| Olive Through the Ages
Brick
yard & tile co. | Bank
of Olive | Olive
Garage | Olive Hotel & Motel | Olive
Mill | Other
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Olive (Heights) Hotel appeared on Main Street
in 1887. The hotel was built as a residence for Olive Milling Co. workers
and remained in operation a little after the mill closed in 1924.
About 1940, Olive Motel Apartments opened a few blocks away on Canyon
Way (Orange-Olive Road) at Buena Vista Avenue. The motel closed some
time in the early 1980s, but the structure remained at this site until
the late 1990s.
My thanks to Tom Pulley for contributing content on the Olive Hotel,
and to the Orange Public Library Collection and Orange County Archives
for historical images of these buildings.
Click/tap the thumbnail images below to view larger images in a separate
browser window or tab.
Olive Heights Hotel
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| Olive Hotel ca. 1888 |
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| GH Business Complex at
site of Olive Hotel |
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| Side and rear view of
bldg. |
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Olive Heights Hotel, built by Louis Schorn about 1887,
was located at 302 Main Street on the southeastern side of Orange Avenue
(see
image from about 1891). The two-story, white, wooden building stood
a couple of short blocks west of the second Olive Milling Company flour
mill built on the northeastern corner of Ocean View at Hope. The original
mill, built in 1882 at the northwestern edge of present day Eisenhower
Park, burned down in 1889.
The hotel was primarily constructed for the purpose of housing workers
at the Olive Milling Company, of which Schorn was part owner and president
for many years until he retired in 1906. Olive Milling Company was the
first significant industry in Olive and in the Santa Ana Valley, before
Orange County was formed. During the height of its success, the mill
employed between 10 to 22 men, undoubtedly several of whom resided at
the hotel. In 1892 the hotel was run by F. Cowlin, and 1913 and 1916
city directories list W.A. Campbell as proprietor. J.M. Harden is listed
as proprietor by 1929.
After the Olive Milling Company was sold in 1924, the hotel continued
to remain in operation until at least 1934, serving as housing for some
of the workers at the packing houses. The hotel structure appears at
this location in 1955 and 1959 aerial maps, but does not show up in
a 1970 aerial map. In 1981, a two-story stucco office building was constructed
on the approximate site of the hotel. This structure still stands today
at 1107 E. Lincoln Avenue.
Sources: ProQuest Historical Newspaper Los Angeles Times
articles; Tom Pulley; Orange Public Library Collection; Orange County
Archives.
Olive Motel
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| Aerial view of Olive Motel, August
1947 |
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| Gas station and Olive
Motel, May 1963 |
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| Apartment building at
the Olive Motel site |
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Olive Motel first appeared in the phone directory in 1940.
The single-story, U-shaped building stood on the northeastern corner
of Canyon Way (Orange-Olive Road) and Buena Vista Street; the site that
Clement Lumber Company occupied from the early 1920s until 1940. When
the Canyon Way street name changed during the mid-1940s, the address
for the motel was listed at 8582 Santa Ana Canyon Road in 1947, with
operations under the management of J.C. Green.
By 1956, the address for Olive [Motel] Apartments was listed as 8620
Santa Ana Canyon Road due to changes made in addresses around that time.
In 1961, Olive Motel and Apartments was run by R.I. and Mrs. E.P. Underwood.
Although the last listing I found for this business entity was in the
1963 directory, the building remained at this site until about the late
1990s, perhaps operating under a different name. Sometime thereafter,
the structure was raised and the lot on which it sat still remained
vacant until 2011.
As of 2011, apartment buildings now stand at this site.
Sources: Orange County Archives; Sherman Library; First
American Title.
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