MILLENNIUM MOMENT

Costa Mesa’s Shiffer Park was originally a field of barley when the man

for whom it was named arrived in 1910. Jacob Shiffer came to Orange

County from Kansas aboard a boxcar, riding along with his family’s

chickens, horses, buggy and wagon.

Shiffer’s first home was at the corner of Bear Street and Paularino

Avenue. He built the home himself using $200 worth of lumber, grew barley

on nearby land and raised seven children there. The labor apparently

agreed with Shiffer: he was 100 years old when the city decided to create

a park in his honor in 1977.

MILLENNIUM MOMENT celebrates the people who have made a major

contribution to the Newport-Mesa community during this century.