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Tuesday, February 21,1995 Sun Post News - 3Frank UlrichBy Fred SweglesSun Post NewsThose tall, stately palm trees that line the main highway through town are Frank Ulrich’s babies.They were only about four feet tall in the late 1920s, when he planted them up and down El Camino Real for his employer, San Clemente founder Ole Hanson.Today those trees are Frank Ulrich’s legacy. He has watched them grow with the town.Last Friday, friends and family gathered at Sonny’s Pizza to remember the early days of San Clemente as Frank Ulrich — who came here in 1927 to be Ole Hanson’s landscaper — turned 90.Betty Weatherholtz, the first baby born after San Clemente’s incorporation, was at the party. She remembered babysittingUlrich’s son, Alan, during World War II, when Frank Ulrich had a gas station at San Onofre and was San Clemente’s air raid warden.Norm Haven, Sr., was another birthday guest. “I met Frank when he took over the Texacolegacy has taken root over the years in citystation at San Onofre in 1937,” Haven said.Alan Ulrich, 55, flew in from Texas to be with his father at the 90th birthday bash.He recalled how his dad had come to the United States from Germany in 1925, settled in California and was recruited by the Ole Hanson Organization to come to San Clemente to beautify a budding little Spanish Mediterranean village that Hanson was creating from scratch, on the coast midway between Los Angeles and San Diego.During his first six years in San Clemente, Ulrich worked for Hanson. Among the landscaper’s works was an elegant blufftop mansion that Hanson built for his private home. Today it is a city-owned landmark known as the Casa Romantica.Ulrich, meanwhile, built a little house for himself on the 200 block of Avenida Mariposa. It's where he still lives today — more than 60 years later — bordered by a lush tropical garden that was once so noteworthy it was written up in magazines.One day in the 1930s, whilefishing on the pier, Ulrich was introduced to a girl who had taken a fancy to him — Margaret Quick, who lived across the street from the pier in one of the first houses built in San Clemente.They hit it off, were married and raised a family in the little house on Mariposa.Although the Depression bankrupted Ole Hanson, Ulrich went on to other things. He was probably best known as proprietor of the San Onofre Texaco station for more than 30 years, until the state took over his property to carve a path for Interstate 5.Ulrich also worked for a time as a commercial fisherman — his specialty, shark. He worked for Dana Point Nursery at one point and even for son Alan, when grown-up Alan owned a Texaco station for a number of years on Avenida Pico. During his later years, Frank Ulrich continued to take on landscaping jobs well into his 70s.Son Alan, who was born in 1939, reminisced Friday about growing up in San Clemente during the 40s and 50s.“It was a nice little tiny town where everybody knew everybody,” Alan said. The shopping district on Avenida Del Mar was more vacant lots than buildings. The beach was the place to hang out. The pier, which had its own fleet of sportfishing boats, offered kids a chance to earn money by taking their red wagons out to the end of the pier to haul fishermen’s catch the long distance to shore.The pier was also where Frank Ulrich and a few friends built, around 1950, an institution known as the San Clemente Boat Club. Ulrich kept his boat, the Firecracker, warehoused there. He would use a winch at the end of the pier to launch it. Today theboat club is the Fisherman’s Restaurant.Frank Ulrich remarked that San Clemente today is “too crowded” but he was quick to add, “I couldn’t think of a better place to stay.”And, by the way, just how many palm trees are there along El Camino Real?“I never counted ‘em.”Fred Swegles, Sun Post NewsFrank Ulrich (right) accepts congratulations from family, friends on his 90th birthday. That's longtime local resident Norman Haven, Sr., looking on.
Newspaper Details
San Clemente Sun Post News
San Clemente, California, US
Tue, Feb 21, 1995
Page 7
Full Page
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CA, USA 16 May 2022
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