Ventura's historic E.P. Foster SPOOKY GHOST house before the fire of Aug 3, 2010 Ventura California
Ventura's historic E.P. Foster house was destroyed by fire early Tuesday, wiping out preservationists' hopes of restoring the 130-year-old home.
The vacant two-story house, which belongs to the Ventura Unified School District, was deemed a total loss, said Battalion Chief Luis Espinosa of the Ventura City Fire Department.
It was just a smouldering pile of ruins, Espinosa said.
The fire was reported at 1:38 a.m. by a caller who saw smoke at a distance from School Canyon Road. Arriving firefighters found the residence at 2717 N. Ventura Ave. engulfed in flames.
Built in 1881 by Eugene Preston Foster and Orpha Foster, the house and gardens became a popular gathering place for Ventura County's earliest movers and shakers.
Historian Cynthia Thompson of the San Buenaventura Conservancy described it as the most socially significant structure in Ventura, a home where every pioneer in the city had dinner.
People attached to the home were nearly moved to tears.
This is a serious tragedy, said activist Sarah Kalvin, among those, including Foster descendents, who had approached the school district about obtaining ownership to restore the house into a community center.
I feel like I have lost another member of the family, Phil Ranger, great-grandson of the Fosters, said as he toured the charred remains.
A total of 27 firefighters from the Ventura, Oxnard and Ventura County fire departments worked together for more than three hours to put out the blaze, officials said.
Because the building was engulfed and the structure was compromised, firefighters battled the fire from outside the home and worked to protect nearby structures.
Firefighters had to remove a chain-link fence around the boarded-up building. They also had to contend with low water pressure from one of the hydrants they were using, which is gravity-fed, Espinosa said.
Firefighters kept the fire from spreading beyond the house, and finally knocked down the flames by 5:11 a.m. Some firefighters remained on scene for hours to mop up the charred remnants.
Much of the building was destroyed, and the second story collapsed, along with one of two chimneys, officials said.
No injuries were reported.
The cause of the blaze remains under investigation. Authorities said a preliminary look didn't turn up any obvious evidence about how the blaze started.
Standing by the smoldering ashes Tuesday, Kalvin said the house had fallen in disrepair from years of neglect and inactivity. Supporters were in the process of forming a nonprofit to try to take ownership.
She noted that boards put up to help keep transients and animals out were secure when she toured the property three weeks ago.
What really caused this tragedy was not an electrical or gas problem, Kalvin said. It was negligence, and people just not caring enough about it.
The San Buenaventura Conservancy was among those pushing for the preservation and restoration of the house. The school district at one point rebuffed efforts to seek historical protections for the house because that would limit the district's options for the property.
Ventura Unified School District Superintendent Trudy Arriaga could not be reached for comment.
Ranger, who spoke with other family members Tuesday, expressed concern the loss of the house and the historic significance attached to it could prompt the school district, faced with budget cuts, to sell it to the highest bidder for development. Hopefully, the school district doesn't see this as a green light to sell the property, he said.
The Fosters have deep-rooted ties to the community, according to Thompson.
The couple personally financed and established the county's first parks — Camp Comfort, Eugene C. Foster Memorial Park and Seaside Park, where the Ventura County Fairgrounds now sits. The family also helped finance construction of Ventura City Hall, a city library and Hospital de Buenaventura, known today as Community Memorial Hospital.
The house and Avenue School were donated to the school district in 1955 by the Fosters' oldest daughter, Orpha W. Foster, or Pearl as she was known to those close to her.
Most believe the family chose the school district because of its deep-rooted connections to local education. Banker and philanthropist E.P. Foster was president of the school board, and Orpha Foster was a teacher later appointed by the governor to be a trustee of the California Training School for Girls, the first school in America to be solely run by women.
Read more:
- vcstar.com
There are plenty of opportunities to scoop up spooky ghost houses for pennies on the dollar in derelict neighborhoods... in this case: NO MONEY DOWN!! Heck-you can't take it with you-or can you? Ghost not included.
Ventura Golf Commercial (60 sec.)
Ventura Country Club Golf Commercial. 60 seconds long.
Go grab your gear and head over to Ventura Country Clubs golf course. 3333 Woodgate Boulevard. Main entrance off of Curry Ford Road. In between South Semoran Boulevard and South Goldenrod Road. Golf Shop and banquet facilities available on location. Ventura Country Club, Orlando’s best kept golf course.
