Jamestown Village
Jamestown Village, a shopping center in Old Town Tustin, was built by Claude T. Gilbreath in two stages starting in 1960 and ending in 1962. Gilbreath, a builder in west Los Angeles County, moved his operation to Orange County in 1954. In 1955 he bought the old Crawford house, built in 1885, at 520 “D” Street (now El Camino Real). The Gilbreath family moved into the house and lived there until it was demolished in 1960 as part of the Jamestown Village development. A feature of the shopping center is the Little Tree Church that was built around a vintage oak tree. Gilbreath constructed the church in hopes of offering couples a more romantic atmosphere than large churches. The first wedding took place in April 1963. The tree died in 2000 and had to be removed. The area around the church was landscaped and a camphor tree planted next to the church in 2005.
Tustin, Orange County
Photographer: Andrew Schmidt