Saturday, December 21, 2013

Happy Holidays!

A holiday message from the Pacific Goldfish Farm from the Huntington Beach News of sixty years ago. (Image, Huntington Beach News, December 24, 1953; special thanks to Chris Jepsen, Orange County Archives, for finding this!)

   Henry Kiyomi Akiyama--the brother-in-law of Charles Mitsuji Furuta--started experimenting with Charles on the first goldfish pond on the Furuta farm, then at the Cole Ranch in Wintersburg Village.  Eventually, Akiyama would go on to own the "world's largest goldfish farm"--forty acres of goldfish ponds located at the site of today's Westminster Mall, in Westminster, California (adjacent to Huntington Beach).  

   The address noted on the advertisement is just north of Bolsa Avenue, near the 405 Freeway.  The construction of the freeway prompted the City of Westminster to acquire the property for commercial development.


The Pacific Goldfish Farm can be seen in this 1955 photograph, north of Bolsa Avenue and west of Golden West.  From the aerial view, there appear to be approximately 100 ponds, in which Akiyama bred goldfish and koi.  The buildings contained an indoor hatchery. (Photograph courtesy of the Orange County Archives)

   We wish all our readers and friends of the Historic Wintersburg preservation effort a very happy holiday season!  We continue in 2014 our work to preserve the rare Japanese pioneer farm and mission property that shared in the early 1900s settlement and development of Huntington Beach.  We'll have some exciting new ways to share the history of Historic Wintersburg in 2014!

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