Old World Village
Old World Village is a German enclave in Huntington Beach, California. It features shops, restaurants, a chapel, and a hotel. Many of the proprietors of its businesses live above their establishments. This live-work arrangement is unusual for Orange County.
About 40 families live in the village. When it opened in 1978, the proprietors were primarily from Germany and Austria, but the Village has become more ethnically diverse over time.
History
In 1952, Josef Bischof emigrated from Germany to the United States. He was inspired by Ports O' Call Village in San Pedro, to create the shopping center Alpine Village in Torrance in 1965. Wanting to have spaces to both live and work in the same place, he split with his business partners from Alpine Village to found Old World Village in 1978.Ownership of the 53 live-work units is distributed among private owners, with governance administered through a homeowners association. As of 2007, the Bischof family continued to own several of the commercial and residential properties.
Controversies
In the 1980s, the village experienced an internal feud, with owners of the live-work establishments accusing Bischof of a "reign of terror". An initial $2.1 million judgment in favor of the merchants was later reduced to $1.25 million.In a separate case, Cathy Justine Adams, who operated the "Old World Psychic Reader" from 1985, was arrested and charged with grand theft after defrauding clients of over $400,000 in cash, jewelry, and vehicles. She pled guilty in 1991 to three felony counts and agreed to repay $150,000 in restitution to avoid prison time.
In the early 2000s, the village experienced a series of antisemitic incidents reported by the owners of a Jewish gift shop, including vandalism, threatening phone calls, and hate-related graffiti. These incidents were part of broader tensions among some residents and businesses, and although they gained media attention, others in the village described the community as generally peaceful.