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State of California —The Resources Agency Primary # DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION. HRI # CONTINUATION SHEET Trinomial "Recorded by Leslie Neuman *Date August 28, O Continuation ❑ Update *1310. Significance (continued): 1880s, Santa Ana's downtown business district was defined by five city blocks of brick commercial buildings on Fourth Street. By 1906, commercial development had begun to spring up on surrounding and intersecting streets. The 1906 Sanborn maps of North Main Street show a handful of commercial buildings south of 10" Street, mostly in proximity to the Fourth Street corridor, plus a few churches and the high school, but the remainder of the buildings on the street at that time were single-family residences. During the 1920s new construction along north/south arterials'such as Main Street and Broadway extended the footprint of downtown even further. The 1949 Sanborn maps illustrate a street well on its way to transforming from primarily residential to mostly commercial uses. While some formerly residential properties were reused as offices, clinics, and retail establishments, other commercial properties were built for the purpose. The west side of Main Street, between Church (Civic Center) and 1011 Street was home to one-story buildings housing used car sales, a gas station and auto repair shop, and furniture shop. The post -World War it years witnessed tremendous growth and prosperity in most southern California communities including Santa Ana, obliterating the remaining agricultural properties and cementing Main Street's new identity as a commercial thoroughfare. A late 1960s Santa Ana Chamber of Commerce annual report rhapsodized: "the striking new structures looming up out of the Civic Center and the handsome high-rises adding luster to the business districts are graphic testimony to Santa Ana's growing importance as the professional and financial center of Orange County." The Chamber of Commerce added, 'modern high-rise buildings mushrooming on North Main Street and in other businesses point to Santa Ana's increasingly important position as a regional headquarters for major banking and insurance firms. Among the banks basing regional offices here are Bank of America, Bank of California, First Western, Security Pacific National, southern California First National, United California and Crocker Citizens," The report concludes that "Santa Ana's prominence as the financial center of Orange County and its housing of all the major county government and judicial offices are further positive reasons for its emergence as a 'headquarters city" (Circa 1967 Chamber of Commerce Annual Report quoted in Kaplan Chen Kaplan, page 2). The Security Bank Building in Santa Ana was constructed as the Orange County headquarters for the Security Bank. Security Bank was founded in 1889 by Joseph Sartori as the Security Savings Bank and Trust Company in Los Angeles. Its early growth was fueled by acquistions of its competitors, six before World War L By 1927, the bank began offering a new product, installment mortgage loans. With the 1929 merger with First National Bank, an immense new financial institution was born, Security First National Bank, with 157 branch offices and $600 million in assets. Another competitor, the historic Farmers and Merchants Bank of Los Angeles, was acquired in 1956. The name of the bank had been shortened to Security Bank by 1966. Anther merger, with the San Francisco bank Pacific National in 1968, resulted in a new name, Security Pacific National Bank. By 1989 the bank was the fifth largest in the United States. This era of growth was reversed in the following years as the bank dealt with setbacks by scaling back operations. In 1991-1992 Security Pacific merged with Bank of America and ceased to exist as an independent entity after 103 years of operation. Architect Welton Becket and Associates, one of the most important architectural firms to emerge from southern California during the twentieth century, designed the Orange County Security Bank headquarters in Santa Ana. According to a recent historical report about the building (Kaplan Chen Kaplan, page 4): Architect Welton Becket and his firm, Welton Becket and Associates, is credited with transforming the cityscape of postwar Southern California with their modern commercial and institutional designs. The Getty Institute describes Becket as "an acclaimed architect whose iconic designs defined the built environment of Los Angeles in the midtwentieth century." As early as the 1930s, Becket embraced the philosophy of "total design," where the architect is responsible for all aspects of design including site planning, engineering, interior spaces and finishes, as well as landscaping. Becket graduated from the University of Washington with a Bachelor of Architecture degree in 1927. The next year he studied in France at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. His early positions included Chief designer for C. Waldo Powers (1929-1932); and partnerships including Plummer, Wurdeman & Becket, (1933-1938) and Wurdeman & Becket (1938-1949) located in Los Angeles. (Wurdeman and Becket were the designers of the Buffums Department Store, built across the street from the Security Bank site at 909 North Main Street in 1949-1950.1 Becket's prolific partnership with Walter Wurdeman ended due to Wurdeman's untimely death in 1949. In 1949 Becket established Welton Becket and Associates and grew the firm by designing for corporate and institutional clients. The firm was solely owned by Becket and DPR 523L