Lantern District
In the first two decades of the 1900s, what is now the Orange County coast became a “destination” with the development of beach communities including Seal Beach, Huntington Beach, Newport Beach/Balboa/Balboa Island, Dana Point, Capistrano Beach and San Clemente. In 1923, the San Juan Point Corporation, a syndicate comprised mainly of Laguna Beach realtors, was formed to develop a 900 acre area around the bay at Dana Point. The development failed. In 1926, in swooped Sydney Hawks Woodruff, the head of the successful Hollywoodland development. Backed by the Dana Point Syndicate, Woodruff purchased 1400 acres, which included the previous development. Woodruff improved the roads and tracts laid out by the previous developers, began selling tracts in 1927 and by 1928, houses had started to appear. Stories of hide traders on the bluff and merchant ships in the bay communicating with color lanterns provided a gimmick to tie the development to the history of the area and the Lantern District was born with street names like Golden Lantern, Violet Lantern and Ruby Lantern.
Dana Point, Orange County
Photographer: Andrew Schmidt