Old Town Orcutt in the Fifties

Dena Earing-Ripoli’s Family Dates Back to Old Maud

             If anybody knows a thing about growing up in Orcutt in the 1950s and 1960w, it’s Dena Earing-Ripoli.   Her pedigree dates back several generations to the Hartnells, whose family owned the Hartnell lease that housed “Old Maud,” the historic oil well that sparked the development of oil and gas on Orcutt Hill in the early 1900’s.  

            After thirty-three years, Dena is still serving customers at the former Union 76 station at Broadway and Clark Avenue in Old Town Orcutt. The station recently changed ownership and is re-named Old Orcutt Kwik Stop. 

            Born in 1949, Dena Earing-Ripoli (her dad was an immigrant from Italy) lives in a home with her 99-year-old mother Arlene Margaret Hartnell.

              The house in which Arlene has lived for almost a century, was built during the oil boom on the Orcutt Hill on the Hartnell lease in the early 1900’s. The home was located in the small town of Bicknell in the Solomon Hills which was built by Union Oil. At its peak included a post office, swimming pool, grocery store, school and over 900 residences. It was abandoned in the 1930s when some of the houses were moved down the hill to Old Town Orcutt including the Hartnell home which is currently located across from Patterson Road School.

             Dena Earing was born at Sisters Hospital on College Ave, the forerunner of Marian Medical Center.  About the age of 5, the family moved from the Orcutt Hill into Old Town Orcutt. 

             “When our family came to town for shopping, we first stopped at the post office which is where the Mexican restaurant Burrito Lalo is located on the northwest corner of Broadway and Clark Avenues. Then we headed uptown into Santa Maria for grocery shopping at the Airport Market on the northwest corner of Lakeview and Broadway, what is now State Highway 135.”  That corner now is occupied by the Skyway Business Center with several businesses including Cottage Urgent Care.   

             She recounts that in the 1950s, the YMCA on Skyway Drive, was the site of Tom Dom Roller Skating Rink where “skating parties were the weekend pastime.” St. Luis de Montfort Catholic Church was in barracks on airport property before relocating to Clark Avenue in Orcutt. 

            Dena was educated during years of rapid population growth in Orcutt.  Between 1958 and 1964, seven elementary schools were built including Joe Nightingale, May Grisham (which is now Orcutt Academy High School), Alice Shaw, Ralph Dunlap, Pine Grove and Lakeview.   Her school years began at Orcutt Elementary at the corner of Dyer and Pinal, which is currently Orcutt Junior High School. For high school she was in the first class at Earnest Righetti which opened in 1962.  

Dena remembers Joe Nightingale as principal at Orcutt Elementary.  “He was wonderful, always thinking of the kids.” She reminisces, “Often he and the school nurse, Alice Shaw, would load us on the bus and take us to swim at the ‘plunge.’ When the city built Paul Nelson pool we could never figure out why cold Santa Maria needed a swimming pool.” 

She says on the corner of Broadway and Clark Avenue where the Pentecostal Church is now located was a market and butcher shop which later burned down.  She fondly remembers Mary Walker's variety store, next to what now is Kay’s Country Kitchen on Clark where she and school companions stocked up on candy after school. “Mary Walker was such a lovely person,” Dena says. 

            She says it was a huge event when the Safeway store came into the Oak Knoll shopping center in1959.  “No more did we have to travel into Santa Maria for groceries.  I remember the movie theater that was replaced by Oak Knoll Hardware and across the street the bowling alley which was torn down before Albertson’s market was constructed in the mid-1980s.”   

Dena Earing’s grandmother was Alice Manuela Munoz, the matriarch of the Orcutt Munoz family including Don and Susan Munoz who for decades owned and operated the Union 76 station at Clark and Bradley. Alice Manuela Munoz’ spouse was William Alexander Hartnell, Senior. His grandfather (Dena’s great-great grandfather) was prominent in California history and for whom Hartnell College in Monterey was named. 

            Penelope Hartnell, who owned the land where Old Maud stood, donated 2 million dollars as seed money for a stand-alone library in Orcutt. 

          Dena Earing’s Orcutt ancestry runs deep. “My 99-year-old mother is doing fine, writes her own checks and chats about Orcutt history.”   Dena is long past retirement age, but when she is not watching mom, you can find her helping Orcutt locals at Old Orcutt Kwik Stop at Broadway and Clark Ave.    Steve Southwick reporting