Rotating Exhibits—Gallery

The Community Exhibits Program of the Museum was created in 1997 to allow community organizations to present exhibitions in the Gallery Room of the Museum. More than fifty exhibits have been presented by a diverse group of community entities, including the Santa Paula Historical Society, the Santa Paula Society of the Arts, the De Colores Art Group, the Heritage Valley Quilters, the Santa Paula High School Art and History Departments, and the Santa Paula Women’s History Project.

Santa Paula Historical Society Room

Place Names of Santa Paula: The Streets
October 25 - February 14

Decorated with street signs, this exhibit will amuse and visitors will be moved to explore. Trace your street name or just enjoy the history of Santa Paula through it's streets.

The town site was surveyed and laid out on a plat map in late 1873. Such maps showed the area’s initial subdivision as blocks with streets and alleys and corresponding identifying names. The typical design was a right-angled gridiron.

The streets running in an east-west direction were names; those running north and south were numbered. For reasons still unknown, there has never been a 1st, 2nd or 3rd Street and the center of town developed between 10th and Mill along Mupu Street, which lay along the old stage route through the valley. Mupu became Main Street around the time of the incorporation in 1903. Mupu was the name of the local tribe of the Chumash Indians who inhabited the area.

The origin of street names varied. Mill, ended at the Santa Paula Flour Mill, located where Mill Park is today, and took a more circuitous route around the base of hill behind the park. Santa Barbara, Ojai and Saticoy Streets were named for neighboring communities. There was no Fillmore for as yet there was no town of Fillmore! Olive, Orchard, and Walnut identified either tree crops (although there is no “Apricot”) or the primary native tree. River Street of course paralleled the Santa Clara River! It was renamed Harvard.

It was not until much later that streets began to honor either pioneer families, such as Blanchard, Hardison, McKevett and Davis or the original property owners, Bradley, Moultrie and Atmore.

In Our Gallery - South Gallery Room

3rd Annual Holiday Boutique
November 4 - December 24

The City of Santa Paula and the Downtown Merchants Association's Holiday Celebration will be held at the Museum on December 12 from 3-5pm. Come and enjoy a fun time with music, hot cider, cookies, a gingerbread house contest, children's art contest and Santa will be on hand to greet you!