Dave DeCaro of Daveland stopped by the Orange County Archives the other day to visit me. He didn't have much time, but he did stick around long enough for me to give him an abbreviated tour of Downtown Santa Ana. Naturally, we started with the Old Courthouse and the Archives. Then, with time at a premium, the obvious next place to go was 4th Street (with a quick detour onto 3rd as well). I took all the photos in today's post during that short tour. Dave's version of the trek is posted on his blog and a new Santa Ana page on his website..
The photo above shows Dave at the Yost Theatre (1912). The image below was taken at 4th and Sycamore, and shows a variety of historic buildings, including the tall First National Bank Building and the ornate Orange County Title Company Building (with a modernized lower half).
Before the strip malls and shopping centers of the 1950s and the malls of the 1970s, 4th St. was the most important shopping and business district in Orange County. Much of the street's historic infrastructure can still be seen between misguided attempts at updating and improving the buildings..
Some of the coolest buildings here are the old theaters, with the West End Theatre (1915), shown below, being a prime example. The West Coast Theatre on Main St. (not depicted here) is also a beauty.
I spent most of the tour pointing at things and talking -- not taking photos -- So I'm not showing you even a fraction of the interesting stuff we passed. And our short timeframe meant that a lot of neat places were skipped entirely -- like the snazzy Santora Building at Broadway and 2nd St..
I'm not sure what the story is on the building shown below, at Broadway and 4th, but I like it. The upper floors have loads of character, while the first floor suffers from a half-baked art-deco overlay.
One of my favorite blocks in all of Santa Ana is the 400 Block of West 4th St. directly across from the enormous Reagan Federal Building & Courthouse. This tidy row of old two-story commercial buildings (below) show what Santa Ana could be if it got its act together. Santa Ana has loads of potential to be welcoming, fascinating and charming. Sadly, few expect to see that potential realized.
Buildings along this part of 4th include the Lawrence Building and the Clausen Block. An underwhelming pastrami place just moved out of one of these storefronts. One can only hope it's replaced by The Hat.
In the photo above, you see the back of the old Santa Ana City Hall (1934), designed by architects W. Horace Austin and H.C. Wildman after the big quake of 1933 made the even older City Hall unsafe. The building project was partially funded by the WPA. .
Why photograph the back of City Hall? Because the parking lot behind it (at left) is also historically important. That land was Santa Ana's Chinatown. It was burned down in 1906 after leprosy was discovered there. (Yes, all the residents were removed from the buildings first!)
It's also fun, as you walk down 4th St., to look for signs (sometimes literally) of the old businesses that used to inhabit the buildings. Signs and logos for stores like Krieger's (above), Woolworth's, Buster Brown Shoes, and Rankin's Department Store can still be found amid the architectural details. This is fertile ground for urban archaeology..
Unlike many downtowns that simply died and faded away, Downtown Santa Ana is still a bustling commercial hub. The area just has different customers now. The shops now sell quinceanera and wedding dresses, trips home to Mexico, cheap children's clothes, and "check wiring" services.
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There's also a really cool Western-wear store on East 4th and an honest-to-God newsstand on Broadway, between 4th and 5th.
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If you're interested in a tour of Downtown Santa Ana, check out the Santa Ana Historical Preservation Society's website. They often conduct tours on the first Saturday of the month, and occasionally offer them at other times as well.
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(Or if all else fails, find a local historian and see if he'll spend his lunch hour giving you a walking tour.)