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State of California -The Resources Agency
<br />DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION
<br />CONTINUATION SHEET
<br />Resource Name or #: 1700-1740 E. Garry Avenue
<br />Page 12 of 27
<br />1310. Significance (Continued from page 2)
<br />Historic Overview of Santa Ana
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<br />William Spurgeon, a native of Kentucky, founded the City of Santa Ana in 1869.' Prior to the American Period,
<br />which began in 1848 following the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo and the secession of California
<br />from Mexico to the United States, much of what is now Orange County, along with most of Southern
<br />California, was held by Mexican families in vast tracts comprised of tens of thousands of acres. In the fall of
<br />1869 Spurgeon and his partner Ward Bradford purchased approximately 74 acres of what once was part of the
<br />Rancho Santiago de Santa Ana. The men split their holdings with Spurgeon taking the eastern half where he
<br />founded his town. The original plat for Santa Ana was small, but courageous on Spurgeon's part, only twenty-
<br />four blocks of approximately ten lots each. At the time Anaheim was the only other community in region.
<br />Other towns followed close behind Santa Ana, including the cities of Orange and Tustin, which were founded
<br />in 1870.
<br />Santa Ana grew slowly at first. Spurgeon worked hard to ensure the success of his town by opening roads
<br />and digging wells, and when those no longer proved sufficient, he formed the Semi -Tropic Water Company to
<br />extend a canal from Orange to guarantee adequate water supply.z He also opened and operated a general
<br />store and post office with his brother at the corner of Fourth and West Streets (now Broadway). Because of
<br />Spurgen's efforts other businesses congregated in the area, establishing Fourth Street as the commercial
<br />district.' By the late nineteenth century Santa Ana had the appearance of a mid -sized town with many multi-
<br />story Victorian style brick buildings. Fourth Street sported several business blocks, banks, hotels and opera
<br />house.
<br />Santa Ana incorporated as a City in 1886 at the height of the real estate boom sweeping Southern California.
<br />Three years later, in 1889, present-day Orange County separated from Los Angeles County, incorporating as a
<br />separate municipality. Due to its geographical location at the center of the new county and its large
<br />population, Santa Ana was named as the County seat.4 By 1891 three railroad lines had been installed
<br />through Santa Ana; the Southern Pacific Railroad, which established Santa Ana as the end of the Orange
<br />County Line in 1877; the Santa Fe, which arrived in 1887 running from Los Angeles to San Diego; and the
<br />Santa Ana and Newport Railroad in 1891, which ran between Santa Ana and McFadden's Wharf in Newport
<br />Beach.'
<br />Until the 1940s the economy of Santa Ana, as well as greater Orange County, rested primarily on agriculture.
<br />Early on grapes and livestock were the principal products of the region. Chili peppers and Lima beans were
<br />later preferred. At the turn of the twentieth century sugar beets, grown for sugar production, had become
<br />such a significant crop in the area that Santa Ana was coined the "Sugar City."' Sugar beets were first grown
<br />in Orange County in 1891 and were shipped to Chino where the Oxnard brothers had recently opened a
<br />processing plant.' Another sugar factory was opened in Los Alamitos in 1897. The year 1908 witnessed the
<br />'Leo J. Friis, Orange County Through Four Centuries (Santa Ana, CA: Friis — Pioneer Press, 1982), 59 and Esther R. Cramer, Keith A. Dixon,
<br />Diann Marsh, Phil Brigandi and Clarice A. Blamer, eds. A Hundred Years of Yesterdays (Santa Ana, CA: The Orange County Centennial, Inc.,
<br />1988), 176, claim that Spurgeon hailed from Kentucky, while Charles D. Swanner, Santa Ana: A Narrative of Yesterday, 1870 —1910 (Saunder
<br />Press, Claremont, CA, 1953), 15, claims he was from Missouri.
<br />2 Pamela Hallan-Gibson, The Golden Promise: An Illustrated History of Orange County (Northridge, CA: Windsor Publications, Inc., 1986), 76.
<br />s Swanner, 17.
<br />a Cramer, et al.,36-37 and Friis, 96-98.
<br />s Hallan-Gibson, 112-113.
<br />6 Cramer, et al., 41.
<br />7 Friis, 104-105 claims this was in 1890, however the Chino plant didn't start operation until 1891, see "Beet Sugar in California," San Fransisco
<br />Chronicle, 12 January 1891 as well as Torsten A. Magnuson, "History of the Beet Sugar Industry in California," Annual Publication of the
<br />DPR 523J (9/2013) *Required information
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