SOLVANG

Of all the the ethnic-themed villages in the USA, Solvang must be the most successful. Located a little more than two hours drive north of Los Angeles in the beautiful San Yuez Valley, the "Danish Capital of America" comes packed with European charm. There is a replica of the Little Mermaid statue that graces the Copenhagen water front, windmills and plenty of real copper roofs. There are many people in national costumes and about 300 stores selling everything from pewter, porcelain, linen to t-shirts with Solvang motives.

More than a million visitors turn off 101 at the Buellton Pea Soup Anderson’s for a shorter or a longer stay in Solvang. The prosperous village is almost entirely geared towards tourists, but the Danish American atmosphere remains intact in the Disneyesque resort town that so easily could have become a tourist trap.

The emphasis on going "all-Danish" with the special architectural style in the downtown area was accelerated after the end of World War II and the publication of a big picture spread on the town in the Saturday Evening Post. Visitors from Denmark regularly attest to the authencity of the town’s Danish farm-style buildings with bindingsvaerk (half-timbered) walls, tile, simulated thatch and gleaming copper roofs, attractive dormers, stained glass windows and stretches of cobblestoned sidewalks. Another indication of Solvang’s Danish background is found in the array of artificial storks gracing the chimneys and roof lines of many of the Danish homes and commercial buildings. The people in Solvang, like those in Denmark, believe a stork on the roof will bring good luck. Street illumination is provided in some parts of town by old-fashioned gas lamps, many of which at one time saw service in Copenhagen. Lending emphasis also to the Danish countryside flavor are Solvang’s quintet of country-style windmills.

Tours of the town are provided daily in the spring, summer and fall and on weekends in the winter on Hønen "The Hen", a replica of a Copenhagen street car of the early 1900s which is powered by a pair of massive blonde Belgian horses.

Solvang is also home to two museums. The Elverhøj Museum is housed in the former residence of one of the town’s most artistic families and is now devoted to the cultural heritage of Solvang. Viggo Brandt-Erichsen who built the house in the style of a Danish farmhouse was an internationally recognized artist and sculptor. His wife Martha was an accomplished watercolorist and teacher. They named their house "Elverhøj" after Denmark’s most famous folk play about "elves on a hill" that are visited by the King. Displays in the museum include information about early Solvang history, examples of Danish and Danish-American furnishings and rotating exhibits of art.

The Hans Christian Andersen Museum in downtown Solvang features a large collection of the author’s books. Displays in the charming little museum also relate to the life, art and loves of Denmark’s most famous and beloved author.

A Solvang tradition since 1974 and acclaimed by critics nationwide, the Solvang Theaterfest offers repertory theater at its finest with plays presented by the Pacific Conservatory of the Performing Arts. The 780-seat outdoor theater offers a variety of theatrical presentations from June through September each year.

Solvang was founded in 1911 by a group of Danish educators from Danish settlements in Iowa and Michigan who wanted to establish a Danish folk school on the West Coast. They fell in love with the sun, rich earth, sheltering mountains and grassy knolls dotted with oak trees and bought 9 000 acres of the Spanish land grant. They called the settlement Solvang meaning "sunny field" and started building the town and their college.

At first Atterdag College was housed in what is today "Bit O’Denmark Restaurant". The long wooden three-story building with its peeked roof was ready in 1914 to teach "for living life, not solely to earn a living. There were no examinations and no degrees. There was a love of life, a love of literature, of mathematics. There were debates and drama, gymnastics and sangelage (singing dances). Students sang the songs of heroism and daring, of right and courage, of honesty and integrity". Sadly the idealistic vision did not hold and the school that looked a bit like a Victorian hotel was torn down in 1970, to make room for an old people’s home. Today some of the old timers are concluding their days in Solvang on the very spot they started their adult lives.

But even if the folk school did not survive, the spirit of the pioneers not just to make money but to make good in this environment has remained.

In less than one year after the establishment of the colony, the founders had a choir of 40 young people who gave concerts and sang the works of Handel and Beethoven. Today there are many artists and actors in the area that still abounds with Danish charms.

As the years have passed the Danish-Americans of Solvang, as well as the more recent arrivals of non-Danish descent, continue to live in harmony with the other ethnic groups of the Santa Ynez Valley. The varied population of the Valley includes the Chumas Indians who live on a nearby reservation in Santa Ynez, and the Mexicans and Spanish whose forbearers came to Solvang long before it was envisioned as a Danish town. The legacy of these earlier settlers and the padres is evident in the Old Mission Santa Inés, which was dedicated on September 17, 1804 as the 19th in the chain of 21 California Missions. The Old Mission, one of the best preserved in the state, is located a short distance from the heart of downtown Solvang.