{"nrhp_refnum":"77000321","name":"Orange County Courthouse","other_names":["Old County Courthouse"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"211 W. Santa Ana Blvd.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Santa Ana","county":"Orange County","state":"CA","lat":33.750449169000035,"lon":-117.86938004899997,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1977-08-29","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Law","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A two-story red sandstone county courthouse at 211 W. Santa Ana Blvd. in Santa Ana, California, built in 1900 to a design by architect Charles L. Strange of Los Angeles.","why_significant":"It is described as the oldest existing county courthouse in Southern California and a rare example of modified Richardson Romanesque civic architecture. It served as the seat of Orange County justice from 1900 to 1968 and hosted several cases of state and national significance.","narrative":"Built in 1900 on land bought from town founder W. H. Spurgeon, this two-story courthouse in Santa Ana is faced in Arizona red sandstone that was shipped in and cut on site. Charles L. Strange of Los Angeles designed it in a modified Richardson Romanesque style, with broad arches, squat column clusters and rough-faced stone. It reportedly duplicates a courthouse built in Buena Vista, Iowa, twelve years earlier. The 1933 earthquake damaged the cupola and central gable; the cupola was removed and the gable repaired with stucco. Otherwise the exterior remains largely unaltered. It is the oldest surviving county courthouse in Southern California and served as the seat of Orange County justice until 1968. Cases tried there include the Huntington Beach whipstock oil case, the Overell murder trial, and the McCracken trial, which led to California rules on media coverage of courtrooms. Later it housed county offices, with restoration and a museum planned.","period_of_significance":"1900","architect_builder":"Charles L. Strange (architect, Los Angeles); contractors Christopher McNeil and J. Willis Blee of Santa Ana; stonemason Frank Heil, Sr.","architectural_style":"Modified Richardson Romanesque","criteria":[],"status_note":"Occupied and in excellent condition. Used for county offices and a press room; restoration of the second floor, a museum and county archives were planned.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:31.930756-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_CA/77000321.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/77000321/278247a428-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/77000321/278247a428-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY 3.0","author":"Loco Steve","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:%22Old_Orange_County_Courthouse%22_Santa_Ana_CA._-_panoramio.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Loco Steve</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:%22Old_Orange_County_Courthouse%22_Santa_Ana_CA._-_panoramio.jpg"},"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"84000438","name":"Downtown Santa Ana Historic Districts (North, Government/Institutional and South, Retail)","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/california/downtown-santa-ana-historic-districts-north-government-institutional-and-south-r-84000438/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/123860298","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Orange_County_Courthouse_(California)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7084662"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/california/orange-county/orange-county-courthouse-77000321/"}