Our Anaheim Roots: Mother Colony House

Mother Colony House

Founders’ Park in Anaheim U.S.A. preserves two of the city’s most historic homes: the 1857 Mother Colony House and the 1894 Woelke-Stoffel House. Open for tours the first Saturday of each month, Founders’ Park is one of Orange County’s hidden historical gems.

Less than a decade after California was admitted to the Union and long before Orange County was separate from Los Angeles, a group of 50 German settlers from San Francisco made the decision to move south to start a new life. After much travel, the families decided upon a plot of land on the Rancho San Juan Cajon de Santa Ana. The year was 1857, and the 50 German-Americans decided to name their new community “Anaheim”— Ana-, after the nearby Santa Ana River, and -heim, from the German word for “home.”

The settlers could lease land for $2 an acre and they quickly planted grapes in order to start a vineyard. After a Los Angeles man named George Hansen came to Anaheim to serve as the colony’s superintendent, the wine business became very profitable.

Hansen ended up building a combined home and office from which he could oversee the vineyard’s operation in 1857. Hansen’s house was one of Anaheim’s first permanent buildings. Only consisting of three rooms, the building was constructed from redwood and was designed in what is called the American Territorial architectural style. Although an addition made in the 1870s, today the building still appears very much as it did over 150 years ago. The simple house is typical of many of the homes built by Orange County’s settlers that are no longer standing today.

By 1929 Hansen’s house was threatened with demolition. Fortunately, the local chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) recognized the building’s importance to the history of Orange County, and they raised money to move the house several blocks west in order to protect it. Refurbishing it, the DAR opened it as Orange County’s first museum later that same year. It became a state landmark in 1950, and has been operated by the Anaheim Public Library since 1962.

Mother Colony House

While there are countless historic homes scattered throughout the area, what makes the Mother Colony House so unique is that it is the oldest wood-frame building in Orange County. Only adobe buildings, like Costa Mesa 1962. shSephlveda Adobe, can trace their history back further. Today, taking a tour of the Mother Colony House allows oneself to be transported back to the pioneer days of Anaheim. Long before Disneyland® Park, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim® or even oranges came to Anaheim, the Mother Colony House had already played a critical role in the founding of the city.