oct2001

Historical
A publication of
Happenings the
Brea Historical Society

Copy Deadline: 1st Friday of the month VOL. XVIII, No. 10
Mailing Deadline: 2nd Friday of the month October, 2001

What's Gray, White, and Black...

by
Kathy Canon

.....and sits on opposite corners of Redwood Avenue? put in beautiful inlaid hardwood floors, replumbed the
You’re correct! It’s the two homes featured on the “Brea entire house and completely renovated the kitchen to in-
Home and Downtown Tour”. clude a “period” stove, refrigerator and sink - even a
Maytag wringer washer. All in perfect, working condi-
The first home, which was built in the Provincial Re- tion.
vival style in 1929, is owned by Don Ward. This beauti-
ful home is on a 50 X 140' lot that, according to city With Don making trips to Berkeley, CA, searching

maps from 1919, cost $250 vintage salvage yards for

to $400 to purchase. usable doors, windows and

Don grew up in Fullerton sinks, the lady of the house,

and had admired old homes Debbie Bates, who is a pro-

there for many years. After fessor of childhood devel-

making an offer on one of opment at a college in Riv-

them and the deal falling erside, put her own touches

through, his real estate agent to the home. She had pre-

told him about three Brea viously restored an old Vic-

homes that were available on torian home in Redlands,

Redwood Ave. He loved one which gave her the experi-

of them, and in October, ence and flair for decorat-

1995, agreed to rent it for “4 ing the interior. She has

or 5 months” before purchas- This historical Provincial-Revival home built in 1929, designed and sewn the
ing. Don is a licensed con- owned by Don Ward, is one of the highlights of the Brea draperies, spent hours and
tractor, and even while rent- Home and Downtown walking tour. hours painting and acquired
ing, replaced the wiring and many of the antiques seen

began what would become a 6-year-long labor of love, throughout the house.

renovating and restoring the home to 1920’s style. According to Debbie, there are still a few things they

“It’s a disease," laughs Don, who has spent countless would like to do: a picket fence and landscaping, but so

hours pouring over period magazines and catalogs, gath- far they are very pleased with their accomplishments.

ering ideas for restoring his home to vintage. They love their home, and will “never leave it.”

Karen and Dale Tangler, the owners of the home prior The second home on the tour is the former residence

to Don, occasionally drop by to see the latest improve- and office of one of Brea’s first physicians, Dr. Walter

ments. Over the years, Don has replastered the walls, continued on page 2

2

Historic Homes on Redwood Avenue

continued from page 1

W. Davis. ing the interior of an historical home while leaving the
Now owned by Lori and Mike Muhovich, the old exterior basically the same as it originally was.

