen the structure and improve its appearance.
The original California hotel, now named Villa del Sol, was completed in 1922. The project was initiated by Charles C. Chapman for the purpose of creating a first-class hotel in the city. It now currently has a variety of restaurants. The Cellar restaurant is one of the restaurants in the basement. The prices are ranging from $$$ to $$. The Cellar was one of the restaurants in the basement of Villa del Sol. Steak dinner with wine and dessert for two easily costs over $200.
Thank you for joining me for this short tour.
Have a wonderful weekend!
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The Showers of Blessings 
Great post.
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Thank you very much!
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That was a lovely tour! You know I don’t think I’ve been to Fullerton. I loved the churches. Oh and that tree full of oranges! So iconic for SoCal. 😀
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I like the architecture in Fullerton, Deborah! We have an apple tree and two plum trees. The apple tree has a few hundred apples this year. 🙂
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Pies, jam, applesauce!! 😋
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What a wonderful tour, Miriam. I can’t imagine walking that many steps at one time! I bet you were exhausted at the end. Your pictures are excellent. I especially love the different churches. Fullerton looks like a huge and wealthy place compared to our little town of Woodlake, California.
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Really interesting post.
I did not realize that about the oranges in the early days and how awesome that you have a hearty orange tree!
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I heard that Florida was originally planned to grow bananas but that didn’t work out and citrus became the main crop!
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Also – that is a lot of steps and what a great historical city to explore that way!
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Florida has the right climate for citrus. Now all the orange patches are gone as city life emerged. I watched the last orange patch nearby turned into cooperate offices. 😕
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Oh that is sad
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Hi Miriam, this is a great post, I enjoyed your tour and the information about how Orange County got it’s name. I knew the name but not the detail.
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Thank you, Robbie. It was good I researched it and now I know more about the county I live in.
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The orange trees are amazing and brought back wonderful memories of visiting my aunt and uncle there Miriam. You got the best picture of the bunch!! 💖💖
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What a lovely city, and I love that you have an orange tree. When we were growing up, we had a large bing cherry tree in our yard. Enjoying that fruit tree was one of the best parts of summer.
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We love having the orange tree, Debra. My daughter has raspberry bushes. The kids have so much fun picking the raspberries and eat them right there. One time my younger grandkid ate too much and got a stomach. 🙂
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I have been to Fullerton before. I know they have a pretty famous arboretum there. I remember it as being an ethnically diverse community.
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You’re right, Pete. The arboretum is next to CSU Fullerton and right by the 57 freeway. The different types of restaurants reflect the ethnically diverse community. When we find one we like, we sometimes go there for many months. For a while we went to one Italian restaurant for over a year, then we went to the Old Spaghetti for another year! Many of our friends like Blue Agave which serves Mexican food.
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This area is so lovely, Miriam. Never been to Fullerton California . So much much to see and do.
Thanks Anita
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Thank you, Anita! Fullerton is clean and well maintained! It has a good balance of things for different interests!
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Yes such an amazing area to see.
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It’s nice to be in the neighborhood.
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Your orange tree is awesome! We just got our first Washington navel to try, but it looks more like a stick right now, lol. Thanks for sharing your lovely city, Miriam. I love the warm pink tones on the buildings.
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Your oranges will get better and better each year as it matures, Jacquie! I didn’t take care of the tree the first 10 years after I moved here. I’m glad we got good harvest for the last 20 years.
The developers seem to go with the trend to paint the buildings. In fact, I thought of painting our house with the same tone but our house doesn’t need new paint yet!
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Wow, Miriam, I just took a walk down memory lane! I lived in Fullerton during my high school years and went to Fullerton High School and Fullerton Junior College (what it was called back then). Great memories and those were my wonderful singing days. It’s been so long since I’ve been there, I probably wouldn’t recognize the town, but I remember our home with a pool like the back of my hand. Thanks for sharing this history and the photos. ❤️
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How wonderful that you lived in Fullerton! It’s a great city. I like the architecture in downtown Fullerton. My daughter went to Sunny Hills High School. Other than the city life, I love the hiking, biking, walking and horse trails. ❤
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Thank you for the “tour”. Great scenery and wonderful architecture.
