Fullerton

I went to California State University, Fullerton in the early 1970's, and when a southern California resident thinks of Fullerton those thoughts usually turn to the academic and cultural opportunities there, as well as the celebrities, such as Kevin Costner and Gwen Stefani, who went to college there. However, the history of this north Orange County city is very much tied to the citrus industry. Many fortunes were made here, and leading figures in this industry made their impact on Fullerton, including in the architectural sense. Freddy Fender of Stratocaster Guitar fame and industrialist Norton Simon (Hunt-Wesson Foods), who later founded the famous Pasadena art museum, also had an impact here. And for all you baseball fans who note that sport's return to the nation's capital, legendary pitcher Walter Johnson (the "Big Train") of the old Washington Senators went to high school here. If you tour Fullerton with this book in hand you can see that many of the old buildings and points of interest are still there.