There was a very nice and very well-attended funeral service for J.J. Friis this morning. At the reception afterwards, there was a table full of photos of him, including this older one (above) with his parents. Since I don't know how long the Register will keep J.J.'s obituary on their website, I'm posting it below:Friis, James Jessen, of Orange, who was active for many years in Orange County musical and historical organizations, died Monday, July 27, 2009, at the age of 81, from the effects of a stroke.
Friis was born in Santa Ana on March 1, 1928, the son of Leo Jessen Friis and Lena Jane Carlson Friis, who had come to California from Iowa in the 1920s. The family resided in Anaheim.
Musical studies began early in his life, with drums at age 4, later piano, and by the time of his graduation from Anaheim High School in 1946, he also played the organ. He graduated from Pomona College in 1951 with a Bachelor of Arts degree with an emphasis in music composition.
Friis also held leadership positions in the Musical Arts Club of Orange County, Santa Ana Community Concerts, and was a past dean of the Orange County Chapter of The American Guild of Organists. He also served as organist (and frequently choirmaster) of several local churches, among them St. Michael's Episcopal church, Anaheim, St. Joseph's Episcopal Church, Buena Park, and the Church of Christ, Scientist, Laguna Hills.
With his father, Friis founded Friis-Pioneer Press in Santa Ana, a firm noted for the publication of books of Orange County history. He served several terms as president of the Orange County Historical Society, as well as the Old Courthouse Museum Society, and was a member of the Anaheim Historical Society, the Orange Community Historical Society, and the Historical Society of Southern California.
The Native Sons of the Golden West, a fraternal organization of those born in California, was a major interest of his life, and he served several terms as President of Santa Ana Parlor #74 and as Grand Organist for the statewide organization. Friis was also a member of Anaheim Masonic Lodge, Long Beach Scottish Rite, and Al Malaikah shrine, Los Angeles.
Friis is survived by his wife, the former Harriet Lampert, who is also an Orange County native.
Funeral Services are scheduled for 11 a.m. Friday, July 31, at Trinity Episcopal Church, 2400 N. Canal Street, Orange. Visitation will be held from 3 to 8 p.m. on Thursday, July 30 at Shannon-Bryan Mortuary, Orange. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to Trinity Episcopal Church, the American Diabetes Association , or the Charitable Foundation of the Native Sons of the Golden West (mail to Santa Ana Parlor #74, c/o Treasurer, 14932 Gainford Circle, Irvine, CA 92604).
A number of postal employees are spreading the word that Huntington Beach's Main Street Post Office (1935) at 316 Olive Ave will close in October. Here's some of the traffic from the HBTalk listserv over the past couple days:
Mary Adams Urashima wrote: "...Louis A. Simon designed many of the depression-era post offices and other public buildings that are now listed on the National Register of Historic Places. He also designed the Internal Revenue Building in Washington, D.C., but let's not hold that against him. : )"Louis A. Simon served as Supervising Architect from 1933 until 1939, but he had
been associated with the office from 1896. Simon was Superintendent of Architects in the office between 1905 and 1933. From 1915 to 1933...Simon was responsible for the direction of much of the design work. Most of Simon's buildings were designed in the Colonial Revival style and, on occasion, in a restrained or more stylized classically derived style. The use of a standard pattern for these buildings reflects the increasing simplicity of design and standardization of form which are characteristic of post offices of this period, the most prolific era of post office construction in the nation's history.As early as 1930, the federal government had implemented a massive post office construction program to help offset widespread unemployment caused by the Great Depression. By the end of the decade, however, with the onset of World War II, Congress postponed indefinitely the construction of most post offices not yet under contract."
This is part two of my report on Saturday's field trip to see the remains Anaheim Union Water Co. canals in eastern Yorba Linda. (Click here for part one.) Today's photos show some of the interesting, mostly unrelated things we saw along the way. (There will be more about irrigation in what will be the third and final post in this series.)
My surveyor friends may have to help me out with the photo below. Does anyone know what a metal disk marked "F P No. 1" in an iron pipe means? 
It's been a long time since cattle roamed this land, but here's a brittle bone that turned up in an area where the brush had burned away.
