Santa Paula Things to Do

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As with most little Califonia towns can owe their thanks to two things. Black Gold and the Rail Road. Progress seems to stem from either of these things.

Union Oil Company Building was established in Santa Paul in 1890 by oil pioneers Thomas Bard, Lyman Stewart, and Wallace Hardison. It's cost to build such a structure was $38,000. It has some really wonderful displays of how "Black Gold" has contributed to state's progress. Lots of other kinds of traveling exhibits on display here too! They give a really nice tour of the upstairs that details the beginnings of this building and Santa Paula. Their is also wonder display of Lundgren and Bennett Collections of gas station memorabilia and one of largest displays of vintage gas pumps in California.

UNION OIL COMPANY BUILDING Historical Marker NO. 996

Adults $4
Seniors $3
Youth (6-17) $1
Kids 0-5) Free
Tour Groups (20+) $3 each
Guided Tours $1 per person

Open Wednesday through Sunday, 10 AM - 4PM
At other times by arrangement

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This historic building of fine architecture dating to 1890 was the original headquarters of the Union Oil Company. Building cost of construction was just $37,000. This is California Historical Landmark #996 & Ventura County Historical Landmark #36. Oil was first discovered in California near the present day Santa Paula by Chumash Indians in a crude oil seep from the side of a hill on the present highway 150 leading north & west from 10th Street north to Ojai. That site is marked on a roadway turnoff.

Permanent exhibits of the California Oil Museum, a National Register Historic Site:

California & the Age of Petroleum
The 1900 Cable-Tool Drilling Rig
The Lundgren & the Bennett Gas Pump Collections
Great California Gas Brands
The 1890s Office & the 1930s Apartment

The California Oil Museum has many historic artifacts as well as a large collection of gasoline pumps & in the Pump House in back, a large early oil drilling rig. The upstairs of the museum requires a guided tour to see. Open Wednesday through Sunday, 10 am to 4 pm. Closed major holidays. The Museum Store has things of interest for sale. Admission: Adults-$4, $3 Seniors, $1 Children, Children 5 and under free.

Special exhibits change & are worthwhile. See my next tip for the current special exhibit.

Park at rear of building.

One of the things that we liked the best about Santa Paula were the attractive and interesting murals painted on the walls of a number of its downtown buildings. The murals (there are currently 8 of them) portray elements of the town's history, its people and its economy.

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Santa Paula has many old, stately, well kept turn of the century Victorian homes and excellent examples of the Craftsman period after WW1 and into the 1920s and early 1930s. There are also large old and interesting ranch homes along Foothill Road and Telegraph Road west of town. The old home neighborhoods are enhanced by very large, mature trees providing shady streets and a beautiful ambience for walking tours or drivebys. Eight more of these old homes of interest including of some Queen Anne architecture are shown in one of my Santa Paula Travelogues. Please see my newly updated Santa Paula travelogues on 'Victorian Ladies-California Craftsmen for more beautiful old architectural examples..

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This new huge kiddie & adult attraction must be seen to be believed. The 5,300 pound perfectly round red granite ball is wholly supported by water pressure & spins on its mount 24/7/365. It can be stopped in its rotation by a tot's hands, if one doesn't mind getting one's hands wet; & this is surely no bar to a child's or adult's participation in this new fun thing in downtown Santa Paula just one block north of the California Oil Museum. The ball's granite was mined in India; the mount surface was lapped to a .001 inch (one one-thousandth of an inch). Twelve pounds per square inch of continuous water pressure holds the ball up & silently keeps it spinning.

The variegated veins in the red granite indeed make it easy to see the spinning ball's direction, which due to its inertia will spin in one direction until disturbed by human hands. What a "kid magnet" this is, for kids of all ages even those approaching senility! Incredible fun awaits you at this absolutely free attraction!

Click on each picture to see the kids' and dad's participation in the fun; and don't fail to read the sign describing the attraction also in one of my pictures. They were talking about "The Ball" at the Airport in Santa Paula today so I decided to drop by and take some pictures. Kids were continuously playing with "The Ball". And so you will too!

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In the Donalson Aviation Museum hanger at the Santa Paula Airport the entire second floor is devoted to a Radio Museum, with hundreds of radios from the earliest days. Dale Donalson has assembled an incredible collection of phonographs, console models, the RCA Victor 'His Master's Voice' Victrola, the original Crosley Bluebird Art Deco radio, early shortwave radios, early televisions, small bakelite plastic radios, Zenith Transoceanic radios, clock radios, the earliest portable radios, and an amazing collection of novelty radios throughout history that may bemuse, befuddle or astound you! There are so many radios here you may find an identical one or two from your own past!

Dale tirelessly gives the history of these radios by time and functional groups in his guided tour around his museum and has some interesting anecdotes of radio trivia. You can also take a unguided tour if you wish. Dale stands ready to answer any questions and can supply the most detailed trivia about most any radio-related object in the large room that may catch your eye. Old radio magazines of the period are nostalgic to any old radio lover.

The museum hanger is open for the radio exhibit when the Aviation Museum is open each first Sunday of the month from 10 am to 3 pm, weather permitting. Admission entirely free. Budget some extra time for this museum, for it is compellingly fascinating. I can't count the number of times I have been in the Radio Museum. Radio was a hobby in my youth and I built and repaired radios and early TVs for a time in my late teens.

Don't forget to go to the back of the building outside in a another building because you will miss an authentic oil drill and some really cool displays of gas pumps.

As with most little Califonia towns can owe their thanks to two things. Black Gold and the Rail Road. Progress seems to stem from either of these things.

Union Oil Company Building was established in Santa Paul in 1890 by oil pioneers Thomas Bard, Lyman Stewart, and Wallace Hardison. It's cost to build such a structure was $38,000. It has some really wonderful displays of how "Black Gold" has contributed to state's progress. Lots of other kinds of traveling exhibits on display here too! They give a really nice tour of the upstairs that details the beginnings of this building and Santa Paula. Their is also wonder display of Lundgren and Bennett Collections of gas station memorabilia and one of largest displays of vintage gas pumps in California.

Adults $4
Seniors $3
Youth (6-17) $1
Kids 0-5) Free
Tour Groups (20+) $3 each
Guided Tours $1 per person

Open Wednesday through Sunday, 10 AM - 4PM
At other times by arrangement

March 12, 1928, the 12-billion-gallon St. Francis Dam failed sending a torrent of water at 18mph killing more than 450 lives and 1,200 homes and everything it carried to it's doom to the ocean.

Yet, shortly before 1:30am a message did get through to some, but most importantly, to two motorcycle officers who gallantly went door to door through the street warning all they could of the torrent of flood water heading their way. It was because of these two wonderful souls that so many did live and survive. "I" and "we" salute such human beings who took a the risk to save so many.

Sculpted by Eric J. Richards 2003