BY LOREEN BERLIN: John Warren is one of the individuals selected to work on murals for the new Stanton Central Park main building.
BY LOREEN BERLIN: John Warren is one of the individuals selected to work on murals for the new Stanton Central Park main building.
The theme of the park centers on trains, with a larger-than-life-sized train children can play on in the center of the play area, harkening back to an earlier time in history, when trains made it possible for local towns to become cities with the necessary building supplies of lumber and other materials.
So, it's only natural that a train would be on one of the mosaics in the park.
Surrounding the main building in the park are several recessed mural locations, one of Mary Perez, for whom the former elementary school was named, and on which the current Stanton Central Park is now located.
There's a mural of the city's official flower, the bird of paradise; a picture of school children circa 1950s from Benedict Elementary School in the Savanna School District; and the Hansen Pacific Electric Depot, which is the mosaic Warren was asked to create.
Below is some of the history Warren said he was able to find while researching his mural project, noting information on the early town of Stanton, the town of Benedict and the Pacific Electric Railroad.
Additional information has also been added.
According to history, Benedict, later renamed Stanton, was laid out as a town in 1905.
“Hansen” was the name of a stop on the Pacific Electric Railroad's Los Angeles-Santa Ana line at the intersection of Knott Avenue and Ball Road.
It was important to have the railways for early settlers, as goods could be carried to and from rural towns developing along the railroad tracks.
Hansen Elementary School, in the Savanna School District, 1330 S. Knott Ave. in Anaheim, is attended by children from both Stanton and Anaheim, with local history living on in the school and park next to it as the family that farmed the land prior to the school allowed its name to be used in both.
Charles and Peter Hansen raised wheat in the 1880s where Hansen School is now located and according to local historian Don Meadows, Knott Avenue was once known as Hansen Street
Walter Knott, an early "dirt farmer" and founder of the now famous Knott's Berry Farm in Buena Park, acquired authentic and vintage buildings and equipment, including a vintage steam train back in 1951.
Of course, any train system needs a depot and the one in Ghost Town is said to be the original Pacific Electric Depot that once served and early Stanton.
Knott reportedly had it transported to his Knott's Berry Farm; shored it up and added a little to the one side for a ticket booth.
The Depot was once the Hansen station on the Pacific Electric Railway or known as the Big Red Cars and it stood near the corner of Ball Road and Knott Avenue—which was originally known as Hansen Road.
History records the Santa Ana Line leaving the Long Beach Line at Watts; angling across the center of the county (Orange County was once Los Angeles County) to 4th Street in Santa Ana, with service beginning in 1905.
Benedict, which later became Stanton, was founded along the tracks and Garden Grove also got a boost from the new line. Passenger service continued until 1950.
"Benedict was a town site laid out in November 1905 along the Pacific Electric Land Company tracks on the northwest corner of Katella Avenue and Beach Boulevard," reported the County Courier in December 2009, courtesy of the Orange County Historical Society.
The City of Stanton is a small town of 3.1 square miles with a population of approximately 39,000 residents. Originally, it was 12-square miles; however, the county offered to make roads for the Stanton and give back the rest of the land —leaving Stanton as an original small town.
