PARTY ORANGE: 27th ANNUAL ORANGE INTERNATIONAL STREET FAIR : Orange Was Key to Putting City of Orange on the Map : Majority of Early Population Depended on Citrus Industry

Had it not been for the Post Office Department, this year’s street fair would be held in a city named Richland.

That was the name of the farming community promoters laid out in 1871 a little north of Santa Ana. But in 1873 when a post office was to be built, the Post Office Department refused to use the name; there was already a Richland in Sacramento County. Instead, the town was named Orange.

It made sense. The orange, which would become the town’s heart and soul, was on the rise. By 1919, Orange’s population had grown to nearly 5,000, and the city directory showed that a third of all workers were employed by the local citrus industry.

The rest depended on it indirectly. “When the citrus pool paid the growers, then all the stores got paid,” said historian Phil Brigandi.

“In a lot of the big citrus towns back then, a few big owners owned most of everything. But in Orange, the typical groves were 5 or 10 acres. It was a very middle-class kind of community. The houses downtown reflect that. In Redlands there are a few big mansions and a lot of tiny houses, but in Orange there are block after block of these middle-class houses.”

Fast-forward to the 1950s, ‘60s and ‘70s and the small size of orchards was still controlling housing development in the city. Because there were no huge, one-owner tracts of land to develop Irvine-style, new subdivisions were small.

“Most of the city was built as 5-, 10- or 20-acre subdivisions,” said Vern Jones, planning manager at City Hall. Planned communities did not emerge in Orange until the city annexed Irvine Co. land to the east and the 230-acre, 1,300-home Santiago Hills subdivision was completed in 1998. The 700-acre, 1,100-home Serrano Heights tract is planned for the city’s northeast.

Now Orange finds itself “one of the most diverse cities in Orange County,” Jones said.

Its citizens live in a variety of neighborhoods. Some have settled into 19th century homes clustered in the 1 square mile around the old downtown, which has been declared a national historic district.

Others live in large and small ‘60s subdivisions, in rustic, horsy Orange Park Acres, and eventually some will move into luxurious, expensive master-planned neighborhoods to be built in Serrano Heights near Anaheim Hills.

Orange is a shopping destination. Rebuilding the City into the Block has rejuvenated that shopping and office center. Putting a Wal-Mart in the old Mall of Orange has given that center a boost.

And shopping is brisk downtown, which has been virtually taken over by antique stores. Metrolink trains stop at the old-time depot refurbished as a microbrewery and restaurant.

Orange is home to Chapman University, and the city is a center for major hospitals. The UCI Medical Center, a teaching hospital, is there, as well as St. Joseph Hospital and Children’s Hospital of Orange County.

The industrial zone beside the Santa Ana River has scores of medium and small companies. There is even a citrus packing house--Villa Park Orchards Assn.--still operating in town.

“It’s been a pretty stable community over the years,” Jones said. Even newcomers absorb, to some extent, old-timers’ pride in the city’s heritage.

“I think, in general, people who live in the city are well aware of Old Towne Orange. Even today it’s the most prominent, well-known feature of the city. We take our identity from it. There’s a sense citywide of its importance.”