Kidds Garage
was one of the numerous service stations and
garages serving travelers on Highway 1 through
Tustin prior to the opening of the 5 Freeway.
Once upon a time
there was a small town called Tustin located at
the exact spot on the 101 Highway where
travelers between Los Angeles and San Diego
began to think about filling up the gas tank,
stopping for a stretch, a cup of coffee and a
snack.
Then on Oct. 27,
1955, the newly completed 5 freeway opened to
traffic and cars began to speed past this small
town. Service stations, garages and cafes
patronized by the motorists in the past waited,
but their only customers were local residents.
Some people
called this first freeway completed in Orange
County a lifeline of Southern California
economy, an influence on industrial and
residential growth and a taxable value for
Orange County, but for others, it was a sad day
when the section circling the west side of
Tustin opened.
Basically the
freeway followed the same route as the old
Highway 1, except it bypassed the heart of
Tustin. With on/off ramps in the early days
limited to Tustin Avenue and Red Hill, Old Town
Tustin was easily missed. The $6.55 million
construction project turned Tustin’s central
business center into a ghost town.
The Tustin News
reporter who wrote “Thank the freeways for
driving time convenience. Tustin Area residents
couldn’t be in a better spot for easy access to
major shopping centers and recreations spots”
forgot that a number of residential streets had
been bisected with no way for traffic to pass
between the two sections.
The many vintage
homes including Los Alisos, where Madame
Modjeska lived while residing in Tustin, and the
acres of citrus destroyed meant nothing to him.
Nor did he have any sympathy for those with
homes that survived the freeway, only to listen
to the roar of traffic 24 hours a day.
The dozen or so
gasoline stations and garages that lined Highway
101 from First and Tustin Avenue to Laguna Road
soon felt the pinch of losing the trade of the
hundreds of cars that no longer traveled through
town each week. Tustin’s many cafes and snack
shops also suffered.
Even policeman
“Big” John Stanton, who had made sure
out-of-town cars observed the speed limits, was
bored.
Basil F.H.
Brewster had foreseen that the freeway would
bring fewer overnight customers to Brewster Auto
Court and sold his business prior to completion
of the 5. As motorists vanished, the new owner
decided to turn the cottages into a business
complex .
The opening of the 5 coincided with other
changes: an influx of new residents, many lured
to Tustin by the convenience of freeways;
annexation of outlying areas; the building of
tracts of new homes, shopping centers and
business plazas.
Eventually, after
the Navy closed the Lighter Than Air Base,
Tustin was invited to start a new community on
its land. Tustin Legacy and The District are the
results. The City of Tustin has become larger in
the last 50 plus years, both in size and
population. Fortunately or unfortunately, Old
Town has changed very little.
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