Fairview Club

ClassificationsPhotographs

Datec. 1888

Made AtCalifornia, United States, North America

MediumPhotographic print

DimensionsOverall: 8 x 10 in. (20.3 x 25.4 cm)

Credit LineGift of Mr. William McPherson

Object number8485

DescriptionThis is an 1888 photograph of the Fairview Club, an Orange County baseball organization, taken by an unknown photographer. At the turn of the century, developments in sporting were taking place around the county. Like-minded enthusiasts banded together and began to organize into social clubs such as the brand-new Santiago Hunt Club in 1903. Other sports requiring more infrastructure also took root. The county’s first golf course was established two miles southwest of Irvine Park. Into the early twenties and thirties, new sporting fads that would become pervasive symbols of American culture joined the fray as well. By this point the county had already developed into an incredibly complicated structure with each city hosting a litany of teams from grade school athletic programs to semi-professional teams. On September 28, 1876, thirteen years before Orange County was formally founded, the very first baseball team in the area was formed. This nameless team wore uniforms stitched by their mothers and mostly played locally, in large part due to the difficulty of travelling in Southern California prior to the invention of automobiles. Their first recorded game took place in 1878 against a Los Angeles club and ended in a tie. By the 1880s a larger club circuit in what would become Orange County had already formed, with teams in most of the major cities. It would not be until a pivotal 1924 exhibition game in which Babe Ruth faced off against Walter Johnson that sports on a national level really arrived in Orange County. This picture of the Fairview Club who played in what is now Fairview Park back in 1888 shows another OC baseball lineup long before the Angels became the first major league team to come to California in 1966.

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