Fun Facts About Villa Park, California

Villa Park may be one of Orange County’s smallest cities, but the Hidden Jewel has an unusually rich collection of history, traditions, local lore and quirky facts. From citrus groves and old railroad tracks to a dry land boat parade, famous residents and a suspended A-4 Skyhawk, here are some of the facts that make Villa Park unique.

Quick Facts About Villa Park

• There are only two street lights in Villa Park, with a few more if you count locations along the city border.
• Fireworks are legal in Villa Park on the Fourth of July, subject to the city’s current rules and authorized hours.
• Villa Park’s motto is the “Hidden Jewel”, but it could also be called “The Donut Hole” because the city is completely surrounded by Orange.
• Villa Park is not the smallest Orange County city by land area. La Palma is approximately 1.8 square miles, while Villa Park is approximately 2.1 square miles. By population, Villa Park is the county’s smallest incorporated city, with roughly 5,900 residents.
• Much of Villa Park’s character comes from its large residential lots. Many homes sit on approximately half-acre or larger properties, although lot sizes and zoning vary.
• Villa Park has one commercial shopping area, the Villa Park Town Center.
• The Town Center property had to be rezoned from residential to commercial, a change that many residents originally opposed; some even refused to shop there.
• Villa Park’s municipal staff is very small, and the city contracts for major services including police, fire, legal and engineering services.
• Villa Park is almost entirely residential, with one Town Center and no churches within the city limits.
• Horses, cows, sheep, pigs and goats may be kept for recreational purposes, subject to applicable city zoning and property requirements.

Unusual & Interesting Villa Park Facts

• One Villa Park property famously features a suspended A-4 Skyhawk hanging over an infinity pool. The aircraft can be seen from portions of the surrounding neighborhood.
• A Santiago Boulevard bridge across Santiago Creek was washed out during the 1969 floods. The loss of the crossing forced fire crews serving the Villa Park area into an approximately 11-mile detour until a temporary creek crossing could be established for emergency equipment. Both ends of the former roadway can still be seen where Santiago Boulevard dead-ends at Santiago Creek.
• Villa Park is an official bird sanctuary.
• Villa Park’s official bird is the hummingbird, its official flower is the orange blossom, and its official tree is the weeping fig (Ficus benjamina).
• Green parrots can be seen flying overhead throughout the day, along with turkey vultures in local trees. A nearby brewery even offers a Green Cheek beer inspired by the local parrots.
• Six time capsules were buried in Villa Park in 2000 and filled with items contributed by children and Villa Park groups. They were opened on January 1, 2025.
• The City created a USA 250 Time Capsule in connection with America’s 250th anniversary.
• At roughly 5,900 residents, Villa Park has the smallest population among Orange County’s incorporated cities and is the second-smallest by land area after La Palma.
• Fitschen Ranch Road is the only street in Villa Park on which nobody lives. The name preserves the Fitschen family’s agricultural history: the family assembled a roughly 20-acre citrus ranch beginning in 1938, and Pete Fitschen later served 26 years with the Villa Park Volunteer Fire Department.
• Villa Park Dam historically had an onsite dam keeper’s residence. By 2020, Orange County no longer planned to station a dam keeper there and sought a tenant for the former residence while the dam continued operating as an active flood-control facility.

Villa Park Traditions & Local Lore

• The Villa Park Dry Land Boat Parade dates to about 1980. Newspaper coverage described the December 1982 event as the third annual parade, with roughly 25 decorated entries. The tradition was discontinued for a period and later revived, so it has not run continuously every year since its beginning.
• There is a rumored haunted house in Villa Park, part of the city’s local lore.
• During Halloween, guitarist Jose Feliciano’s former home near Lemon and Mesa was known as a destination for memorable Halloween treats. His large acreage property was later subdivided into what is now Martinique Court.
• There used to be a Miss Villa Park, and the first was Millicent Strahan, crowned in 1971.
• In 1973, Villa Park briefly considered going against the rest of Orange County and the country by moving to year-round daylight saving time—dubbed Villa Park Daylight Time (VPDT)—as a response to the energy crisis.
• The Villa Park community picnic is one of the area’s oldest traditions, dating to at least 1881, when residents traveled by wagon to Irvine Park.

