In step with times past

At Joyride, the store next door to a place called Elsewhere, Robert Houston says he sells “anything a man would have worn, carried on his person or decorated his room with from Victorian times until the 1960s.” A stuffed alligator named Ginger oversees collections of hand-carved pipes, Edwardian pocket watches, Kodak Brownie cameras, horn handle razors and Badger shaving brushes — all displayed in nifty glass cases.

Nearby, at Mr. C’s Rare Records, the selections of LPs and 45 rpm records from 1946 to 1986 total about 400,000. A mono copy of the Beatles’ “A Hard Day’s Night” will set you back about $200.

One of the stalls at Antique Station specializes in pristine vintage refrigerators and stoves. At Grand Avenue Antiques, the shop window is devoted to canine collectibles — bookends, figurines, paperweights and tie racks (“good for hanging leashes,” owner Diane Zalay says). Down the block, George II specializes in European furnishings from the 1800s.

Block after block, the city of Orange’s claim to the title “antique capital of Southern California” is bolstered by about 60 shops selling vintage collectibles in and around downtown, bound by Walnut Avenue to the north, La Veta Avenue to the south, Batavia Avenue to the east and Cambridge Avenue on the east. Thanks to the foresight of town founders Alfred Chapman and Andrew Glassell, two lawyer-landowners who laid out a 1-square-mile town center in the 19th century, visitors today have a pedestrian-friendly business district to explore.

Even the two cater-cornered Starbucks are design sights — one in a 1928 Classical Revival building designed by Morgan, Walls & Clements with a don’t-miss coffered ceiling, the other in what had been the 1920s Orange Daily News building. And when you can’t look at one more Fiesta bowl or weathered watering can, the town plaza provides a classic fountain, mature trees and benches where you can rest tired feet.

Hungry? Graze on a gourmet waffle sandwich (strange but good) at Bruxie on Glassell Street, or sample a lime phosphate at Watson’s Drugs & Soda Fountain, in business since 1899. Most of all on this Fourth of July weekend, you can delight in a town that has managed to keep its vintage Main Street USA ambience intact into the 21st century.

Photog raphs by Gary Friedman Los Angeles Times OLD TOWNE ORANGE PLAZA is popular with residents and visitors alike. Old Towne Orange has been on the National Register of historic places since 1997.

PAUL GULINO, an associate professor at Chapman University, checks out the selection at Mr. C’s Rare Records in Orange.

PETER HAMILTON works the cash register at Joyride, a vintage men’s clothing and accessories boutique in Orange.

A FLORAL BROOCH and other vintage jewelry pieces beckon at Elsewhere, a boutique carrying an upscale collection.

ARMINDA CALDERON, left, and Beatrice Smith watch traffic in front of Country Roads Antiques & Gardens.