JERRY PERSON -- A LOOK BACK

I see by the calendar that winter officially begins today and with

winter brings our holiday season and the conclusion to last week’s column

of how Christmas was celebrated in Huntington Beach in 1929.

Last week, we saw how our business community went about celebrating

the Christmas season and now we will learn what the rest of the town did

to celebrate the holidays.

Knowing how hard our police force works during the year, Police Chief

C.D. Stewart andhis wife threw a Christmas banquet at the Golden Bear for

the entire force and their families. Stewart planned the banquet as a

token of his appreciation for their loyalty and faithful service to the

city during the year.

In 1906, Ruth Dinsmore opened the Hotel Evangeline, now known as the

Colonial Inn Youth Hostel, on 8th Street. For Christmas 1929, Dinsmore

decided to retire and give the three-story hotel to her daughters Marge

and Viroka as a Christmas present.

In years past, it was considered proper for a city to have some type

of Christmas display, and that year, Huntington Beach called on its

volunteer firefighters to help plan the celebration. The local

Parent-Teacher Assn., the American Red Cross and the Women’s Club worked

along side the firemen to see to it that nobody in Huntington Beach would

be uncared for that Christmas. The firemen’s goal that year was to see to

it that nobody in Huntington Beach would go without a warm Christmas

dinner or some other creature comfort.

A large community Christmas tree was erected on a part of the old

civic center where the Main Street Library is today. The city called on

Santa to hand out gifts to the children and help with a short Christmas

program.

And what would Christmas be without a program in one of our churches.

Here in Huntington Beach, the churches worked extra hard to bring

Christ’s message to their congregations. The parishioners at Sts. Simon &

Jude Catholic Church had spent weeks practicing for their Feast of the

Nativity program.

This was celebrated at its midnight Mass on Christmas Eve. A

children’s Christmas program was held for Women’s Club members kids on

10th Street, and included a Christmas tree, gifts for the children and a

message from the Rev. John Condon.

In the Methodist church, the Rev. John Barnhart opened its program

followed by a SundaySchool program from the various classes. The class of

Pauline Prescott recited the Christmas story from the Bible and Mrs.

Lorenson’s class presented a “Holy City” pageant. But the high point of

the program for the kids came when Santa himself called down through an

opening in the church’s attic that he had arrived with gifts for those

who were good little boys and girls.

The Christian church was not to be outdone and held an evening

Christmas service cantata called The Light Eternal. Lawrence E. Worthy

led the church choir with Mrs. Hurst, the pastor’s wife, on the piano.

Worthy and his brother, Conrad Worthy, sang “The Message,” while soprano

Grace Dalany sang “Born in a Manger.”

Our Baptist church’s Christmas cantata, “His Natal Day,” was first

performed this year. Pastor Luther Arthur gave the reading after which

the choir performed “Ring the Bells of Christmas” and “O, Little Town of

Bethlehem” and ending the service by Arthur giving the benediction.

We’ll conclude this week’s column with a wish that nobody in ol’

Huntington Beach will be hungry or in need just as those fireman had

wished for back on Christmas of 1929.

* JERRY PERSON is a local historian and longtime Huntington Beach

resident. If you have ideas for future columns, write him at P.O. Box

7182, Huntington Beach, CA 92615.