There are so many things I love about Old Towne Orange (the houses, the people, the shops just to name a few), but I have one spot that has been my favorite since I discovered it several years ago.
Pitcher Park-

Pitcher Park sits at the corner of Almond and Cambridge in an entirely residential area, minus the school across the street. The park is small, taking up no more width than 1 house and no more length than 2 houses. It has benches, tables, greenery…all the things you expect to find in a park. But when you look closer, you see the little details that I love so much about the park.
Well don’t just sit there, follow the link to hear what they are and see more pictures!

I’ve done much research on the park and little information is available. It wasn’t until I googled the original property owners’ names, Henry and Grace Pitcher, that I got anything of significance. According to this LA Times article Henry and Grace moved to Orange from Kansas in 1912. They lived on this property until the late 1980s. At some point, Henry built himself a honey house (picture below) and a barn (also picture below). When the family donated the land to the city in 1992, work began to restore the two structures. Today they look amazing and serve a purpose. The honey house holds the equipment for the OC Beekeepers. They are at the park every 4th Sunday for a tour of the honey house and the use of the equipment. The barn holds not only many of the tools used by the Pitchers, but also Orange’s first museum, the Orange Fire Museum. It is open Saturday & Sunday from 11am to 3pm.

Now let me talk about the drinking fountain pictured above. I couldn’t tell you how old it is, but I would put this drinking fountain to be circa early 1900s for sure. As far as an exact year I couldn’t begin to guess, but isn’t it so cool looking? I’ll admit, I get a little weary when I want to drink out of it. Thanks to the design, when you step on the pedal you have to wait for the water to rise through the fountain and eventually come out. I love it though.

Fire flower!

The flowers. Oh the flowers. I don’t know how many different types of flowers there are, but they’re all BEAUTIFUL!

Apples!!!!....or Nectarines. I forget.

Fruit! There’s all different types of fruit trees and plants here. The ones I remember are apples, nectarines, peaches and avocado. I’d be willing to bet there’s a citrus somewhere too. Also, my guess would be that there are persimmons there because there is an Annual Persimmon Party held at the park. I’d really like to go because it says they provide park history, but shocker of all shockers….I have school. BTW Sunday is the 8th, not the 9th. In case you wanted to mark your calenders.

A barn!

A honey house!

Buildings! Here you see the barn and honey house I mentioned above.
The last few pictures are random pictures from the park. For more information on the park, click here!
I hope you get the chance to check out the park. It’s really beautiful.

Maroon leaves? Neat!

Butterfly! See him in the middle? I always see them in the park when I go.

A little artistic shot to leave you with.