A short history of Ojai
Nestled in a unique east-west valley, Ojai’s immense natural beauty and spiritual energy have drawn people in for hundreds of years. Here’s a very short history on our sleepy valley and some of its most notable inhabitants and businesses, many of which have been serving the community for decades.
First things first: Ojai is pronounced “O-hi” – just in case you were wondering. The name is derived from the native Chumash people, who for thousands of years considered the valley to be a sacred ground and named it after their word for “nest” or “valley of the moon.” Indeed Ojai’s history as a spiritual sanctuary is strongly linked to the Chumash tribe of hunter-gatherers, fishermen and basket weavers, who inhabited the Southern California coastline as far back as 7,000 BC.
But it wasn’t until the mid-19th century that Europeans came to settle in the valley. Fernando Tico established “Rancho Ojai” in 1837, after being granted almost 18,000 acres of land across the valley, which he used to rear cattle. Tico sold the ranch to prospectors searching for oil in the 1850s but with little success they started selling the land to settlers just a decade later. Then in 1873 R. G. Surdam laid out the town naming it Nordhoff after Charles Nordhoff, the author of a book called California for Health, Pleasure and Residence.
Annie Besant and Jiddu Krishnamurti
EARLY TOURISM
True to its namesake’s inspiration, the small town soon became known as a place of healing, attracting both pioneers seeking a healthy place to live and wealthy Easterners wanting to while away the winter in a warm climate. In the 1880s Sherman Day Thacher came West to care for an ailing brother and soon started the Thacher School, with its ethos to “teach a boy to ride, shoot and tell the truth.” Thacher School today is one of the most prestigious preparatory academies in the US. By 1903, the exclusive Foothills Hotel was one of the top tourist resorts in California and regular visitors included Edward and Florence Libbey of the Libbey Glass Company in Ohio, who in 1911 moved here permanently and changed the town forever. For Libbey invested heavily, hiring San Diego architects Frank Mead and Richard Requa to construct many of Ojai’s signature Spanish Colonial Revival style structures and creating what is now known as downtown. Stroll along Ojai Avenue today and you’ll still see his buildings, including the Arcade, the Post Office Tower, the Ojai Valley Inn (formerly the Ojai Valley Country Club) and the eponymous Libbey Park. After the facelift was completed in 1917, the town of Nordhoff changed its name to Ojai.
SPIRITUAL MECCA
During the 1920s Ojai became more than a place of physical wellness and transformed into a spiritual mecca thanks to the arrival of free-thinkers and theosophists Annie Besant and Jiddu Krishnamurti, who drew in seekers from around the world. They included the likes of Aldous Huxley, Dr. David Bohm, Jackson Pollock and Christopher Isherwood as well as Hollywood stars such as Charlie Chaplin and Greta Garbo. Although Krishnamurti later broke with the theosophists in favor of his own ideologies, both his and Besant’s teachings continue to permeate Ojai to this day through their foundations, retreat centers and schools.
From the 1920s to the 1940s construction and growth in Ojai continued to boom, as many churches, schools, fire stations, art centers, libraries, shops, restaurants and hotels as well as beautiful homes were built across the valley. The town continued to attract creative and spiritual folks and in 1948, renowned Avant-garde and Dada artist Beatrice Wood set up a pottery studio in Ojai, which she later moved to the Happy Valley school (now Besant Hill) and where she taught ceramics and continued working to the ripe old age of 104. The studio still exists today.
Meanwhile on the culinary front, Alan and Helen Hooker settled in Ojai in the 1940s having left a commune in Ohio, where they were studying Asian philosophy and had learned to embrace vegetarianism. In 1956, the couple opened the still operating Ranch House Restaurant in Meiners Oaks, where vibrant, fresh, garden-picked food was a bellwether of the now ubiquitous California Cuisine.
The 1960s saw some troubles between hippies and locals but more notably the opening of iconic outdoor bookstore Bart’s Books by Richard Bartindale on the corner of West Matilija and Canada Streets in 1964, as well as the arrival of Florence Garrigue, who came to set up Meditation Mount to “promote the building of an enlightened and compassionate world through the power of creative meditation.” Both continue to thrive today.
Over the decades the Ojai Valley has continued to grow and expand: schools, galleries, parks, public buildings and businesses have been created making Ojai a thriving town and community. Thanks to a city-wide ban on chain stores and restaurants, which was adopted in 2007, Ojai has been able to retain its quaint and distinct character that appeals to people looking for something uniquely different.
Many a celebrity has chosen the Ojai Valley as a tranquil pied-à-terre: from stars of yesteryear like Johnny Cash to Hollywood A-listers including Anthony Hopkins, Reese Witherspoon and Emily Blunt. But it’s not celebrities who give Ojai its magic, it’s its spiritual history and magnetic energy, its unique geographical setting and immense natural beauty, the businesses, restaurants, bars, hotels and stores and, of course, its people. This website is here to celebrate them all.