At one point we came across a clearing near the railroad tracks with lots of stone fire rings. Some were old and nearly obscured by hard-packed soil. Others, like the one shown below, were newer and more obvious. There were about seven rings total. I pointed out that this was a lousy place to start a fire. Steve said the rings were probably used by "knights of the road." Then it hit me: We were standing in the middle of a genuine "hobo jungle." If only John Hodgman had been there to appreciate it. I hummed "Big Rock Candy Mountains" most of the way back to the car. 
Orange County has lost a good man and a great champion of its heritage. James Jesson “J.J.” Friis died yesterday, July 27, at 10:00 a.m., several days after a stroke sent him to the intensive care unit at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Orange.
On Saturday, a group of local historians went snooping around Santa Ana Canyon in Yorba Linda for signs of the Anaheim Union Water Co. canal, which dates back to the 1850s. (For background on the AUWCO, click here and scroll down a little.) Fires burned away a lot of brush earlier this year, exposing many relics of earlier eras.
We carpooled out to the far eastern end of River Bend Dr., went through a small gate and continued east on foot, parallelling the railroad tracks. Almost immediately, we found a hole where the tops of the covered portion of the canal had caved in. Eventually, we found several others as well. The photo above shows Steve headfirst into one of the larger holes. (He was in full Tom Sawyer's Island mode.) Below is a photo of another such hole, uncovered in the fire.
The hike started out quite easily, but became slightly trickier as the trail disappeared. Yes, the fire burned out a lot of brush, but it's growing back quickly in places.
If you trek out this way, I'd recommend closed shoes, long pants, and a bit of care in avoiding snakes and poison oak. Luckily, I think we all managed to avoid anything worse than a few burrs and a little sunburn. This was especially impressive in Ann's case, since she made the hike in flip-flops!
The images above and below show an interesting concrete structure along the canal. Nobody knew quite what to call it, but it reminded me of a complicated weir box on steroids. Perhaps someone out there will know what purpose it served. Water pipes come out of the bluff above and seem to empty into a small ditch cut *around* the box. The inside of the box isn't terribly deep, and it seems more than a few people have taken shelter in it from time to time. Corrugated metal sheets were placed over the top for shade or privacy.
I'll probably post more photos and commentary from this field trip sometime in the next few days. (We saw a number of other interesting things as well.) Meanwhile, if you'd like a sneak peak, click on over to the AUWCO set on my Flickr site.
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My thanks to everyone involved in this short expedition. It's amazing how many bits of history can still be found in the parts of O.C. that haven't been completely covered with tract housing and strip malls.
Chrysler just destroyed their own historical archives.
I'm getting up early tomorrow to join other local historians on a small adventure in Yorba Linda. We're going to hike to some old irrigation canals that were uncovered by brush fires earlier this year. (Yes, I actually plan to be awake on a Saturday morning.) In honor of this event, I'm posting a few Yorba Linda photos today. The image above is from the Anaheim Union Water Co. and shows the Yorba Linda Reservoir around 1907. The photo below is from Yorba Linda Lake in 1910.
Jacob Stern and his fellow investors founded Yorba Linda in 1908. Future president Richard Nixon was born there five years later. Below is an ad for the community from 1909, probably just before the town's marketing efforts were taken over by the Janns Investment Co.
Interested in the history of Olive or citrus labels? Check out Daralee Ota's latest addition to her Olive Through The Ages website. Both she and Gordon McClelland (who I still want to meet someday) contributed new stories about late Olive resident Clyde Fairbairn. .jpg)
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Evo pa sem se lotila svoje prve stvari na šivalnem stroji.
Končno sem si omislila šivalni stroj! Nabavila sem overlocker znamke Janome. Danes že ves dan obrobljam na metre blaga, kot bi bila obsedena:D Sicer ven ni prišlo še nič uporabnega, sem se pa zabavala :D
Depending on the exact location of Portola's camp in Christianitos Canyon, either today or tomorrow is the 240th anniversary of Orange County history itself.
Remember the Knott's Beary Tales dark ride in the Roaring '20s area of Knott's Berry Farm? Well, a few of the critters from that attraction are making a comeback. Read more about it on the Register's Around Disney blog. (The photo above shows "walk-around" versions of the bears in 1976.)
