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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: Martha Ann Brooks House
<br />*Recorded by Pedro Gomez *Date July 1, 2021 Continuation Update
<br />DPR 523L
<br />*B10. Significance (continued):
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<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 Martha Ann Brooks 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 (2021) Floral Park maintains its
<br />identity as the premier neighborhood of Santa Ana, historically home to many affluent and prominent citizens.
<br />
<br />The Martha Ann Brooks House qualifies for listing in the Santa Ana Register of Historical Properties under Criterion 1 as an
<br />unusual example of the hacienda variant of the Ranch style. The property is also notable as the residence of Martha Ann
<br />Brooks, a long-time Santa Ana resident, and her husband, Walter L. Brooks, a former city council member. The
<br />recommended categorization is “Key” because the property has a distinctive architectural style and quality as an example of
<br />the hacienda variant of the Ranch style (Santa Ana Municipal Code, Section 30-2.2). Character-defining features of the
<br />Martha Ann Brooks House that should be preserved include, but may not be limited to: horizontal, one-story massing; low-
<br />pitched and side-gabled roofs covered in clay barrel tiles and displaying carved brackets in the overhanging eaves; partial-
<br />width open porches tucked beneath the gable roof; metal-framed, multi-paned windows and front entry; and exterior walls of
<br />brick or stucco that suggest adobe.
<br />
<br />*B12. References (continued):
<br />
<br />Ancestry.com. California, Death Index, 1940-1997 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2000.
<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
<br /> Newspapers.com (Santa Ana Register)
<br />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, 1950-1990.
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