Heritage Square Oxnard

I love this place! Where else can you go to learn about history and architecture for free in a historical and renovated town square? Back in 1991, they developed this place to teach and keep history alive. We ate at La Dolce Vita. Check out my upcoming review on that special restaurant gem. This square also has a church, salon, water tower, and a wine tasting room too (Rancho Ventavo Cellars). Docents present tours on weekends, and they host spring teas and summer concerts/​food cart events. I love Victorian Charm, and places that bring me back to a different time or another generation. This is a great place for field trips and a great place to teach children about history. Heritage Square is such a treasure, and if you are visiting Oxnard, you should check this place out. In December they have a gingerbread contest and I could see 3 of the gingerbread homes on display in the church. I think tours used to be free, but they are $ 5 a person now. I visited here at dusk on December 27, 2013.

So occasionally I get an itch to travel. When I don’t have the budget to actually travel, the husband and I just wander off on day trips to cities nearby. A few weekends ago we meandered over to Oxnard to see what was up. Online, I found heritage square and it seemed kinda cool.
So we packed up the dogs and drove an hour north. We got there and peeked around. It didn’t seem too exciting, but we found the visitor’s center and a nice little old lady offered to give us a tour for $ 5 each. It was an architecture tour and so we went around to the different houses and she pointed out interesting things about the building and why it was constructed and who constructed it. Now, I’m not really an architecture buff so a lot of it went over my head. The tour guide was really nice though! The houses were pretty cool. It’s sort of a weird place though. It’s a business park, but the buildings are really old refurbished houses from back in the day. It would have been better if the houses were museums that you could go in to and learn about the history of Oxnard or California in general.
If you’re looking for something fun to do for the day, I would not highly recommend it. If you live in Oxnard and have a few minutes to kill, I would check it out! They have a wine tasting building there that looked like it could be fun.

I hosted my mother’s retirement party here recently and it was a pleasure to work with Michelle Kenney (the owner) of La Dolce Vita. Her sweet restaurant is the perfect spot to host a party of 40. We were looking for a great spot in Ventura, Oxnard, and Camarillo and decided on this restaurant in Heritage Square because from the start, Michelle was quite professional and communicative with our needs as we prepared for the event. We had access to an extensive menu, a sound system to play music, and a full-​service wine and spirits bar. Everyone enjoyed the food, ambience, and atmosphere of the restaurant situated in a restored Victorian in the beautiful oasis of Heritage Square in Downtown Oxnard. In the summertime on Friday’s, bands play in the courtyard adding to the ambience of the Square.
La Dolce Vita Restaurant:

I researched Heritage Square because I wanted it to be one of my destinations on my two-​day road trip. I was so excited about coming to Heritage Square; I had high expectations that this place would be full of Victorian inspired gems (because of the great pictures on its website), so to speak, but I was so wrong.
I arrived past 1 p.m. (3 hours after opening time) on 4÷13÷13, and noticed that this place was a ghost town! The houses looked abandoned, and there were trash peppered all across grounds. Maybe I came on a day when the weather wasn’t so great, but being that it was an okay Saturday afternoon, I thought families would be huddled around a place like this, especially since residential homes were literally only a few away. Might was well add tumble weeds blowing in the picture, because it deemed appropriate.
This place is smaller than I thought; there was nothing special about it. The surrounding area (residential) looks run down and «ghetto» looking. I was not impressed one bit. Sorry, but I will not be returning.

This is a pretty cool place to check out. It’s really well maintained and the old houses are awesome. We went during the week and just walked around and read the signs. Fun for a quick little tour.

Too small, although nice and quiet. Sadly, this is located near a hash store and a whore house (a massage parlor). The upside, there is a pool hall, Golden Chicken Inn, Jesse’s TDM, El Polo Norteno, and Asahi Market nearby.

beautiful gem in oxnard. during the summer they have concerts in the park. really good music and crowds. throughout the year they also have wine tastings and tequila tastings. a couple of the houses need work but, overall, its a nice unexpected place.

If I lived in Oxnard and was going to get married and had less then 100 guests on my list then this place would be #1 in my book. The quaintness of the chapel, the simplicity of it’s décor, the buildings that surround it, and just the overall vibe it gives off screams have a wedding here. I’ve only toured it and I have never actually been to a wedding at this location, but personally I fell in love instantly.