“Blue Bungalow” has seen many occupants since its con- Remembering driving down Brea Blvd. during the
struction, circa 1918. years before redevelopment, Lori recalls seeing a blue
wooden home hidden behind small palm trees and veg-
Dr. Davis served in WWI in France and Germany at etation on the corner of Birch St. Even I got goosebumps
army hospitals, treating wounded soldiers. Upon his dis- when she said, “I always wondered who lived in that
charge in 1919, he returned to Brea to continue his medi- house and now I do."
cal practice, and in 1922, built two extra rooms on the
front of his home to serve as an office and waiting room. Formerly located at the corner of Birch St. and Brea
Dr. Davis and his family lived in this home/office until a Blvd., the old "Blue Bungalow" is now the vintage-style
second home was built near Ash and Flower Streets. The home of the Muhovich family on Redwood Ave.
“Blue Bungalow” remained at its location on the corner
of Birch St. and Brea Blvd., and Dr. Davis continued On Saturday, November 3 and Sunday, November 4,
seeing patients there until he died in 1930. begin the first of the monthly Brea Home and Down-
town walking tours of the “new” Brea Downtown, plus
After his death, the home became a restaurant, then a these two restored homes on historic Redwood Avenue.
tea room, then turned into a paint store and finally was
bought by the City and used by the police department. Participants will embark on a journey to uncover the
Eventually, downtown redevelopment saw it move from relics and search for traces of Brea’s past.
the corner it occupied for so many years, to the corner of
Redwood Avenue and Ash St. The one-mile tours will begin in the parking lot at the
corner of Birch St. and Flower at 4:30pm and 6:30pm
Lori and Mike lived in Fullerton for 14 years, and on on Saturday and at 2pm on Sunday.
her way to a business in Brea, Lori would frequently drive
up Redwood Ave. to see the old homes. She remembers Tour tickets are $5.00 per person, with proceeds go-
a home that had been on the corner of Redwood and Ash ing to the proposed new Brea History Museum and Heri-
and was disappointed to find, on one of her drives, that it tage Center. Wear your comfortable walking shoes and
had been leveled and the lot was empty. A few weeks be prepared to have fun and learn things about Brea
later, while taking her drive again, she noticed another you never knew.
home had been moved to the lot and would drive by more
often, taking special note. For more information or to reserve a spot on one of
the first tours, call or leave a message for Kathy at 714-
Early one morning in May, 1994, Lori drove by and 336-3019.
saw a “For Sale” sign in front of the house. She stopped
immediately and cancelled her plans for the day and went
inside, meeting Bob Fellows, the owner and seller of the
home. He showed her around and, Lori says, she had
“goosebumps and tears." She had always wanted a vin-
tage home and it was love at first sight. Since there were
already two offers on it, Lori called her husband, Mike,
at work and told him, “I found the one I want!" He came
from work and looked at the house and fell in love him-
self, and soon, the family moved into the old “Blue Bun-
galow”.

Lori and Mike’s efforts, such as the stone entry and
stained-glass window, are a perfect example of renovat-

3

Special Event

Let's Paint Brea
2001

Through October 27, the “Let’s Paint Brea 2001"

exhibit continues at the Brea History Museum. The event,

co-sponsored by the Brea Historical Society and the Brea

Art Association, is presenting 13 paintings and artworks

by local artists depicting various landmarks, scenes and

life in our city.

Historical Society members and the general public are

invited to come down and view the display before it

closes. Museum hours are Thursdays from 11am until "Canon Oil Headquarters", painted in oils by Yvonne

1pm and Saturdays from 11am until 2pm. Hope we see Steinbach, was the First Place Ribbon winner at this

you there! year's "Let's Paint Brea 2001" exhibit.

Meet Vonnie French - Museum Volunteer

by

Kathy Canon

The first time I walked into the Brea History Museum, I was greeted by

two of the lovliest ladies I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting: Kay Lorea

and Vonnie French.

Vonnie has been volunteering at the museum for “about 2 years," after

learning about it from her close friend and neighbor, Kay. Both ladies work

together, helping preserve and archive the current history of Brea by reading

and clipping news articles from the Brea Progress.

A resident of Brea since 1962, Vonnie was born in Whittier and has lived

in several areas of Southern California. Sometime during 1928, when Vonnie

was 10-years-old, she moved with her brothers and sister to Yorba Linda,

where her father took the job of overseeing the lemon grove and avocado

nursery of her uncle, E.K. French.

Throughout school and for awhile after graduating from Fullerton High

in 1936, she worked at orange and lemon packing houses in Yorba Linda

until she and her sister, Lois, met Dwight Phillips, a supervisor at Chiksan in

Brea. He told her that “they might be hiring women” in the assembly shop.

Vonnie went and applied and worked at Chiksan until her retirement in the

1980’s.

An active woman who enjoys travelling with family and friends, Vonnie

Long-time Brea resident, Historical has volunteered at several organizations in Brea and enjoys the time she

Society member and dedicated vol- spends at the museum every week.

unteer, Vonnie French, takes a break Vonnie’s assistance at the museum, especially helping preserve the present

from clipping newspaper articles for for future generations of Breans, is invaluable. Thank you, Vonnie, for ev-

the History Museum archives. We love erything you do for Brea.

you, Vonnie! Next month...the spotlight shines on Kay Lorea!

