The Lady in the Hat
Frances Zirinsky Weinberg, seen here posing in front of the first Santa Ana City Hall, was the oldest of the four Zirinsky siblings of Santa Ana. The beautiful building she is standing in front of was erected in 1904 at the corner of 3rd and Main, but was replaced after being severely damaged in the 1933 earthquake. Frances was born in New York City in 1903 to Joseph and Lena, Jewish immigrants from Poland, and moved to California with her family in 1920, where she met and married Louis Rostoker Weinberg, an Austrian immigrant who worked with her father in the produce business. The Zirinsky/Weinberg family went on to establish a bit of a restaurant empire in Santa Ana, owning and operating the Club Garden Room, Lancers, the Blinking Owl bar, and the Savoy, which was built in 1889 and is listed in the National Register of Historic Place and the California Register of Historical Resources. The Weinbergs were part of the group of founders of Temple Beth Sholom, and their many grandchildren and great-grandchildren continue to live in Orange County today.
Dalia Taft, archivist of the Orange County Jewish Historical Society, highlights images from the archives every month. For more information, please visit https://www.jccoc.org/pages/oc-jewish-historical-society. You can also contact Dalia at daliat@jccoc.org or at (949) 435-3400, ext. 360. The Orange County Jewish Historical Society is a program of the Merage Jewish Community Center and is funded by the Jewish Community Foundation Orange County.