Santa Paula is steeped in history. Wafting from its vintage brew are the heady fragrances of oil and citrus. Birthplace of the Union Oil Company of California. It has also been a center of the silent movie business when Gaston Melies held sway here with his Star Film Stock Company and home of the largest lemon ranch in the world.
Today Santa Paula has the greatest collection of vintage homes, commercial buildings, churches and schools in Southern California, and is the home of the Santa Paula Airport, Aviation Museum of Santa Paula, the California Oil Museum, and the Limoneira Company. Equally historic is the Santa Paula Cemetery which dates to the early 1870s and continues to serve the city. In addition, farms of the pioneers continue to produce under the skilled supervision of their farming descendants.
Santa Paula was the early film capital of California when Gaston Melies brought his Star Film Company to the city in 1911. The popular early silent film maker turned out more than a dozen one- and two-reelers with names like The Ghost of Sulphur Mountain and Oil Well Romance. By 1915 the action had shifted to Hollywood where early filmmakers like Jack Warner were making stars of actors named Chaplin, Mix, and Pickford.
In the heart of Santa Paula
Cultural Museums
Located in Santa Paula, museums help preserve and exhibit the region’s farming, art, and cultural history.
Santa Paula early success as a film center was just a harbinger of its coming popularity with filmmakers. One of the epic miniseries of the 1970s, The Thorn Birds, starring Richard Chamberlain, was filmed in part in Santa Paula (look for the train station). In the ensuing years, many films and commercials have sought out locations in the city because of its authentic 50s downtown and the wide availability of varied historical settings. Many locales in the city date to the late 1800s and early 1900s. Santa Paula Airport, founded in 1930, still has that barnstorming look of the early days of aviation. The city’s 1887 Santa Paula Train Depot is one of the very few original Southern Pacific Railroad Depots serviced by antique trains today. The countryside surrounding Santa Paula evokes a bygone era with its orchards, ranches, and oilfields.
