Item 09 - Fairview Street Improvement Project

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Architectural History Evaluation and named Rancho Santiago De Santa Ana.The grant boundaries were described as the lands to the south and east of the Santa Ana River and to a line from the top of Red Hill to the bay in Newport that follows the alignment of modern Red Hill Avenue.The original boundaries of the rancho were around 70,000 acres. Originally, the Peralta and Yorba families lived together at Olive Hill at the mouth of Santa Ana Canyon.As their families grew, they spread throughout the rancho;the Peralta family adobe on the south side of Santa Ana Canyon still survives to this day. When the United States Land Commission reviewed the boundaries of the ranchos in the 1850s, the surveyors reduced the boundary of the rancho to 62,500 acres (Brigandi 2019a). In 1869 the Yorba family sold 74 acres of the Rancho Santiago De Santa Ana to William Spurgeon, who established the new town site of Santa Ana (Deal 2021). In 1868 the Rancho Santiago De Santa Ana was broken up and divided among the heirs of the Yorba and Peralta families.The partition of the rancho and the selling of its land by the heirs initiated a surge of development in the area (Brigandi 2019b). Spurgeon came from central California to found a new town along with his business partner Ward Bradford, who was more interested in the investment than development and sold his shares after six months. Spurgeon laid out his town site and built himself a combination home and store. In 1870 he applied for a post office under the name Santa Ana. Spurgeon won the name over an existing community to the north, which is now known as Olive, and was appointed its first postmaster. Spurgeon was also instrumental in lobbying the railroad to come to Santa Ana. In 1877 Spurgeon and a group of local Santa Ana investors raised 10,000 dollars and 90 acres of land on the east side of town to encourage the Western Development Company, which was the real estate branch of the Southern Pacific Railroad, to come to Santa Ana. The lots were small, and the east—west streets ran parallel to the railroad, which put them at an odd angle to the layout of the original township.As a result, the town's established business owners were reluctant to move their shops closer to the railroad depot (Brigandi 2019c). The City of Santa Ana was incorporated in 1886 (City of Santa Ana 2021). One year later, Orange County was separated from Los Angeles County, and the City of Santa Ana was chosen to be the County Seat over Anaheim, whose residents had been at the head of the lobby to secede from Los Angeles County (Masters 2013). Many buildings in the Santa Ana downtown area and surrounding bungalows were built in the early 1900s and 1920s to meet the needs of this mixed demographic, and the boardinghouse became a common property type for working class citizens seeking housing above commercial shops and office spaces. By 1906, the opening of the Pacific Electric Railway's Red Car established a suburban route from Santa Ana to Los Angeles, and by 1910 Santa Ana had gradually grown in population to 8,429 people, making it the largest city in Orange County at the time (Marsh 1994). Residential subdivisions in communities outside of the historic core expanded significantly during the 1910s and 1920s, including the construction of small-to medium-sized craftsman bungalows and Colonial Revival style houses. More than half of the Pico-Lowell district to the southwest of downtown had been subdivided into residential parcels by 1912. The 1910s also saw an expansion in manufacturing and industry, indicating Santa Ana's economic strength (Marsh 1994). ECORP Consulting, Inc. 9 January 2025 Fairview Street Widening Project 2024-088.03 9-100