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Jabberwocky Needs Your Help
Folks in Old Town Tustin are a pretty tight group and always willing to help out a worthy cause. This time, the cause is in our own back yard.
Way back in December of 2011, Old Town very nearly lost one of its treasured buildings to fire. The Jabberwocky, located on El Camino Real just south of Main St., Nearly burned to the ground. Only the facade was left largely intact. This building was built around 1885 and was reportedly the town doctor’s office. When it caught fire, it was a quaint dress shop called the Vintage Lady. We first wrote about the Jabberwocky in 2013
The owner was determined to save what they could of this piece of history. More than the allowable amount of the 
building was destroyed so the city required any new construction to be built to code. Local historic architect, Nathan Menard, was charged with marrying the old facade with the new building. It took awhile for construction to begin but the end result has been worth their effort. The facade has been saved and restored, and the new building is as safe as any in the city.
But, it came at a cost.
Even though insurance paid for the bulk of the construction, the owner still had to pony up some money of their own for ancillary costs. The Tustin Preservation Conservancy has stepped in to help.
The Conservancy, which is largely charged with helping to maintain the old town atmosphere of our historic district, has opened a GoFundMe campaign to solicit donations to the cause. Spokesperson Linda Jenning told us:
The Tustin Preservation Conservancy has opened a campaign on the Go Fund Me web site to raise funds to help finish the Jabberwocky building. As you may remember, it was partially destroyed by fire several years ago. The owner chose not to demolish but rebuild the damaged rear of the building and restore the beautiful Victorian facade.
Go to www.gofundme.com/n2riac and look for ” Restoring the Jabberwocky” to visit the campaign site and learn more. Any donation will be appreciated. The Conservancy will pay all fees so your entire donation will go to the fund and be tax deductible.
Yes, you heard it right. a hundred percent of all funds donated to the Jabberwocky through this campaign will go to the restoration. Tustin Preservation Conservancy will pay all fees associated with the campaign.
If you love Old Town as much as we do, we hope you will donate a few dollars to the cause. Any amount is the right amount and will certainly be appreciated.
News From Our Neighbors to the North
Some time ago, around the time the Catholics were losing their foothold in North Tustin, I got an email from some folks in that area who wanted to make sure I had all the information. That led to me being put on their mailing list and newsletter. I recently received their latest news letter and thought I would share a bit with you.
The Foothills Community Association recently held a Fire Safety Vendor Fair on June 16th. They have not updated their website to say how successful it was. However, the information is always good to have in their area. They promised to have folks there to discuss vegetation and hardening of homes against fire. Recently, I know the Fire Authority attempted to implement fire maps that would have been detrimental to these folks. As usual, government thinks they know best and should badger citizens with their “expertise” until they succumb to the pressure. FCA doesn’t seem to have that problem as they take a pro-active approach to protecting their own.
You might have also seen them at the Chili Cookoff where they made their presence known.
There is also a planned community picnic for September 23, 2012. Their first picnic was a huge success with a lot of activities including clowns, games and magic acts. Local restaurants will have a chance to showcase their goodies. The picnic will be held in Irvine Park, same as last year. I hope I get an invite. More importantly, I hope they break even (although FCA didn’t appear to unhappy about it).
You may remember that FCA fought diligently against the building of Spring at Bethsaida, a planned senior community, on Newport Avenue. The Orange County Superior Court ruled against the Diocese of Orange and the OC Board of Supervisors, led by Bill Campbell (who just happens to be Catholic), saying the Board illegally spotzoned the location to allow the Diocese to build what they wanted instead of the original church. If there are appeals in the works, we haven’t heard anything and I seriously doubt an appeal would be successful. Unfortunately, it would be expensive, something the FCA could ill afford. Now, if someone would just call Bishop Tod Brown and ask him to remove the sign.
From the Foothill Sentry Newspaper, we have this:
Tustin shares the bounty
The Harvest Club in Tustin provides fresh, healthy food to the hungry in Orange County by harvesting excess backyard produce and donating it to local food pantries, churches and soup kitchens.
The club is seeking harvest captains to lead harvests either on weekdays or weekends and volunteers to pick backyard fruit in the greater Tustin area. If you are a gardener with an overabundance of fruit, you can register your trees at theharvestclub.org and someone will be in touch with you to coordinate the picking. For more information on how to help, visit theharvestclub.org or email info@theharvestclub.
Admittedly, the Foothills Sentry is geared more toward Orange than Tustin but, there are some interesting articles. I can’t tell you exactly how to navigate to the newspaper as it is a print page that is posted to a website. Here is the latest if you find yourself bored with Tustin news.
I hope our friends in North Tustin find themselves well and with few fires this year. They are our kind of people, they just know better than to join the city. You can check out their excellent and informative website here.
Our Town Tustin 