FAIRHAVEN - ORANGE
These free-spirited Southern California Eichlers are in
the midst of a renaissance tied to pride and camaraderie

From the pages of CA-Modern magazine
By Dave Weinstein

In today's increasingly impersonal world, it's easy to imagine that all things -- even good things, like the revival of a neighborhood -- are caused by time and tide, and that an individual can have little impact.

Don't try that line on anybody living in Fairhaven, the first Joe Eichler neighborhood in Southern California and the first of three in the city of Orange.

Fairhaven, an enclave of about 140 houses built at the start of the 1960s, has undergone a renaissance over the past few years. Housing values are up, poorly remodeled homes are being restored, young families are moving back in, some neighbors are pushing for landmark designation, and neighborhood parties are back in business.

Carla Jacobs, a former realtor and longtime resident of the neighborhood, remembers when agents warned clients away from the Eichlers -- no resale value, they said. David McDonald, who's lived here since 1988, remembers when Fairhaven was dotted with shabby houses that had been repossessed by banks.

"In the early '90s you couldn't give these homes away," he says. Today houses sell in the $800,000-and-up range, and when Bret Bielefeld bought his four-bedroom model a year ago, he had to beat out four competitors. But this is a story about more than market forces and the newfound love for all things modern having their way.

What really makes Fairhaven a great place to live, many neighbors say, is its neighborliness, and they attribute much of that to two men, Craig Opsahl and Barry Russell, who brought people together and inspired others to do the same, and then rode off into the sunset like the 'Masked Man' and Tonto. "They were the catalyst for the social scene," McDonald says.

"The neighborhood has had its ups and downs," says John Wolfe, who has lived in Fairhaven since 1964 and attributes much of its current 'revival' to Opsahl and Russell, says the camaraderie crosses generations.

All it took, says Opsahl, who moved a year ago with Russell to Mt. Shasta, was ringing doorbells. He and Russell helped organize a neighborhood celebration to welcome in the Millenium, and 'cookie parties' to solicit toys and funds for poor children. Anyone can do it, almost anywhere, Opsahl advises. "Go knock on the door. It's not hard. The neighborhood is great, and all you have to do is put yourself out a little bit."

"The house itself is a binding element," Opsahl says. People talk about their reservations, commiserate about plumbing. "Mainly it's the panache of living in mid-century modern houses. When they became more popular, it made us feel cool, so we became extra cool."

Other neighbors took up the charge. Someone distributed pink flamingos that, installed in the front yard, announce that cocktails are being served. "There was a flamingo out nearly every night at somebody's house," Opsahl says. Other neighbors started a tradition of meeting one night a week at a Thai restaurant.

People in Fairhaven have gotten to know one another, and it's not because they all have children the same age. In fact, the neighborhood is extremely diverse, ranging from old-timers who once worked in aerospace to newcomers who work in the design fields. The neighborhood is ethnically mixed, and a bastion of Democrats in a largely Republican county ("But there are good Republicans in Orange county too," Carla Jacobs says), and has a large contingent of gays.

It's the parties that create much of its neighborliness, says Jacobs, whose house is well equipped for entertaining with its large atrium and requisite flamingo. Her opinion is shared by many residents, who repeatedly cite neighborhood Halloween and Christmas parties, progressive dinners, and get-togethers at nearby restaurants when asked what makes the neighborhood special. Fairhaven even has its own party band, the Rocket Scientists.

The partying starts soon after newcomers arrive. "The first thing we did with Bret, he's lived here two months, we said, 'The party is at your house!'" Jacobs says. When David McDonald and John Peterson trekked north to get married at San Francisco's City Hall, they arrived home to a surprise neighborhood wedding shower, complete with wedding cake. "It's a very progressive, welcoming neighborhood," McDonald says.

Fairhaven is also a neighborhood that is seeing a return of young families. "For the longest time there were no kids," says John Webb, who has lived in Fairhaven for 20 years. "We're beginning to get children back in the neighborhood," Jacobs says.

Fairhaven has become home to creative people like musicians, architects, journalists, landscape architects and graphic designers. Several designers from the architecture firm LPA lives in the neighborhood. John Peterson is an internationally known oboe restorer, with a clientele from as far away as Europe and Asia.

Wolfe believes that a lot of the socializing comes about because people are proud of their homes. "A lot of it is people buying in here, they have enough money to redo their houses, and they want to show them off when it's all done." Besides fostering neighborliness, the parties have spurred community organizing. It's no coincidence that the group spearheading an effort to turn the neighborhood into a historic district is called, by some, the 'party committee.'

