Just 24.6 miles from our house is the quaint town of Vista, California. We have been there several times and were told to come for the art. That will come in Part 2. I feel a history lesson must come first.

Like many areas in Southern California, this was the ancestral land of Native Americans. In the 1500s, the Spanish arrived but it wasn't until 1798, when San Luis Rey Mission was established, that the area changed completely. What is now Vista was used mostly for grazing land.

The age of the Missions lasted until the independence of Mexico from Spain, the secularization of the Missions and the subsequent granting of land ownership by the Mexican Government to a variety of residents, starting about 1835. This became the time of the Ranchos. Eventually the ranchos sold and were developed into the progress we see today.

Much of Vista's history is told in the art of its murals. This one made us ask, "Who is the Delphy family?" The first very successful agricultural enterprise was the Buena Vista Winery, founded by the Delpys in 187. The winery lasted until 1920, when it was a victim of Prohibition. The land was then used for avocados, citrus and other crops. The lack of water slowed area development. The winery and what became downtown had access to adequate well water, but most of the area had none. More about the water issue/solution below.

After the post office was established (1882) and the train came to town (1892), the next major event was the subdivision of downtown into town lots and the opening of two buildings, the Vista Inn and the train depot. These actions in 1913 set the location of downtown permanently and began a major development of the area.

In 1927, Washington D.C. gave permission to open a bank in Vista. On February 21, 1928, The First National Bank of Vista (according to reports of the day) "opened Saturday with an all-day and evening reception during which hundreds inspected the new banking rooms, complete with the first electric elevator in North County...The bank starts with a capital stock of $25,000."

In 1966, and again in 1981, the bank changed names. By the mid-80s, any form of banking moved out and the building was sold. A variety of occupants have hung their business name above the door ever since.

In 1927, a large fire at the Vista Irrigation District office created a need to develop a fire department. Residents organized the first Vista Volunteer Fire Department with 14 volunteers.  This mural, depicts the event, in 1928, when the volunteers bought a 1911 Seagrave fire truck from Orange County, which was funded by $511.44 in donations and profits from a fireman’s ball.

I was drawn to this mural which pays tribute to the silent film star, Margarita Fischer (Pollard), who owned a residence in Vista known as the Rancho Buena Vista Adobe (on our list of must sees). She and her husband, Harry Pollard, an MGM producer, owned the Adobe from 1931 to 1951.

The Avo Theatre (1948), a quonset hut-style theater, was designed by S. Charles Lee. Mr. Lee (1899 - 1990) was an American architect recognized as one of the most prolific and distinguished motion picture theater designers on the West Coast.

The avocado-shaped lobby and the theatre's name, pay homage to Vista's most famous crop: the avocado. Although the exterior and lobby area still exist as first built, the auditorium has been stripped of any decoration it may have had. I can only imagine its opulence.

This building (circa 1950) harkens back to a post-war time that I would have loved to see.

The Old Town has held onto this mid-century feel and demands a longer explore soon.

Knowing that the Vista Historical Society was closed due to COVID, we went to its headquarters anyway and learned the story of Nick Huntalas.

Nick came to this country from Greece in 1902. He settled in Bakersfield working for the railroad as a construction foreman. In about 1911, he and several other Greek railroad workers founded the Greek American Land Co (two years later he would own it outright). They bought several hundred acres of land in the Vista area including the site of his ranch.

In 1916, he decided to go back to Greece to find a wife. Instead, he was introduced to a Greek immigrant girl by a cousin in New Jersey. They were married three days later. They settled on the ranch in 1918, naming it Rancho Minerva. When water came to Vista for irrigation with the formation of the Vista Irrigation District in 1923, and the completion of the infrastructure in 1926, the Huntalases planted citrus and avocado groves. They were very successful.

In 1933, they hired Mr. Deardorf (one of the original 14 volunteer firemen) to build them a home. He had patented a method of building adobe walls and used that method to construct this long lasting house. The couple lived there until they died, Nick in 1980, his wife, Bessie, in 1992. The two surviving children decided to subdivide the property, but instead the Vista Unified School District took the site by eminent domain in anticipation of a future middle school. The district rented the house to tenants until construction began in 2005; the school opened in 2007. The City acquired the house in 2008, and the historical society located there a year later.

We had no idea this rancho was here, or the history it held. The entire City of Vista intrigues. Wait until you see more of its artistic side tomorrow.