Old Town, New Town

Ever since I found out there was actually an area called “Old Town Irvine,” I’ve found the idea somewhere between funny, pretentious, and oxymoronic. Looking at nearby cities, we have Old Town Orange, a collection of streets with shop buildings dating back to the late 1800s or early 1900s, centered around an actual traffic circle. The place could have been the model for Disneyland’s Main Street. There’s Old Town Tustin, another collection of streets with shops going back to the late 1800s or early 1900s, with contemporary houses nearby for good measure.

Then, there’s Old Town Irvine, a couple of barns that have been converted into restaurants and a motel. Why? Because there effectively is no Old Town Irvine — it sprang whole from a designer’s master plan in the late 1960s. Most people assume UCI is named after the city, but it actually predates the city of Irvine. Both were named after the Irvine Ranch (or possibly the Irvine Company or the Irvine family — all three are tied together) on which they were built. Maybe 50 years from now there really will be an “old town” — and it’ll probably be Northwood or Woodbridge or something. But the name will already have been trademarked by the shopping center, so they won’t be able to use it.

11 thoughts on “Old Town, New Town”

  1. I love suburban SoCal, don’t you?

    I know you live there, but the whole Aliso Laguna Mission Niguel Viejo Creek area has always amused me. The first place I lived in SoCal was MV. Then it was San Clemente, before ending up in O’side. Oceanside does have a Heritage Park, plus the mission (SLR), while Carlsbad’s downtown has a few of the original buildings from its days as a late Victorian resort.

    Is “Old Town Irvine” the La Quinta Inn area?

    V. silly. SoCal is v. silly.

    1. Yes, the LaQuinta Inn with the historic bean silo hotel. Only in all the times we stayed there to visit family, we only stayed once on the “historic” side. The rest of the time we ended up in the non-historic rooms.

      The Orange Inn wasn’t bad for generic SoCal history, diner, orange crate art, etc. But that died ten years ago. Making it a historic closure, I guess, for a city incorporated in 1971.

      1. Heh. O’side celebrated its centennial a good 10-15 years ago.

        I guess SD’s equivalent areas are Rancho Bernardo, Rancho Peñasquitos, Mira Mesa, Scripps Ranch, UTC… Julian’s an old mining town, Ramona has some history, though it’s unincorporated, and, hey, first of the Alta California missions down here (I think there’s two in this county). Also, Presidio! And La Jolla itself is old enough for its longest-term denizens to write off UCSD as insignificant, since the only real universities are Ivy League.

        That said, my current residence screams early ’80s.

        1. That said, my current residence screams early ’80s.

          Yeah, SoCal seems to limit old houses to Old Towns. Most houses in OC are from the 70-80s “brass and glass” era. “Some of these houses are almost 30 years old…” In the Bay Area finding an affordable house that wasn’t 80 years old took moving to the East Bay.

          That being said, it’s weird to now live in LA where so many houses are the 40s bungalow and 50s cracker box era houses. As a good OC baby I feel I’m part of history just by living in a house without central air. 😉

          1. Some of the older cities (Santa Ana, Anaheim, Orange) have large 50s-era tracts and some 40s-era, though I haven’t seen much older than that outside of Old Towns. My parents’ house, I think, was built in the 60s, and I’ve driven through areas that remind me of suburban LA (or vice versa). I mean, the county celebrated its centennial in 1988 — it didn’t all spring forth fully-formed in 1971!

          3. I created this icon for moments such as this. 😉

            I think there are very few of the 1880s Anahiem houses left. My grandparents sold theirs and it was converted into a church. Judging by what happened to them, rambling victorians were pushed out by smaller, more manageable ranch-style homes.

            As far as OC predominant housing styles go, I guess it’s a matter which areas stand out in your mind. Yorba Linda, Anaheim, Santa Ana, and Garden Grove, or Irvine, Cypress, Tustin, Lake Forest, Irvine Hills. The latter half were more affected by the 70s and 80s housing boom and tend to be symptomatic of what I associate with OC–red tile roof, 2 car garage, tract house.

            Of course according to The OC, the whole county is just Newport Beach, aka Malibu.

    2. Actually I live in north county, which is quite different. The dividing line is so clearly geographical (hilly vs. flat, with the exception of master-planned Irvine) that I’m half-convinced there’s a connection. Not to say that the rest of OC isn’t silly, but it’s a bit less so, or at least silly in a slightly different way.

      1. For some reason, I thought you lived in ALMNVC.

        As for the flat/hilly north/south-except-Irvine… the next level beyond the pink-blue line?

        And I wasn’t limiting the silliness to OC. SoCal is rife with silliness. ;P

        1. I lived in Lake Forest briefly (abt. 6 months) after I graduated, but then moved to an unspecified “flatlander” location (since it’s an unlocked post) when alenxa and I moved in together. I actually kind of liked it, at least for the time I was there. (Maybe because I wasn’t going to school there, or dealing with housing associations, or because I was there for so short a time.) It was a “nice” area, but seemed less snobby than, say, Mission Viejo, or even Irvine. I kind of figure Lake Forest/El Toro is the real dividing line — culturally, geographically, and geomorphically — with Irvine being plunked down right next to it.

          SoCal is rife with silliness.

          Oh, yeah, silliness all around! (Like El Toro changing its name to Lake Forest so it would sound more upscale, or Garden Grove blaming Internet cafes for gang violence.)

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