4

120 N. Brea Blvd.

by
Brian Saul

As you drove along Brea Blvd., the building in ques- before they decided to team up because by December
tion was one of those tin structures you might pass with- the building of the little plane had begun.
out giving it a second look, but from an historical stand-
point, it was certainly the most important building in the In late February, 1926 the work was completed, and
city and probably in the surrounding area. What occurred parked on the lawn in front of the Anaheim Elks Club,
there would undoubtedly have qualified it for the Na- the Humming Bird was shown to the public and press for
tional Register of Historic Places as well as a state his- the first time.
torical landmark. I’m speaking of the fact that within the
walls of 120 N. Brea Blvd., then called Tremaine’s Ga- Leaders of the day in the aviation field such as Donald
rage, the first low-winged monoplane built in the United Douglas, Boeing and Billy Mitchell were skeptical of the
States was constructed in 1925-26. plane’s future, although they had seen it fly several times
on test flights from the Brea and Long Beach Airports.
And what makes that so important? Well, almost all Thaheld recalled that Donald Douglas had told him,
airplanes in the world today, from prop planes to passen- “Single-wing planes will never work.”
ger jets to the the Space Shuttle are low-winged mono-
planes and derive their basic design from what was con- After a change to a more powerful engine and other
structed here in Brea. adjustments, the tiny plane was transported on a flatbed
truck from the Tremaine Garage to the Brea Airport on
Billed at the time as the smallest plane ever built and the morning of April 24, 1926. It was the day of the
appropriately called the “Humming Bird", it weighed but second Brea Air Meet, and the Humming Bird was to be
250 lbs. and had a wingspread of 21 ft. and a length of 15 on display as well as make a few flights for the antici-
ft. It was truly revolutionary in its design when com- pated crowds.
pared to the cumbersome biplanes that were then in gen-
eral use. It could travel at a speed of 140 m.p.h., much Piloting the plane was a 21-year-old flyer named Ray
faster than biplanes were able to fly. Freeman who had been warned by Tremaine and Thaheld
not to fly over a certain speed. In fact, because of the
Designed by a young Austrian named Fred Thaheld, installation of that more powerful motor, a block had
recently arrived in this country and who had been flying been placed on the throttle to prevent it from being pulled
self-built gliders and powered planes since 1915, the Brea all the way out.
plane was actually a community project. In a 1953 ar-
ticle in the Brea Progress, Thaheld remembered that “as Taking off from the field without difficulty, Freeman
with many new inventions, the problem of finances pre- circled the barley fields west of the airport and joined the
sented itself often. Many Brea persons contributed their army planes that were racing around the track markers,
time, money and knowledge to the completion of the or pylons. All was going well, but then the Humming
plane.” Bird started to fall behind. Suddenly from below, people
saw the plane shoot forward (later it was determined
Probably the greatest of these contributors though Freeman had removed the throttle block), and it wasn’t
was Brea Constable Bill Tremaine, whose teaming with long afterwards that the wings collapsed and the Hum-
Thaheld made the construction of the Humming Bird ming Bird made a deadly 500 ft. plunge to the ground,
possible. Arriving in Brea in 1918 and opening his ga- killing Freeman instantly.
rage, he had previously owned a gold mine, a stagecoach
line from Yuma to Needles, and had been a well-known Feeling himself responsible for the crash, Thaheld
race car driver nicknamed ”Wild Bill”. rushed from the field, jumped in Tremaine’s car and
headed east in the direction of Santa Ana Canyon. There
Sometime in late 1925 they met. It could easily have he abandoned the car and just disappeared. Searchers
been on Halloween Day at the first Brea Air Meet, which scoured the hills and Southern California for any sign of
was held to celebrate the opening of the new Brea Air- him but without success. During the following days, nu-
port built just east of town. In any case, it wasn’t long merous news articles appeared in LA and Orange Co.

