Orange

A bit of history

Attorneys Alfred Chapman and Andrew Glassell laid out the townsite in 1869 under the name Richland, and after a mail mix-up with another California town of that name forced a change, the town became Orange and incorporated on April 6, 1888. Reached early by the California Southern Railroad, Orange grew through the citrus boom of the 1890s, with orange groves eventually filling the surrounding countryside. Unlike many neighboring cities, Orange preserved rather than demolished its early housing stock, and its one-square-mile Old Towne district, planned and built around a central plaza and nicknamed "Plaza City," was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1997 as the largest historic district in California.