Santa Ana Civic Center


The Civic Center in Santa Ana is Orange County, California's main center of government. The city of Santa Ana became the county seat of government in 1889 and continues to be the seat of government to this day. The architectural styles, both old and new found within the Civic Center and surrounding areas reflect its role as the county's main seat of government.
The city of Santa Ana was established in 1869 by William Spurgeon on of land purchased from the old Spanish land grant, Rancho Santiago de Santa Ana. The County of Orange was formed in 1889 by William Spurgeon and James McFadden and Santa Ana was chosen as the county seat of government because of its larger growth as a town over surrounding towns namely Orange. The Old Orange County Courthouse was built in 1901 and thus the town blossomed into the county's main economic and political center. The surrounding old town buildings then became what is now Santa Ana's Historical Downtown.

Location

A similarity exists between the Santa Ana Downtown Historic District and the Civic Center at Ross street. The National Register of Historic Places has the historic downtown roughly bounded by Ross and French streets, and 1st and Civic Center Drive. The various federal, state, county and city offices located in both the Downtown and Civic Center are related to one another. The newer city and county offices in the Civic Center were in the now Historic Downtown, namely Santa Ana City Hall and the Orange County Courthouse.

City of Santa Ana offices