Several years ago Stephanie Raffel, a realtor who specializes in the Eichlers of Orange, hoped to place the neighborhood on the National Register of Historic Places. "Somebody's got to understand that we've got a real treasure here," she says. "That treasure can be destroyed if we don't protect it."

Raffel was part of the successful effort up north by the Eichler 'Historic Quest' committee that got two Eichler neighborhoods in Palo Alto named to the register. She found little support for the idea in Fairhaven, however, in part because the neighborhood doesn't feel threatened by teardowns or unsympathetic additions. Many neighbors also worried that with recognition would come restrictions for their homes. Raffel argued that historic designation would increase property values.

She understood there would be resistance. "These people have chosen an Eichler because they're free spirits," she says. "They haven't bought into Fairhaven because they want people to tell them what to do." But at least some neighbors are warming to the idea, more as a way to celebrate their neighborhood than to preserve it.

Brian Jacobs may be the neighborhood's strongest proponent of historic designation. Like many residents, he sees Fairhaven as a gem -- unknown to Eichler fans in Northern California, where most Eichler homes can be found; and little enough known in Orange county as well.

Yet the neighborhood is remarkably well preserved and landscaped. Houses, which range from 1,760 to about 2,100 square feet, are flat-roofed, or with shed roofs, or low-gabled, with the gables seeming to float above a peculiar horizontal beam that dominates the front façade. Some houses have shingled facades, unusual for an Eichler home but original. All the homes have large atriums.

The neighborhood has at least two second-story additions but remains essentially intact, Jacobs says. "These Eichlers are so close to original it's just awesome," he says. "I think this neighborhood represents the epitome of Eichler homes, absolutely -- the peak. The people up north would just freak if they saw how great these houses are."

Over the years, some houses have lost some of their Eichler character, McDonald says. But buyers today are returning to the original siding and windows. "People who can afford these houses have the money to return them to original," he says. "People buy in here because they are Eichlers."

Both McDonald and his partner, Peterson, support historic designation. "In general people are doing right by these houses," Peterson says, "but you never know when somebody is going to come by and put on that second-story addition."

From the start, when it attracted aerospace engineers who worked at nearby aviation plants and professors who taught at Chapman College and Cal State Fullerton, Fairhaven has attracted individualists, John Wolfe says. He remembers when Fairhaven was at the outskirts of town, and the neighborhood still dotted with orange and avocado groves.

Wolfe recalls neighborhood children waving to the railcars that rumbled by hauling avocados, and kids who set off crossing signal bells at one in the morning. (Today, the old rail track is the center of controversy. A developer has proposed building housing that would be close to some Eichler backyards.)

Wolfe remembers the ethnic mix that made up the neighborhood from its earliest days -- Asians, Hispanics, an African American doctor named Dr. White. And he recalls the neighborhood parties, German dinners with beer, wine-tastings.

Scott Trafford, a newcomer with a wife and infant daughter, is restoring and updating his new home. He loves the way his neighbors show off their individuality. "House by house you can see where they put their own stamp on it to make it unique," he says.

That's why, when one neighbor added a slightly pitched roof to conceal the air-conditioner, purists muttered to themselves but did not complain. "It's too friendly a neighborhood," McDonald says.

Fairhaven by Night Fairhaven sees its share of mysterious doings -- and not surprisingly, they happen at night. "Strange things happen in this neighborhood," Carla Jacobs warns. "There's an 'Eichler Bunny,"" her husband Brian adds, "and nobody knows who it is." Newcomer Bret Bielefeld learned about the night crawler his first Easter morning at Fairhaven. There on the front lawn was a basket of chocolate eggs. "It's a welcoming neighborhood." But nights can get scary as well -- especially at Halloween when unexpected décor shows up on front lawn after front lawn. And as Christmas rolls around, reindeer appear everywhere. Or almost everywhere. One morning, John Webb's neighbors looked out front and saw reindeer on every lawn -- except their own. They grumbled. "The next day," Webb says, "every reindeer in town was on their lawn." Who's responsible for the nighttime shenanigans? Don't ask Webb. "I've been up very, very early looking. I haven't caught them." But when the night crawlers are at rest, Fairhaven is serene, and the moon casts a strikingly beautiful glow over the neighborhood -- in yards, atriums, and even indoors -- as this series of photographs by John Eng illustrates so well.

Visit other 'Eichler Modern Stories'