Orange Incorporation Got Push by Temperance Movement : 100-Year-Old City Plans Celebration

A strong distaste for alcoholic beverages may have prompted the incorporation of the city of Orange 100 years ago, but it is the hometown atmosphere that keeps the city going strong today, according to historian Phil Brigandi.

Brigandi, a member of the Orange Centennial Commission, said that in 1888, there was a strong temperance movement among residents of the 40 acres of barren land that eventually became Orange.

Proponents of Orange’s incorporation, including Alfred Chapman and Andrew Glassell, developers of the land, took advantage of the movement by telling the residents that if they voted to incorporate they could shut down two saloons near the town plaza.

Saloons Were Closed

On April 6, 1888, key citizens voted, 99 to 17, to incorporate Orange, the third municipality after Anaheim and Santa Ana to incorporate in what is now Orange County. To the glee of residents, the saloons were shut down, but when Prohibition ended in 1933 so did the ban on saloons.

Now, Brigandi said, 100 years later, the temperance movement may be dead, but the hometown atmosphere lives on.

“There is still a hometown feel in Orange that sets us apart from any other city,” Brigandi said. “Residents feel like they live in a city, not just a tract of homes.”

With the help of marching bands, old-time music, birthday cakes, balloons and a time capsule, Orange will begin at 5:15 this afternoon its celebration of 100 years of hometown appeal. The centennial celebration, which will continue through the closing ceremonies July 4, will include a high school reunion picnic, footraces of 1 mile and both 5 and 10 kilometers, the crowning of Miss Orange, fireworks and a parade.

“We’ve been preparing for this for 18 months,” City Manager J. William Little said. “And we are looking forward to a big kickoff. We are looking forward to a major event with a lot of people showing up.”

Mayor Jess F. Perez, centennial chairman Gene Beyer and retired Los Angeles Rams defensive end Jack Youngblood, a resident of Orange, will join other dignitaries at the kickoff event.

Organizers said the highlight will be 1,000 birthday cakes encircling Orange Plaza. Also on hand today will be a 1921 La France fire engine, which was restored by Orange Fire Department engineers, and the Orange Centennial Cornet Band, a historically accurate re-creation of an 1888 town band.

Little said that, in addition to its hometown appeal, Orange also boasts a strong tradition of preserving the past. “We’ve held historical values in the city as long and as deep as any city in Orange County,” he said, evident from the city’s large and active historical society and from the inclusion of the city plaza and 40 buildings surrounding it on the National Register of Historic Places.

According to Brigandi, the city has more than 1,400 pre-World War II buildings, some built as early as 1885.

“The beauty of it all is that all these old buildings are preserved by the work of the private individuals themselves,” he said.

To remind future generations of the Orange of 1988, the opening ceremony will include the dedication and burial of a time capsule in the northeast quadrant of the city plaza. Floyd Higgins, fire chief emeritus for the city, said the capsule will include memorabilia representing a “cross section of the people of Orange.”

Higgins said the contents of the time capsule would include a photo of the current City Council, more than 50 business cards from city businesses, a centennial medallion, shoulder patches from the Orange fire and police departments and a centennial proclamation from the City Council.

“It’s not going to be a history book, but a scrapbook.” Brigandi said. “It will not paint a formal portrait but a snapshot.”

EVENTS PLANNED FOR CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION

April 9: Orange Union High School All-Class Reunion Picnic at Hart Park from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

April 10: “Old Towne Centennial Open House.” From noon to 4 p.m. residents will open their homes. Refreshments, strolling musicians, singers and vintage cars.

April 10: Five-kilometer, 10-kilometer and one-mile runs will benefit Orangewood Children’s Home.

April 16: Historical Society tour of Villa Park Orchards Packing House on Cypress Street from 9 a.m. to noon. Packing contest and a citrus label display, and Miss Orange will be crowned as Queen Valencia.

May 21: May Festival Parade, starting at Hart Park will begin at 10 a.m. KABC radio celebrities will then conduct finals of the official city song contest at the park.

May 25: Children’s Theater will present “All Aboard the Citizen-Ship.” The program, for students in kindergarten through third grade, will begin at 7:30 p.m. at El Modena High School.

June 11: Community Picnic at Hart Park will be held by the Old Towne Preservation Assn. The picnic, which will start at 11 a.m. and run to 7 p.m., will include entertainment, games, food, concessions and special period exhibits.

July 4: Closing ceremonies at Fred Kelly Stadium will include parade, marching bands, celebrity appearances and the history of city told by fireworks.