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State of California  The Resources Agency Primary # _____________________________________________ <br />DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION HRI # ________________________________________________ <br />CONTINUATION SHEET Trinomial _____________________________________________ <br />Page 3_ of 3_ Resource Name: Edwards House <br />*Recorded by Ricardo Soto *Date October 4, 2018  Continuation  Update <br />DPR 523L <br />*B10. Significance (continued): <br /> <br />Santa Ana was founded by William Spurgeon in 1869 as a speculative town site on part of the Spanish land grant known as <br />Rancho Santiago de Santa Ana. The civic and commercial core of the community was centered around the intersection of <br />Main and Fourth Streets. Stimulated by the arrival of the Santa Fe Railroad and incorporation as a city in 1886, and selection <br />as the seat of the newly created County of Orange in 1889, the city grew outwards, with residential neighborhoods <br />developing to the north, south, and east of the city center. Agricultural uses predominated in the outlying areas, with <br />cultivated fields and orchards dotted with widely scattered farmhouses. <br /> <br />The Edwards House is located in Floral Park, a neighborhood northwest of downtown Santa Ana bounded by West <br />Seventeenth Street, North Flower Street, Riverside Drive, and Broadway. Groves of oranges, avocados, and walnuts and <br />widely scattered ranch houses characterized this area before 1920. Developer and builder Allison Honer (1897-1981), <br />credited as the subdivider and builder of a major portion of northwest Santa Ana, arrived in Santa Ana from Beaver Falls, <br />New York in 1922 (Talbert, pages 353-356). “Before nightfall on the day of his arrival, Mr. Honer purchased a parcel of land. <br />And that month, he began building custom homes in Santa Ana” (Orange County Register, September 15, 1981). The parcel <br />chosen became the Floral Park subdivision between Seventeenth Street and Santiago Creek. “When built in the 1920s, the <br />Floral Park homes were the most lavish and expensive in the area. They sold for about $45,000 each” (Orange County <br />Register, September 15, 1981). Revival architecture in a wide variety of romantic styles was celebrated in the 1920s and <br />1930s and Floral Park showcased examples of the English Tudor, French Norman, Spanish Colonial, and Colonial Revival. <br />The Allison Honer Construction Company went on to complete such notable projects as the 1935 Art Deco styled Old Santa <br />Ana City Hall, the El Toro Marine Base during World War II, and the 1960 Honer Shopping Plaza. Honer lived in the <br />neighborhood he had helped to create, at 615 West Santa Clara Avenue. <br /> <br />In the late 1920s and 1930s, another builder, Roy Roscoe Russell (1881-1965), continued developing the groves of Floral <br />Park. An early Russell project was his 1928 subdivision of Victoria Drive between West Nineteenth Street and West Santa <br />Clara Avenue. The homes were quite grand and displayed various revival styles, including Russell’s own large, Colonial <br />Revival mansion at 2009 Victoria Drive. In the early post World War II years, Floral Park continued its development as <br />numerous, smaller, single-family houses were built. Continuing in the Floral Park tradition, they were mostly revival in style. In <br />the 1950s, low, horizontal Ranch Style houses completed the growth of Floral Park. Today (2018) Floral Park maintains its <br />identity as the premier neighborhood of Santa Ana, historically home to many affluent and prominent citizens. <br /> <br />The Edwards House qualifies for listing in the Santa Ana Register of Historical Properties under Criterion 1, as a building with <br />the “distinguishing characteristics of an architectural style or period,” representative of the Spanish Colonial Revival style. <br />Typical features of the Spanish Colonial Revival exhibited by the Edwards House include stucco cladding, barrel tile coping <br />and roofing, asymmetrical composition, arched openings, and stepped parapet. Additionally, the house has been categorized <br />as “Contributive” because it “contributes to the overall character and history” of the Floral Park neighborhood and is a “good <br />example of period architecture” as a highly intact example of a one-story Spanish Colonial Revival house from the 1920s. <br />Character defining features of the Edwards House that should be preserved include, but may not be limited to: materials and <br />finishes (stucco); roof configuration, materials, and treatment (clay barrel tiling); massing and composition; doors and <br />windows (Prairie School-style wood casement windows, where extant); entry portico; and porte-cochere. <br /> <br />*B12. References (continued): <br /> <br />Harris, Cyril M. American Architecture: An Illustrated Encyclopedia. New York, WW Norton, 1998. <br />Marsh, Diann. Santa Ana, An Illustrated History. Encinitas, Heritage Publishing, 1994. <br />McAlester, Virginia and Lee. A Field Guide to American Houses. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1984. <br />National Register Bulletin 16A. “How to Complete the National Register Registration Form.” Washington DC: National <br />Register Branch, National Park Service, US Dept. of the Interior, 1991. <br />Office of Historic Preservation. “Instructions for Recording Historical Resources.” Sacramento: March 1995. <br />Whiffen, Marcus. American Architecture Since 1780. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1969. <br />Santa Ana and Orange County Directories, 1905-2017. <br />Ancestry.com <br />Newspapers.com (Santa Ana Register) <br />Historic Maps, Santa Ana History Room, 1912, 1923, 1932, and 1955. <br /> <br />5-20