Old Towne Preservation Association
  • About
    • OTPA History
    • Board of Directors >
      • Previous Boards of Directors
    • Contact
    • Old Towne Photos
  • Events
    • State of Old Towne Forum
    • Street Fair
    • The Art of Wine - Hilbert Museum
    • Ice Cream Social
    • Holiday Decorating Contest >
      • Holiday Decorating Contest - 2021
      • Holiday Decorating Contest- 2020
      • Holiday Decorating Contest 2019
      • OHG/CFO Orange Inspirational Signs - 2020
    • Halloween Decorating Contest >
      • Halloween Decorating 2021
      • Halloween Decorating 2020
      • Halloween Decorating 2019
      • Halloween Decorating 2018
    • Historic Home Tours >
      • Home Tour 2022
      • Home Tour 2019
      • Home Tour 2017
      • Home Tour 2015
    • General Meetings >
      • RSVP - General Meeting 2022
    • OTPA On-the-Road & Tours
  • Buy Tickets / Make a Donation
  • Anne Siebert Scholarship
    • Scholarship Info
    • Anne Siebert Scholars
    • The Art of Wine at the Hilbert Museum
    • Sip 'n Savor Fundraiser
  • News
    • Blog
    • Newsletters
    • Killefer School
    • Chapman's Proposed Expansion News
  • Preservation
    • OTPA in Action >
      • Preservation Issues
      • DRC Meetings
      • City Council Meetings - Speak Up!
      • Planning Commission Meetings - Speak Up!
    • Map of Old Towne Orange
    • Historic Cypress Street Barrio
    • Tradespersons
    • OTPA Plaques Info
    • Plaques Database Input
    • Design/Build Standards / Code Enforcement >
      • Design Build Standards - Adopted Dec 2017
      • Code Enforcement / Design Standards
      • Code Enforcement - Notify City
    • Mills Act Info
    • FAQs
  • Get Involved
    • Become a Member
    • Membership Information
    • Volunteer Opportunities
    • Join Free Email Subscription
  • Commercial Members
  • OTPA STORE

OTPA History

Dale H. Rahn, OTPA Founder and First President gives the following account of how it all began... 
​​" 'If you don't do it, nobody else will.' Those were challenging words to me in January of 1985. Neighbors next door to Chapman University (then Chapman College) posed that statement to me when I met them about organizing the community to protect our neighborhood. I considered that challenge over the next two weeks. I contacted some other fledgling preservationists in the Old Towne community I had met over the successful fight to save the Welch House and its three other neighbors from the Library expansion the year before. I made a flier and invited five people whom I considered supportive, with driving personalities, in this new venture. On the last Saturday in February this group consisting of myself, Robert Boice, Laren Gartner, Tita Smith, Bill Trousdale and Russ Barrios met at Watson's Drug & Soda Fountain for breakfast and hatched an organization with a community meeting scheduled for mid-March. We each put in $20.00 seed money and an organization initially called "Voters for Old Towne Preservation" was born. We met on March 20th of that year with a huge overflowing public response at the Library Community Room. Over the next few weeks, with the power of the community behind us, we gathered others to our cause. We also changed the name to Old Towne Preservation Association. Our wish was to have it spell something but to no avail, we stuck with OTPA.

Those early years were acrimonious to the established power structures in the city, but with new ideas and a far more creative vision we persevered. We cared little for politics and we had even less concern for establishing another organization. I would say we had a missionary zeal and not a care for what others perceived us to be; we were brash and assertive, sort of street fighters. Many organizations go through a similar infancy process and mature, as OTPA has, into a multi-faceted, multi-cause group. The years have been good to OTPA; a sign of dedicated people committed to the treasure the Southland now calls, Old Towne Orange."
OTPA Co-founded in 1986 by:
Russ Barrios
Rob Boice
Laren Gartner
Dale Rahn
Tita Smith

OTPA's First Board of Directors, 1986:
Russ Barrios
Charles Bledsoe
Rob Boice
Laren Gartner
Debbie McLaughlin
Lynn O'Dell
Dale Rahn
Anne Siebert
Tita Smith
Picture
Membership
Old Towne Preservation Association
P.O. Box 828
Orange, CA 92856
714-639-6840
Info@OTPA.org
Board Member Access

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  • About
    • OTPA History
    • Board of Directors >
      • Previous Boards of Directors
    • Contact
    • Old Towne Photos
  • Events
    • State of Old Towne Forum
    • Street Fair
    • The Art of Wine - Hilbert Museum
    • Ice Cream Social
    • Holiday Decorating Contest >
      • Holiday Decorating Contest - 2021
      • Holiday Decorating Contest- 2020
      • Holiday Decorating Contest 2019
      • OHG/CFO Orange Inspirational Signs - 2020
    • Halloween Decorating Contest >
      • Halloween Decorating 2021
      • Halloween Decorating 2020
      • Halloween Decorating 2019
      • Halloween Decorating 2018
    • Historic Home Tours >
      • Home Tour 2022
      • Home Tour 2019
      • Home Tour 2017
      • Home Tour 2015
    • General Meetings >
      • RSVP - General Meeting 2022
    • OTPA On-the-Road & Tours
  • Buy Tickets / Make a Donation
  • Anne Siebert Scholarship
    • Scholarship Info
    • Anne Siebert Scholars
    • The Art of Wine at the Hilbert Museum
    • Sip 'n Savor Fundraiser
  • News
    • Blog
    • Newsletters
    • Killefer School
    • Chapman's Proposed Expansion News
  • Preservation
    • OTPA in Action >
      • Preservation Issues
      • DRC Meetings
      • City Council Meetings - Speak Up!
      • Planning Commission Meetings - Speak Up!
    • Map of Old Towne Orange
    • Historic Cypress Street Barrio
    • Tradespersons
    • OTPA Plaques Info
    • Plaques Database Input
    • Design/Build Standards / Code Enforcement >
      • Design Build Standards - Adopted Dec 2017
      • Code Enforcement / Design Standards
      • Code Enforcement - Notify City
    • Mills Act Info
    • FAQs
  • Get Involved
    • Become a Member
    • Membership Information
    • Volunteer Opportunities
    • Join Free Email Subscription
  • Commercial Members
  • OTPA STORE