Villa Park High School Facts & Rivalries

• A $45 million science center was built on the Villa Park High School campus as part of Measure S.
• Villa Park High School students were tagged with the moniker “Weenies on the Hill” by rival Orange High School.
• Pranks resulting from the nickname included Orange students throwing hot dogs onto fields and courts or tying hot dogs in trees at VPHS. Villa Park students responded with oranges. Orange students also put a Volkswagen Karmann Ghia into the VPHS pool in the 1980s.
• Candid Camera, one of television’s original hidden-camera reality programs, came to Villa Park High School in 1989.

Villa Park History Facts

• Villa Park historically had no traditional public park, leading to the saying that residents’ yards were their parks. Villa Park Knowles became the city’s first dedicated park/open-space property in 2022.
• The Villa Park Dam is not actually located within today’s Villa Park city limits, although it was located within the former Villa Park District.
• The former Villa Park Country Club at 9661 Windes Drive in Orange was also outside today’s city limits. Started by Villa Park, Orange Park Acres and Tustin residents in the 1960s, the nine-acre club featured a clubhouse, stables, two riding rings and a swimming pool before closing in the early 1980s.
• The Southern Pacific Railroad served the historic Villa Park district along the Wanda Road corridor. By 1915, the local railroad agent was handling freight, baggage and agricultural shipments, reflecting how closely rail transportation was tied to the area’s citrus economy. Railroad remnants remain beneath portions of the Wanda corridor.
• Eucalyptus trees once lined Center Drive. They were originally planted because the trees grew quickly and people incorrectly believed the wood would be well suited for construction and railroad uses.
• Villa Park Elementary traces its school history to the 1880s. A nighttime fire destroyed early school buildings in 1926, and later historic campus buildings were demolished in 2017 after a long preservation debate. The old school bell was saved, restored and placed on a campus monument.
• A home on Santiago between Center and Lemon, built between 1876 and 1880, still stands today.
• Villa Park was incorporated on January 11, 1962.
• The community was known as Mountain View in 1860.
• When a local post office was established, the Mountain View name could not be used because another California community already had the name, leading to the adoption of Villa Park.
• Before incorporation, the area was known as the Villa Park District and was considerably larger than today’s roughly 2.1-square-mile city. That matters when reading old newspapers: a ranch, home or event described as being “at Villa Park” or in the “Villa Park section” was not necessarily inside the boundaries established when the city incorporated in 1962. Orange and Anaheim eventually incorporated significant portions of the broader historic district.
• Horse-drawn buggies and a small number of automobiles were once the norm in the Villa Park area.
• Villa Park was primarily orchards with oranges and lemons and relatively few houses. Before citrus dominated, local agriculture included walnuts, apricots and grapes.
• The houses were born from the orchards. For roughly 60 years, citrus was Villa Park’s signature crop after an earlier agricultural era of grapes, walnuts and apricots.
• By 1915, newspaper reporting described the broader Villa Park section shipping hundreds of railroad carloads of citrus in a season, showing the scale of the agricultural economy long before incorporation.
• Villa Park’s large-lot character was not accidental. Incorporation-era planning and later development policies reinforced low-density residential development, and 1960s and 1970s builders marketed half-acre homesites, room for horses and a country-estate atmosphere.
• By 1979—only 17 years after incorporation—Villa Park was already being described as nearly built out. Period profiles emphasized its large lots, limited commercial development, contract city services and determination to retain a rural atmosphere.
• Community organization also predates the city. In 1915, the Villa Park Improvement Association was discussing street lighting, road and boulevard improvements and community facilities in the agricultural district.
• The names of Villa Park pioneers remain on local streets, including Abbott, Adams, Brewer, Collins, Durfee, Fitschen, Florence, Hazel, Knuth, Mary, Morrow, Nichols, Squire, Sterling and Workman. Learn more about Villa Park street names.

Read more about Villa Park’s history.

Notable Villa Park Residents

Villa Park has been home to an unusually long list of athletes, entertainers, business leaders and public figures, past and present.

