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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 4 Resource Name: E.M. Crawford House
<br />*Recorded by Pedro Gomez *Date October 29, 2020 ❑O Continuation ❑ Update
<br />*B10. Significance (continued):
<br />The E.M. Crawford House is located in Jack Fisher Park, a neighborhood northwest of downtown Santa Ana bounded by Bristol
<br />Street, Santa Clara Avenue, Memory Lane, and the Interstate 5. "The neighborhood takes its name from Jacob (Jack) Fisher.
<br />Born in Yakima, Washington, Fisher moved to Santa Ana with his parents and sister in the early twentieth century. In April
<br />1917, upon the United States' entry into World War 1, Fisher enlisted in the US Army when he was 18 years old. Assigned to
<br />Company L, Seventh California Regiment, Fisher later advanced to the level of corporal in the 58th Infantry of Company D.
<br />During his service in World War 1, Fisher received several high-level honors for his service in France, including a Purple Heart,
<br />French Croix de Guerre with Palm, and the Medaille Militaire, France's highest military recognition. After surviving the battles
<br />of Argonne Forest and Verdun, Fisher's final battle was fought in Argonne, from which he emerged with grave injuries. In 1919,
<br />Fisher returned to the United States for a period of convalescence. During his recuperation at the military hospital in San
<br />Francisco, Fisher studied art and cartoon illustration, which he developed into a career as a cartoonist for the San Francisco
<br />Examiner and, later, Santa Ana Register upon his return to Santa Ana in 1927. A decorated veteran with awards from Italy,
<br />Belgium, Britain, France, and the United States, Fisher was instrumental in the formation of the Santa Ana Chapter of the
<br />Disabled American Veterans. After Fisher's death at the age of 30, in March 1929, the Chapter of Disabled American Veterans
<br />he helped form took his name as the Jack Fisher Post, Chapter of Disabled American Veterans. On August 23, 1933,
<br />construction was completed on a park north of Santiago Creek on North Flower Street and dedicated as the Jack Fisher
<br />Memorial Park.
<br />Prior to its residential development, Fisher Park formed Lots 5B, 8 and 9 of the Potts, Borden and Sidwell Tract, subdivided in
<br />1881. Current -day Interstate 5 conforms to the prominent diagonal swath cut by the Southern Pacific Railroad line, which was
<br />established in Santa Ana in the late 1870s and still forms the eastern border of the Fisher Park neighborhood. With the
<br />exception of the Southern Pacific Railroad line, the area remained agricultural through much of the first half of the twentieth
<br />century, with walnut groves and orchards dotting the landscape. In November 1947, residential development arrived when a
<br />narrow strip was cleared, graded, and subdivided into 25lots offered as Tract No. 1160, "River Lane Tract." Mirroring the curve
<br />of Santiago Creek to the south, the streets displayed a curvilinear layout, with lots ranging in size from 70 to 130 feet long, 140
<br />to 190 deep. Three years later, in August 1950, another curvilinear subdivision appeared east of Flower Street, with smaller
<br />lots, averaging 60 feet by 90 feet, arranged around a curvilinear pattern with cul-de-sacs. An outgrowth of earlier City Beautiful
<br />and Garden City models, this curvilinear layout reflected neighborhood planning preferences codified in the 1930s by the
<br />Federal Housing Administration (FHA), which regulated and financed the increase in home ownership through its mortgage
<br />lending and insurance programs. During the post -WWII housing expansion in the United States, the FHA -endorsed model for
<br />city planning, as reflected in the neighborhood of Fisher Park, "set the standards for the design of post -World War 11
<br />subdivisions." (National Register Bulletin, Historic Residential Suburbs, p. 49).
<br />Construction quickly transformed the neighborhood from agricultural to residential. A 1947 aerial photograph taken a few
<br />months before creation of the River Lane Tract shows the area dominated by groves of trees. By 1955, nearly all the lots of
<br />both tracts had been improved with single-family residences with uniform setbacks, mostly in the Ranch House style popular
<br />in the 1950s and 1960s, in a configuration and unity of design still reflected there today (2020). The homes of the Jack Fisher
<br />Park neighborhood were built following the overwhelming success architects had in the early 1950's, when building homes
<br />using "California Ranch" architectural design and features. Homes located in our prestigious neighborhood range from 1,500-
<br />6,000 sq. ft., with lot sizes from 6,500-25,000 sq. ft. Properties within this neighborhood boast some of the largest residential
<br />land use in any of the incorporated cities within Orange County and Southern California. Giving true meaning to the phrase,
<br />"Sprawling California Ranch" style homes. Jack Fisher Park was named after a local highly decorated World War I hero."
<br />The E.M. Crawford House qualifies for listing in the Santa Ana Register of Historical Properties under Criterion 1 as an early
<br />and very intact example of the Ranch style in Santa Ana and under Criterion 3 as a rare example of adobe construction in
<br />Santa Ana. Additionally, the house has been categorized as "Landmark" because it "has a distinctive architectural style and
<br />quality" representing the Ranch House style in Santa Ana, and because, as a rare, perhaps unique, example of the late adobe
<br />revival in Santa Ana, the building has a "unique architectural significance." (Santa Ana Municipal Code, Section 30-2.2).
<br />Character -defining features of the E.M. Crawford House include, but may not be limited to: massing ("L" -shaped plan); low
<br />pitched, cross -hipped roof,, wide, overhanging, open eaves and exposed rafters; "Verdugo Adobe" brick; fenestration (multi -
<br />light, metal -framed casement windows); and adobe brick chimneys.
<br />*B12. References (continued):
<br />Ancestry.com. California, Death Index, 1940-1997 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2000.
<br />Ancestry.com. 1930 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2002.
<br />Harris, Cyril M. American Architecture: An Illustrated Encvclooedia. New York, WW Norton, 1998.
<br />Marsh, Diann. Santa Ana, An Illustrated Historv. 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 Register
<br />Newspapers. com (Santa Ana Register)
<br />Branch, National Park Service, US Dept. of the /7terigr�99j, 58
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