The Pavilion: History of SP, Limoneira and East Area 1 plans detailed at opening
By Peggy Kelly
Santa Paula News
Published: August 03, 2007
By Peggy Kelly
Santa Paula Times
Blending the past and the future, the Limoneira Pavilion opened Tuesday detailing Santa Paula’s rich history and what the pioneering agricultural company has in the city’s future with the proposed development of East Area 1. The Pavilion will also be a community gathering place, as well as serve as a conduit of information about the proposed development that will be decided by area voters in February.
Limoneira Co. President/CEO Harold Edwards welcomed the crowd of elected officials and community members to the Pavilion, located at the Limoneira Mercantile at the corner of Hallock Drive and Highway 126. Edwards said that those attending the dedication were a “great group, a diverse cross-section of the community” who “appreciated and were impressed by the amount of information” offered on the city’s history, as well as on the proposed East Area 1 development.
The history of Santa Paula and Limoneira is almost synonymous, with the agricultural giant founded in 1893 in the then just emerging city described in a 1877 area newspaper as a new town. “There is a direct parallel of the development of the community and Limoneira that many recognize, and after they spent time at the Pavilion” they learned even more... for those unaware of local history, the exhibits offer a fascinating education.
The Limoneira Pavilion will be open seven days a week from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. “Limoneira is trying to get company retirees” for Pavilion staff who “can tell both stories... Santa Paula’s and Limoneira’s,” said Edwards. A full calendar of events is being finalized, although the Pavilion “will be opened up for use by service clubs and organizations, a new venue for community use.”
Edwards believes that the “most exciting thing about the Pavilion is that it tells the story of Santa Paula,” through storyboards and photographs, “from its roots as a rural farming community to its place in the global agricultural marketplace. Also on display is the proposed development of East Area 1, which Edwards believes is familiar to most Santa Paulans, although “many didn’t know how far we’ve gone” in the development process, detailed at the Pavilion.
And that includes a bas relief map that “gives an appreciation of how much open space and green space we’re committed to, as well as how the development will be more of an extension of Santa Paula. We have renderings on display” that give examples of architecture, facades and street layouts, among other details. “It gives people a greater appreciation of how cool this will be,” with unique aspects that contradict any resemblance to a conventional tract home development.
“East Area 1 is Santa Paula, and that’s what it’s going to look like,” said Edwards, and company efforts up to now have “taken a little more effort and been a little more expensive, but we’re proud that it so strongly reflects Santa Paula, the jewel we all love. Limoneira has been a pivotal part of the history of this great city, and at the Pavilion we are sharing new opportunities to help Santa Paula prosper.”
