Downtown Santa Ana Historic Districts
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Downtown Santa Ana Historic Districts (North, Government/Institutional and South, Retail)
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Old Orange County Courthouse
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| Location | Roughly bounded by Civic Center Dr., First, Ross, and Spurgeon Sts., Santa Ana, California |
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| Coordinates | 33°44′54″N 117°52′5″W / 33.74833°N 117.86806°WCoordinates: 33°44′54″N 117°52′5″W / 33.74833°N 117.86806°W |
| Area | 24.5 acres (9.9 ha) |
| Built | 1877 |
| Architect | multiple |
| Architectural style | Late 19th and 20th Century Revivals, Moderne, Mission/Spanish Revival |
| NRHP Reference # | 84000438 |
| Added to NRHP | December 19, 1984 |
The Downtown Santa Ana Historic Districts is a combination of local historic districts that have been listed as one entry in the National Register of Historic Places since 1984. It is a 24.5-acre (9.9 ha) area. Also known as Historic Downtown District in Santa Ana it is roughly bounded by Ross to French streets and First to Civic Center streets. The district is characterized by a number of buildings in the Art Deco style as well as two old movie houses (The West End and the Fox West Coast). Orange County's first Courthouse, now a museum, is also located here on Civic Center and Broadway streets. The Dr. Willella Howe-Waffle House and Medical Museum is also in this area and it is now home to the Santa Ana Historical Preservation Society. The County's first theater, Walker's Theater, was built in 1909 on Main & Second streets adjacent to the old City Hall. Today, the Main Street Studio Lofts now stand where the county's first movie house used to be.
The National Register of Historic Places states that the Santa Ana Historical Downtown District is 'roughly bounded' by Civic Center Drive, 1st Street, Ross, & Spurgeon, however, the historic district nomination form does provide a list of contributing properties and detailed maps of the included area. The district consists of two section with a total of 99 buildings that remain from the commercial code of Santa Anna. The buildings date from the late 1870s to the post earthquake reconstructions of 1934. The district is divided into two parts, north and south, due to a break in the historic integrity.
The City of Santa Ana was established in 1869 by William Spurgeon on 74.27 acres (300,600 m2) of land purchased from the old Spanish land grant, Rancho Santiago de Santa Ana. The County of Orange was formed in 1889 by William Spurgeon and James McFadden and Santa Ana was chosen as the county seat of government because of its larger growth as a town over surrounding towns namely Orange. The Old Orange County Courthouse was built in 1901 and thus the town blossomed into the county's main economic and political center. The surrounding old town buildings then became what is now Santa Ana's Historical Downtown.
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