The Strathearn Park Bunny Is Back! Free Photos, Sweet Treats and a Historic Porch — An Easter Moment Your Kids Will Remember
Sylvie Belmond 
One of Simi Valley’s most charming spring traditions is back for 5 days.
(CLAIR | Simi Valley, CA) — Every spring, something a little magical happens on the front porch of a historic ranch house on Simi Valley’s west side.
The Strathearn Park Bunny is back, and for five days starting March 30, kids can climb those porch steps, meet the bunny face to face and grab a sweet treat while parents snap the kind of photos that get texted to grandparents before the drive home. Visits run March 30 through April 3, noon to 2 p.m. each day, on the porch of the Strathearn Home at Strathearn Historical Park and Museum.
No reservations needed. Just show up.
The tradition of a gift-bringing bunny is older than most people realize. It traces back to German folklore and a character called Osterhase, a hare children believed left colored eggs in nests they’d built from their caps and bonnets. German immigrants brought the custom to America in the 1700s, and it slowly grew into the spring celebration most families know today. Not a bad origin story for something that now shows up on historic porches in Simi Valley.
The Simi Valley Historical Society hosts the event each year, and for many local families it has become one of those spring rituals you just do. Volunteers keep things moving and hand out treats, and because you’re on the grounds of a working historic park rather than inside a mall, the whole thing feels like a breath of fresh air.
That setting is worth the trip even if your kids have aged out of bunny photos.
Strathearn Historical Park covers six and a half acres and holds some of the oldest structures still standing in the valley, many relocated here from other parts of Simi and preserved on site. The collection includes hundreds of photographs, handwritten letters and personal objects that sketch a portrait of the people who farmed and ranched this land more than a century ago. Among the buildings are the original Simi Library, a 1902 church, a working barbershop and two Wood Ranch barns from the 1940s, each with its own story to tell.
At the heart of it all is the family the park is named for. Robert and Mary Strathearn raised seven children while ranching roughly 14,000 acres in the Simi Valley area beginning in the 1880s. Their home became one of the most recognized historic buildings in the city, and in 1968 the family donated it, along with the surrounding acreage, to the Rancho Simi Recreation and Park District. The Simi Valley Historical Society has partnered in its care ever since.
Want to make an afternoon of it? The Visitors Center has a free Pioneer Walking Path map for a self-guided stroll through the historic buildings and grounds. Docent-led tours start at 1 p.m. on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays for anyone who wants to go deeper. Check SimiHistory.com for tour details before you visit.
The park is free and open year-round, Monday through Friday 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. and weekends 1 to 4 p.m.
More at SimiHistory.com.
