Where you were accustomed to find Valencia orange groves growing in the early 1990s is now what a population of 6,500 people call home. Villa Park, Orange County’s smallest city, was incorporated in 1962.
Before becoming an official city, Villa Park was known as Mountain View. But, since a city in Northern California already tabbed the name, Villa Park was adopted with the addition of a post office to the area.
Street names that line the 2.1-square-mile city echo the city’s rich fruit history with names like Brewer, Squire, Workman and Durfee, the surnames of the ranchers who once looked over the orange groves.
Because of the city’s small population, it was small enough to be called the “hidden jewel” as in the city’s motto: “Villa Park, the Hidden Jewel.”
Although petite in size, this city commands attention by its location. As the epicenter of the county, there is a variety of cultural, social, recreational, business and philanthropic activities in neighboring communities conveniently surrounding Villa Park. Although residents can enjoy themselves outside city limits, there is a shopping center where Villa Park City Hall and a branch of the Orange County Public Library are located.
While the shopping center does offer residents the staple businesses to run their daily errands – a grocery store, banks and a pharmacy with a postal substation – it’s also a great place for visitors to stop by for an old-fashioned malt or homemade fudge in the various eateries and specialty shops in the plaza.
The city boasts it wins the friendliest city in the county with its Villa Park City Picnic. In late May, the city hosts a city picnic for its residents and visitors. Everyone is welcomed to join in the fun at Irvine Regional Park for carnival games, musical entertainment, door prize drawings and refreshments.
With a picnic in the spring time, Villa Park offers the Great Inland Yacht Parade and Christmas Tree Lighting during the winter season. A pageant of Christmas-decorated land yachts, which is anything from a small boat pulled by a car to a horse wagon, parade down the streets followed by the annual tree lighting ceremony during the first week of December.
