Fair Oaks Historical Society

Virtual Walking Tour

At the corner of Temescal and California is local artist Hugh Gorman’s house, guarded by two famous Fair Oaks statues, the aardvark and the anteater. Hugh resided at Harmony Hill as a young man and is credited with multiplying the Fair Oaks chickens. As the years went by, he painted the murals at the amphitheater and the Carmichael Park wall and designed the Fair Oaks circle in the middle of the Village and the Bluffs Plaza. He also created the graphic maps used in this Walking Tour.

The aardvark and anteater were commissioned by local artist Benny Barrios for the front of his studio on Bridge Street. He sold the property to Village Sauna and when that burned, the clean-up crew couldn’t figure what to do with the statues, so they took them to Hugh’s house and left them on the lawn. Since then, you may find an aardvark lurking in the background in Hugh’s paintings of Fair Oaks.

Walk around the corner on California on your left (west) and continue to the Slocum House Restaurant.

Next