Saturday, May 31, 2008

Santa Ana, William Spurgeon, Floral Park, etc.

Tomorrow, June 1st, will be the 122nd anniversary of the incorporation of the City of Santa Ana. The town's founder, William H. "Uncle Billy" Spurgeon was the first mayor. Some 17 years earlier, in 1869, Spurgeon purchased 74.2 acres upon which much of downtown Santa Ana now sits. The land was then covered in tall mustard plants, and he had to climb a sycamore tree to inspect the land. A younger sycamore tree (shown above) now stands on the location of that historic event, at what is now the corner of 5th St. and Sycamore St. (Notice also, the Spurgeon Building in the background.)
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In case you missed the home tour of Santa Ana's Floral Park, about a month ago, a video was recently posted to YouTube. It's mostly still images, but it still gives you an idea of the tour.
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Also posted to YouTube, are a series of highlights from the Santa Ana Historic Preservation Society's annual Fairhaven Cemetery Tour. Click on over to watch high school kids pretend to be locally famous dead people: Part 1, Part 2, & Part 3.

1 comment:

ItsNotAPlace said...

the Cemetery tour videos are neat.