Downtown Santa Ana (DTSA), also called Downtown Orange County, is the city center of Santa Ana, the county seat of Orange County, California. It is the institutional center for the city of Santa Ana as well as Orange County, a retail and business hub, and has in recent years developed rapidly as a regional cultural, entertainment and culinary center for Orange County.
The Downtown Santa Ana Historic Districts are listed with the National Trust for Historic Preservation and consist of numerous historic buildings across the area.
History
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. Santa Ana was chosen as the county seat of government because of its larger growth as a town compared to surrounding towns such as Orange. The Old Orange County Courthouse was built in 1901 and the town grew into the county's main economic and political center. The surrounding old town buildings make up the Santa Ana Historical Downtown.
Location
City studies and merchant associations generally define Downtown as the area between Ross Street on the west, Minter Street on the east, First Street on the south and Civic Center Drive on the north.
Neighborhood organizations define Downtown more narrowly, extending only as far east as Main Street, with the area east of Main part of the Lacy neighborhood; the Santa Ana Regional Transportation Center train and bus station is located at the east end of Lacy along Santiago Avenue.
Sub-districts
Downtown consists of several sub-districts: an institutional area including the Civic Center, the Artists Village, Calle Cuatro and the East End.
Civic Center
The Santa Ana Civic Center, also known as the Orange County Civic Center, anchors the west side of Downtown and is home to city, county and federal buildings including:
City: Santa Ana City Hall (Civic Center Plaza) Santa Ana Civic Center Plaza (Ross, Civic Center, Santa Ana Blvd, Flower) Santa Ana Public Library (Civic Center Dr. & Ross)
County: Santa Ana Transit Terminal – Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA) (Santa Ana Blvd & Ross) Old Orange County Courthouse (Civic Center, Broadway, Sycamore, Santa Ana Blvd.) Orange County Courthouse (Civic Center Plaza) Orange County Public Law Library (Civic Center Plaza)
Federal: Ronald Reagan Federal Building and United States Courthouse (4th & Broadway) Fourth District Court of Appeals (Civic Center Plaza on the corner of Santa Ana Blvd & Ross) Office of the District Attorney (Near the corner of Ross & Civic Center) Consulate of Mexico (Near Civic Center & Broadway intersection)
Fourth Street/Calle Cuatro
Hospitality, entertainment and retail in Santa Ana's historic Downtown, is centered along historic Fourth Street, better known locally by its equivalent name in Spanish, Calle Cuatro. Fourth Street stretches from the Civic Center in the west, eastward, with part of it a pedestrian-friendly outdoor mall.The West End, located between Ross Street, Broadway, and West 4th Street, across from the Ronald Reagan Building, is home to lounge cafés, restaurants, coffee shops, craft breweries, bars, jewelers, barber shops, movie and concert theaters and other retail. Over the past years, this area has developed into an LGBT+ cultural and entertainment hub with the West 4th Street corridor playing host to the annual Orange County Pride Festival.
The middle section of Calle Cuatro (roughly from Main east to Spurgeon) is home to retailers for travel, insurance, clothing, electronics, sports, shoes, baptismal certification, bridal and banking.
The Rankin Building, 117 W. Fourth Street at Sycamore, is a historic building usually seen as reminder of the heyday of Downtown Santa Ana as a shopping center, with department stores such as Rankin's as well as Montgomery Ward, J. C. Penney, and Buffums. Eventually the area lost business to the new malls at Honer Plaza and Santa Ana Fashion Square when they opened in 1958, and later on, to South Coast Plaza.