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Thank you, Annette! I like the architecture also. It was a nice tour.
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Thanks for the interesting look into the history. You have lots of wonderful doors here, but my favorite is the long shot of the train at the station. Lots of little doors and I love trains. I’m not sure what statistic to gasp at, 45,000 steps, 1,500 oranges or $200 dinner for two – I’m going with the steps – phew!
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I love to take train shots, Dan. We took the train from Anchorage to Denali. I took shots from the train by leaning out of the window, and took many when it stopped at some stations. Statistic? I was amazed of having 1,500 oranges. I tallied them. Then I checked out the price at one grocery store. Two medium to large oranges make one pound and it was $1.45 a pound. We saved $725 on orange juice! 🙂
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Wow! Tests amazing. I would love to take thee we t train trip. How long was it?
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It’s 7.5 hours from Anchorage to Denali. We missed the train two trips ago. The trains stop running from mid October to mid May to let the snow pile up. We were there the same week when the trains stopped going north. When we went again, I booked the trip in May, the first week when the train was open.
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What a beautiful city to live in Miriam. I love your orange tree, it is gorgeous and so many oranges.
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Thank you, Carla! We’re spoiled by the fresh orange juice from our own tree. It has two crops a year but it seems the winter crop has more oranges than the summer crop in the last two years.
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I did not know orange trees had two crops a year. You learn something new every day.
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🏵️🌹🌷🌼💐🌺🌻🪷
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Thank you, Jim. 🙂 🙂
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welcome 👍👍
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That looks lovely, Miriam. I didn’t know anything about Fullerton, so I’ve learnt something. Toni x
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Fullerton is next to Anaheim where Disneyland is. It’s a nice city with many things to do. Thank you for your comment, Toni.
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That’s a lot of steps in one day!! Great photos, and a beautiful orange tree!! 🍊🍊🍊
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I had no idea Fullerton had a walking tour. 45,000 steps–oh my! I’ve spent time in Fullerton (one of the Universities I graduated from) so really enjoyed this.
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The tour was good, Jacqui! We walked a few blocks on Harbor Boulevard and some side streets and walked all the way to Fullerton College on Chapman. The train station is by the Old Spaghetti Factory.
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What a beautiful area. I love the giant palms! Thanks for sharing your lovely photos, Miriam. xo
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We have lots of palm trees in Southern CA. Some grow so tall that I wonder how often they are trimmed. Thank you for reading, Jill! ❤
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A wonderful place Miriam. Thanks for letting me tag along 🙂
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Thank you, Brian! City life is not the same as your forest! I have to go far to see something like what you have on your property. 🙂
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Fullerton does look like a great place to explore on foot! (In your photos, everything looks very clean.”
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Yes, the city is well maintained, Liz. The businesses are responsible to maintain their immediate areas. The city does the sidewalks and streets. Same in the residential area.
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Very nice post. Thank you for the tour. But what really bowled me over was 45,000 steps My goodness you must have been pooped!
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Thank you for your reading and comment! Come to think of it, I wasn’t tired. When I go for a walk in the neighborhood, it takes 4,000 steps from my usual route!
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What a wonderful area. I like. The best short tour both off you. Wonderful palm trees. You go
for walked 45000 step. Wonderful place. I like. Fullerton is beautifully look. Nice post office. Very clean for road& area. I like.
Have a happy weekend, Miriam! 🌷
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Yes, Rajkkhoja, it is a beautiful and clean city! There are many things we can do in this city. We like it. 🙂
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Yes, I like Miriam. Thanks!
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An idyllic place. I love palm trees. Thank.you for your beautiful photo essay.
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Thank you very much, Suzette! We have many palm trees here. They don’t need too much water to grow. It’s good because we don’t have too much rain either!
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Thank you I enjoyef the share.
We have lots of rain here. I am happy to share😊
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