Ventura Country Club
Golf Course
3333 Woodgate Blvd
Orlando, FL 32822
(407) 277-2640
venturaccorlando.com
Stock footage: Royalty Free, Digital Juice
Music: Royalty Free, Digital Juice
Sound Effects: Royalty Free, Digital Juice
Ventura Country Club in Orlando
Enjoy country club living in this fully furnished, 2 bedroom and 2 bathroom upstairs condo at Southpointe in The Ventura Country Club. New paint inside, new wood floor in Great Room and new Tiles in Kitchen and both bathrooms.
LIVE MINUTES TO ORLANDO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT / VENTURA COUNTRY CLUB GOLF COURSE COMMUNITY
Move right into this well maintained 3 bed 2 bath condo in most desirable Ventura Country Club Community. The property is on the 2nd level with a screened in porch. Ventura is a golf course community with 24 hr. manned gated security clubhouse sw
River Ridge Golf Club, Vineyard
River Ridge Golf Club, Vineyard in Oxnard California Course Flyover presented by Golf Frontier. For additional information about this course visit for more Course Flyovers, and lots of additional golf related content visit
Music: Kevin MacLeod
River Ridge Golf Club, Victoria Lakes
River Ridge Golf Club, Victoria Lakes in Oxnard California Course Flyover presented by Golf Frontier. For additional information about this course visit for more Course Flyovers, and lots of additional golf related content visit
Music: Kevin MacLeod
2014 Carroll Amateur
2014 Carroll Amateur golf tournament final tee of championship round. Final group. Order of shots....first is 2014 champion and University of Kansas golf Connor Peck, followed by 2013 USGA Mid-Amateur Champion Mike McCoy, then past two-time winner of the Carroll Am Jon Brown and last up is Justin Schulte. All hit good shots in the fairway. All four guys are fantastic golfers and all four guys are fantastic gentleman as well. Great time watching them play golf the way we all want to play it.
Point Sublime: Refused Blood Transfusion / Thief Has Change of Heart / New Year's Eve Show
Clifford Charles Cliff Arquette (December 27, 1905 -- September 23, 1974) was an American actor and comedian, famous for his TV role as Charley Weaver.
Arquette was born in Toledo, Ohio, the son of Winifred (née Clark) and Charles Augustus Arquette, a vaudevillian. He was the patriarch of the Arquette show business family, which became famous because of him. Arquette was the father of the late actor Lewis Arquette and the grandfather of actors Patricia, Rosanna, Alexis (originally Robert), Richmond, and David Arquette. He was a night club pianist, later joining the Henry Halstead orchestra in 1923.
Arquette had been a busy, yet not nationally known, performer in radio, theatre, and motion pictures until 1956, when he retired from show business. At one time, he was credited with performing in 13 different daily radio shows at different stations in the Chicago market, getting from one studio to the other by way of motorboats along the Chicago River through its downtown. One such radio series he performed on was The Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok Arquette and Dave Willock had their own radio show, Dave and Charley, in the early 1950s as well as a television show by the same name that was on the air for three months. Arquette performed on the shows as Charley Weaver.
The story that Arquette later told about his big break was that one night in the late 1950s he was watching The Tonight Show. Host Jack Paar happened to ask the rhetorical question, Whatever became of Cliff Arquette? That startled Arquette so much that, I almost dropped my Scotch!
In 1959, Arquette accepted Paar's invitation to perform on Paar's NBC Tonight Show. Arquette depicted the character of Charley Weaver, the wild old man from Mount Idy. He would bring along, and read, a letter from his Mamma back home. This characterization proved so popular that Arquette almost never again appeared in public as himself, but nearly always as Charley Weaver, complete with his squashed hat, little round glasses, rumpled shirt, broad tie, baggy pants, and suspenders.
Although a good number of Arquette's jokes appear 'dated' now (and, arguably, even back then), he could still often convulse Paar and the audience into helpless laughter by way of his timing and use of double entendres in describing the misadventures of his fictional family and townspeople. As Paar noted, in his foreword to Arquette's first Charley Weaver book:
Sometimes his jokes are old, and I live in the constant fear that the audience will beat him to the punch line, but they never have. And I suspect that if they ever do, he will rewrite the ending on the spot. I would not like to say that all his jokes are old, although some have been found carved in stone. What I want to say is that in a free-for-all ad lib session, Charley Weaver has and will beat the fastest gun alive.
Arquette, as Charley Weaver, hosted Charley Weaver's Hobby Lobby on ABC from September 30, 1959 to March 23, 1960.
Arquette also appeared as Charley Weaver on the short-lived The Roy Rogers and Dale Evans Show on ABC from September 29 to December 29, 1962.
Arquette was also a frequent guest on NBC's The Ford Show, Starring Tennessee Ernie Ford, the short-lived The Dennis Day Show in the 1953-1954 season, and on The Jack Paar Show after Paar left The Tonight Show.