continued on page 7

5

6

The Tremaine Bomb Shelter

by
Brian Saul

At this moment of public patriotism, alertness to dan- After the Dec. 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, the
ger and uncertainty about the future, I thought it might people of Brea, like people everywhere, worried about
be interesting to return to the past and see how two en- their safety and the safety of their families. Fearing a Japa-
tirely different families, 19 years apart, dealt with similar nese attack, air raid drills and blackouts were held. Brea’s
times. Actually, they both reacted in the same way, but only Japanese-American residents, the Kitaoka family,
just the fact that they did makes it, for me, an interesting was taken away and placed in an internment camp in
Arizona.
story.
Bill Tremaine. Tremaine and his wife Hannah took the concern for
their own safety a step further though, and built them-
For anyone who selves their own bomb shelter.
lived in Brea or La
Habra in the late In an article that appeared on the front page of the
teens to the Brea Progress just two months after the attack, the
1940’s, that name Tremaine shelter was big-time news, and I think it might
would have been be interesting if I quote that article here just as it was
familiar. Why? written.
Because he was
one of those Tremaine Builds War-Shelter
people who al-
ways seemed to William D. (Two Gun) Tremaine, constable,
be where the ac- deerslayer and all-around-he-man, has just com-
tion was and pleted an air raid shelter in the rear of his home at
sometimes he 239 South Madrona.
even created it for
himself. Not that Tremaine is afeerd. He is afeerd of noth-
ing and he always has believed in preparedness, he
Born in 1865, says, and this shelter may come in handy should the
he at one time Japs ever start tossing bombs too large for him to
owned a gold catch and throw back at them.
Brea Constable Bill Tremaine mine, a stage-
The shelter is seven feet deep, six feet wide and
coach line between Needles and Yuma and was a well- ten feet long. Over the top there is a large steel tank
known race car driver known as “Wild Bill”. Arriving in which has been cut in two, made into two arches.
Brea in 1918 and setting up a garage at 120 N. Pomona
Ave. (Brea Blvd.), it wasn’t long before he was promot- Regular cellar steps have been dug and there is a
ing the idea of a Brea Airport, which became a reality in full and complete door over the entrance. Two feet
1925. of earth rest on top of the steel roof.

That same year he met the young Austrian plane de- It is Tremaine's plan to put in some shelves where
signer Fred Thaheld, and shortly thereafter the two food can be stored. Also when Tremaine comes home
teamed up to produce the first low-winged monoplane with a few dozen over-sized bucks, he will smoke
in the U.S., christened the “Humming Bird”. Two other meat in this shelter.
low-winged models were soon on the drawing boards.
"But there will be room to get into it in case an
Bill’s civic involvement also fit into that “daredevil” air raid should come," opines the constable.
pattern of his life because he became Brea’s first con-
stable and held that position for several years. By-product of this creation has been a two-week
illness from flu as a result of working too hard,
according to Mrs. Tremaine.

continued on page 7

7

120 N. Brea Blvd - continued from page 4

keeping the public informed about the search. Then, 3 Island.
weeks later, he was discovered in Lordsburg, New More tests followed. Since the plane had no wind-
Mexico, and Bill Tremaine headed east to convince him
to return. No criminal charges were ever filed against shield and the pilot and navigator were thus forced to
Thaheld. look out the side windows to see where they were going
(the area between the cockpit and the propeller was used
On May 14, after a few days on the road, the two instead to hold fuel for the long flight), a hole was cut in
men returned to Brea. In an news article that appeared the roof for the navigator.
that same day, Tremaine told a reporter that Thaheld
"would begin at once on the construction of an engine On the morning of August 10, which was described
for a plane greatly similar to the Humming Bird." as being very foggy, the pilot, Lt. George Covell, started
up the engine, made a check of the instruments, rolled
That plane, a larger model with seating for 2 people, down the runway, took off and plowed into the side of
one sitting behind the other, made its appearance early Point Loma. Both he and the navigator, Lt. R.W.
the following year, 1927. Waggener, died in a huge ball of flame. It was later felt
that because of the poor visibility Covell and Waggener
Also that same year, Thaheld and Tremaine built an- had miscalculated their altitude.
other plane that brought them national attention. It was
a large low-winged monoplane designed to fly in the 2,408 That second accident spelled the end of plane con-
mile Dole Race to Hawaii in August. Dubbed the “mys- struction on Brea Blvd, and the Brea Airport gradually
tery plane” because of its novel construction, it too was faded away, being replaced by the new one in neighbor-
built in the garage at 120 N. Brea Blvd. ing Fullerton.

