Virginia Colony

Before World War II, Moorpark was a small farm town that was largely segregated. The city's Housing Element says Hispanic residents living outside the town center founded the colony near the railroad and the Arroyo Simi, where land cost less. The 1927 map divided the land into about 120 lots, many of them 50 feet wide, along what was then the Ventura County Highway (today's Los Angeles Avenue). In 1928 a later set of owners recorded a resubdivision that redrew the same lots. County building records date the oldest houses to the mid-1920s, and most were built between the 1930s and 1960s.

The freeway cuts the colony off from the rest of town. Business parks cover much of the land to the north, and Princeton Avenue is the only road in. Virginia Colony Park on Condor Drive was one of the projects the city completed with redevelopment funds after incorporation. The 2021–2029 Housing Element names the colony as a place where homes need repair and streets need work. In 2022 the city awarded a contract to widen and straighten Princeton Avenue and to add sidewalks, bike lanes and left-turn lanes.

The lay of the land

A small, older neighborhood of about 50 homes on narrow streets beside the railroad. The freeway separates it from downtown, and Princeton Avenue is its only road connection.

The city's Housing Element also uses "Virginia Colony" for a larger planning area that takes in the business parks to the north and Villa del Arroyo Mobile Home Estates. This page covers only the residential colony on the 1927 Colonia Virginia Tract.