{"nrhp_refnum":"82000975","name":"Santa Ana City Hall","other_names":["Old City Hall"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"217 N. Main St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Santa Ana","county":"Orange County","state":"CA","lat":33.74694573000005,"lon":-117.86740139399996,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1982-11-10","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Politics/Government","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"Santa Ana's fourth City Hall, a three-story reinforced concrete Art Deco (Moderne) civic building with a central four-story tower at 217 N. Main Street, Santa Ana, California, built in 1935.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the building is a primary local example of the federal response to the Great Depression, funded by a PWA grant and a city bond after the 1933 Long Beach earthquake damaged the prior city hall. It also presents the building as an outstanding example of WPA Moderne architecture whose exterior remains intact. The controversy over its financing is described as reflecting the national debate over public subsidy in the New Deal.","narrative":"Built in 1935 at 217 N. Main Street in Santa Ana's central business district, this three-story reinforced concrete building served as the city's fourth City Hall. It rises from a polished marble base and is topped by a setback four-story tower with a pyramidal copper roof and an octagonal lantern. Art Deco details include zig zag moldings, stylized sunburst spandrels, and Assyrian-like figures flanking the recessed entrance. The building replaced a city hall whose structure was ruined by the 1933 Long Beach earthquake. Its $125,000 cost was covered by a $30,000 PWA grant and a $70,000 city bond approved by only ninety-three votes, a result that stirred political controversy. The exterior remains largely unchanged apart from a fire escape and a few altered openings, though most of the interior has been lost. It was listed as an example of Depression-era public works and Moderne design in Orange County.","period_of_significance":"1900-1935","architect_builder":"Ball and Honer of Santa Ana (builder); Horace Austin and H.C. Wildman (architects)","architectural_style":"Art Deco / WPA Moderne","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Listed as vacant and unoccupied at the time of nomination; the exterior is described as largely unaltered, while most of the interior has been destroyed.","vacant_flag":true,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:54:27.002576-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_CA/82000975.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/82000975/0309805869-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/82000975/0309805869-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 2.0","author":"Eli Pousson","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Santa_Ana_City_Hall_(cropped2).jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Eli Pousson</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 2.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Santa_Ana_City_Hall_(cropped2).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/123860328","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Ana_City_Hall","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q105085914"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/california/orange-county/santa-ana-city-hall-82000975/"}