Test after test of the big plane was made. Finally on Thaheld left Brea not long afterwards, taking a posi-
August 4 it left Brea for San Diego to pick up the naval tion in Dallas, Texas with the Guiberson Co. as an advi-
pilot and navigator who were to fly it up to Oakland and sor on aircraft and engine construction. One of his en-
then onto Hawaii. After a stop in Santa Ana and another gines, of an entirely new design and powered by diesel,
in Escondido to repair oil leaks, the plane arrived at North
continued on page 8

The Tremaine Bomb Shelter

continued from page 6

I guess I don't need to say the shelter was never used built in another part of town during another crisis.)
for the purpose it was built. It probably didn't get used
much for smoking meat either because 6 months after Behind the home on the right, "Wild" Bill Tremaine,
this article appeared Bill resigned as constable and re- former constable of Brea, built his bomb shelter shortly
tired toYucaipa. He died there in 1951. after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Sitting here now writing this article, I was just
thinking that I wish I'd known about the shelter before
all those homes on Madrona disappeared to redevelop-
ment. I'm curious if it was still there after all those years
since 1942. If it were, I wonder what the earth movers
thought the hole was when they ran into it while clearing
the land for the Gateway Shopping Center parking lot.
On the other hand, could it still be there underground
with some Ford sitting on top of it? Nah.

(Next month I'll be telling you about another shelter

8

Volunteer Hours 120 N. Brea Blvd. they produced in that tin garage on
Jan.1 through Oct. 6, 2001 Brea Blvd. was truly a remarkable ad-
continued from page 7 vancement in the history of world
aviation.
is currently on display at the
Kathy Canon..............215.0 hours Smithsonian Air Museum in Wash- Editor's note: Brian has recently sub-
mitted a proposal to Mayor Moore and City
ington, D.C. Council regarding the placement of a
Jim Crow.....................38.5 hours During World War II, he designed plaque or a commemorative marker on or
near the location of the Tremaine Garage.
other diesel engines that were used
Edwina Drake.................2.5 hours in U.S. military tanks. These engines Brea Historical
Society
after the war were sold as surplus,
Lloyd Dudding................7.0 hours and Thaheld teamed with W.D. Jim Schweitzer, President
(714) 529-0635
Shaffer of Brea’s Shaffer Tool Works
Vonnie French...............71.0 hours to purchase several and convert them Brian Saul, Vice President
(562) 698-5339
to power wind machines used in cit-
Bob Hitchcock................4.5 hours rus groves to protect against frost P.J. Mansur, Secretary/Treasurer
(714) 528-4240
damage.
Kay Lorea.....................76.5 hours Tremaine remained as Brea’s Con- Jim Crow, Board Member
(714) 529-3295
stable until 1942 when he retired and
Edna Makins.................35.0 hours moved with his wife to Yucaipa Marie Domenico, Board Member
(714) 529-6641
where we died in 1951. Thaheld
PJ Mansur.....................40.0 hours moved to Minden, Nevada, bought Lloyd Dudding, Board Member
(714) 256-4324
himself an airport and continued his
Wade Mansur................48.0 hours research and development of new Edna Makins, Board Member
(714) 529-1755
ideas and inventions. He died there
Brian Saul...................251.0 hours in 1981. November Board Meeting:
Monday, Nov. 5, 2001, 7p.m.
Their collaboration in the 20’s at the Brea History Museum,
Jim Schweitzer..............66.5 hours hadn’t lasted all that long, but what
652 S. Brea Blvd.
Special Thanks to our Corporate Sponsors (714) 256-2283

Taps Fish House Pacific Western
& Brewery National Bank

located at located at
101 E. Imperial Hwy 275 N. Brea Blvd.

Brea Historical Society Non-Profit Organization
P.O. Box 9764 U.S. POSTAGE
Brea, CA 92822-9764 PAID
Permit No. 117
Brea, California

ADDRESS SERVICE REQUESTED