• Bert Blyleven – MLB Hall of Fame pitcher and former Angel who lived in Villa Park. In the 1990s, Blyleven and Marty Colleary operated Blyleven’s Dugout Diner in the Villa Park Town Center, giving the Hall of Famer an unusual second connection to the community beyond his residence. The restaurant occupied the location that later became Bagel Me!
• Aaron Boone – Former MLB player and Yankees manager. Lived in Villa Park and lettered in baseball, basketball and football at VPHS.
• Bob Boone – Former MLB player and manager.
• Foster Brooks – Variety-show actor, newscaster and Las Vegas performer.
• Cindy Brown – Former professional basketball player and 1988 Olympic gold medalist.
• Dieter Brock – Former CFL and Los Angeles Rams quarterback.
• Adolphus Busch – Co-founder of Anheuser-Busch who owned 38 acres in the historic Villa Park District from 1909 until his death in 1913.
• Rod Carew – MLB Hall of Famer, former Angels player and hitting coach.
• Rosalind Chao – Actress.
• Eric Chenowith – Former VPHS, Kansas and NBA basketball player.
• Josh Childress – Former NBA player.
• Roy Choi – Celebrity chef and creator of the Kogi gourmet Korean taco truck.
• Bartolo Colón – MLB pitcher and Cy Young Award winner with the Angels.
• Anthony Davis – NFL and USFL running back who won five national championships at USC—two in football and three in baseball.
• Doug DeCinces – Former MLB player.
• Leigh Donovan – Hall of Fame mountain biker.
• José Feliciano – Grammy-winning singer and guitarist whose Villa Park years also illustrate the city’s early rural character. A 1972 profile described Feliciano and his wife living on a large Villa Park property with goats, chickens, a pig, dogs and a duck. The acreage near Lemon and Mesa was later subdivided into what is now Martinique Court. Local memories also associate the Feliciano home with especially memorable Halloween treats.
• Vince Ferragamo – Quarterback for Cal, the University of Nebraska and the NFL.
• Freddie Freeman – MLB player.
• Jo Frost – Television personality known as the Supernanny.
• Bruce Furniss – Two-time Olympic gold medalist in swimming at the 1976 Olympics.
• Danielle Gregorio – Appeared on The Real Housewives of Orange County.
• Carl Karcher – Founder of Carl’s Jr.
• Lance Larson – 1960 Olympic gold medal-winning swimmer.
• Susan McCaw – Former U.S. Ambassador to Austria.
• Pat McInally – Former NFL player and the only NFL player to score a perfect 50 on the Wonderlic Test.
• Bill Medley – Member of the Righteous Brothers.
• Robert Rotunda – Assistant majority counsel for the Watergate Committee and adviser to Ken Starr during the inquiry into President Clinton.
• Nolan Ryan – MLB Hall of Famer.
• Ervin Santana – MLB player.
• L.J. Smith – Author of The Vampire Diaries.
• Moose Stubing – MLB player, scout, coach and interim manager of the Angels.
• James T. Workman – Orange High School graduate who rowed for the University of California and won an Olympic gold medal as a member of the United States eight-oared crew at the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics. Workman later became a leading advocate for Villa Park’s incorporation, served on the city’s first council beginning in 1962 and later served as mayor. He married Margaret Knuth of the longtime Villa Park ranching family; neighboring Workman Circle and Knuth Circle preserve the connected family names.
• Del Worsham – NHRA Funny Car driver.

See the Villa Park High School page for the school’s alumni list.

Other Places & Things Named Villa Park

• Villa Park, Illinois – A city in Illinois.
• Villa Park, Denver – A neighborhood in Denver, Colorado.
• Villa Parke, Pasadena – A neighborhood in Pasadena, California.
• Villa Park, Chino – A park in Chino, California.
• Villa Park, Roseville – The fifth-largest park in Roseville, Minnesota.
• Villa Park Stadium – The football stadium in Aston, Birmingham, England, and home of Aston Villa Football Club.
• Villa Park Drive – Street names found in Richmond, Virginia; Austin, Texas; Rosemead, California; and Hubert, North Carolina.
• Villa Park Street – A street in La Puente, California.
• Villa Park Circle – A street in Dallas, Texas.
• Villa Park Jacket – A jacket by Columbia Sportswear.
• Vila Park – A restaurant in Kosovo.
• Villa Park in Roseville, Minnesota – Also known as the fifth-largest park in Roseville.
• Villa Park Orchards – An agricultural cooperative association organized to pack and market oranges, grapefruit, tangerines and lemons for its members and originally located in Orange, California.