If you visit San Juan Capistrano's mission, you can't help noticing that big dark red building angled across from the mission entrance. It looks like it's been there forever, doesn't it?
Actually, the Trading Post was originally built in 1947 by a former Hollywood art director named Henry Oliver.
Before the Trading Post was built, at the same location was Fred Cason's movie house in the 1920s (where my grandmother Daisy Yorba played the piano) and Fred Stoffel's well-known Palm Cafe which burned down in 1918.
According to old photographs, the Palm Cafe was built where once stood San Juan's one room Grammar School in the 1870s..
Photos: Upper left -Palm Cafe, c. 1919. Upper right, Fred Stoffel greets tourists at San Juan Inn. Lower left, Ortega's Capistrano Trading Post,c. 2014. Lower right, Harry Oliver.
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