“Constructing the Village” is a new exhibit that celebrates the first days of what is now Laguna Woods Village at the community’s History Center next to the Village library.
Artifacts from the early 1960s as well as photographs and mementos offer a time capsule 60 years back to the birth of the Village. The exhibit is the second of three celebrating the community’s milestone 60th anniversary.
“Ten families moved into their manors on Sept. 10, 1964, when Phase 1 opened,” said History Center CEO Dean Dixon.
The community, founded by Ross Cortese and known at the time as Rossmoor Leisure World, was the first planned community in Orange County.
The walls around Phase 1 were incomplete when it opened, but Gate 1 was ready with its first security officer, Dixon said.
The new exhibit features a wide variety of artifacts from the time of the first construction and move-ins.
One cabinet displays a collection of fossils uncovered during the excavation and grading of the Village. This left “piles of dirt for residents’ grandchildren to find fossils ultimately given to the History Center,” according to a text panel accompanying the collection.
The area’s geological history can be traced back 65 million years to a time when it was at the bottom of the ocean,
A selection of dishes used at banquets in Clubhouse 1 is displayed along with a pink telephone and a blue Smith-Corona manual typewriter that date to the era.
“I tried to add as much color to the exhibit as possible,” said History Center curator Gail Dixon.
In the 1960s, General Electric and Westinghouse sponsored a nationwide campaign to advertise the benefits of electrical appliances in the home. Rossmoor Corporation took advantage of the promotions by certifying the new Leisure World with “Gold Medallion Home” badges on all the first manors.
The display features one of the badges as well as the fancy box and manor keys new owners received. New residents also got a box of stationery as a move-in gift.
The community began with 56 homeowners associations, which eventually coalesced into today’s three mutuals and a common areas foundation. It continued to be built out in five phases for 18 more years, into the 1980s, until there were more than 12,500 manors in about 5,500 buildings.
The new exhibit runs through August, to be followed by the third exhibit in the series, detailing the Village’s celebrations through its 60 years.
The History Center is open Monday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., but “if the lights are on, you can come on in,” said Dean Dixon.
For more information, call 949-206-0150 or visit LagunaWoodsHistory.org.
