Santa Paula

Santa Paula grew up in the 1870s and 1880s around citrus and oil. Union Oil was founded here in 1890 in a building that is now the California Oil Museum, and the Limoneira Company, one of the oldest citrus growers in the state, is still based in the city. Downtown along Main Street keeps its early twentieth-century storefronts, murals and the Santa Paula Depot, and the city has one of the larger collections of historic homes in the county.

The city sits on the north side of the Santa Clara River, with the older grid near downtown, mid-century neighborhoods spreading north toward the foothills, and orchards on most sides. The Harvest at Limoneira project on the east side is the first large new subdivision in decades and is adding several thousand homes over time.

The historic district north of Main Street has Victorian, Craftsman and Spanish Revival houses from the city’s first fifty years, several of them on the city’s historic register. The neighborhoods to the north and west are mostly post-war ranch homes on standard lots, and prices across these older sections sit well below the Conejo Valley and Ventura.

Harvest at Limoneira on the east side offers new construction with HOA amenities, a range of floor plans and prices that reset the top of the local market. Condos and townhomes are limited in the older parts of the city.

The Santa Paula Unified School District serves the city, with Santa Paula High School and neighborhood elementary and middle schools. Boundaries follow streets, so check a specific address with the district.

Highway 126 runs west to Ventura and the 101 in about 20 minutes and east through Fillmore to the 5 at Santa Clarita. Highway 150 climbs north over the hills to Ojai. Santa Paula is more than an hour from the west San Fernando Valley in normal traffic, which keeps it a local rather than a commuter market. The Santa Paula Airport, the Santa Clara River trail and the Topatopa Mountains foothills are at the edges of the city.