Historical Society

Carol Jordan, founder of the Tustin Area Historical Society and an authority on the city’s history, has compiled 25 years of research and interviews into a new book. “Tustin: A City of Trees, An Illustrated History” is scheduled for release early this month by publisher C.E. Parks. Jordan spoke with Times correspondent John Pope about the book and her historical discoveries.

Q: How did you choose the title “A City of Trees”?

A: It’s the city’s motto, and a lot of old-timers I interviewed said it was their first impression of the place, that it was filled with trees. The whole economy was based on orange and avocado trees, so it was well-known as a city of trees long before [the motto] was adopted.

Q: In doing your research, did you find out anything that surprised you?

A: I had known about the city’s conservative roots, but I was surprised to come across an article in a 1888 edition of the “Daily Evening Blade” that was blatantly biased, saying that Tustin “is nothing if not Republican” and can be counted on to vote “in the right manner” next Tuesday. It was a conservative community from the beginning and because of that didn’t incorporate until 1927, almost 60 years after it was founded. People wanted it to stay small.

Q: So how did the city expand?

A: The boom of the 1880s inspired four big enterprises that brought growth: a trolley down Main Street that connected to the train in Santa Ana; the Bank of Tustin; the Tustin Hotel; and the water works. The first three failed in the recession of the ‘90s, but the water works didn’t because C.E. Utt bought it and operated it at a loss. . . . The city stayed pretty small until World War II, which changed a lot. Several military bases and the helicopter base were built, and many service personnel, after tasting the climate, decided they wanted to live here. Also, . . . the quick-decline disease hit the orange groves. It could dry the sap out of a tree overnight. Many orchards were sold, and developers came in, and that changed the whole complexion.

Q: Much of your research focused on education. What intrigued you about Tustin schools?

A: In 1950, there were 620 students in K-8 and 250 in high school. In the ‘60s, it jumped to 8,880 in elementary and 6,332 in high school. . . . Another thing was land values. In 1950, they paid $2,244 an acre to build a school on Dodge Avenue, and when the school district built Tustin Ranch Elementary in 1995, they paid $680,000 an acre.

Q: What do you think will be the next big issue in Tustin history?

A: We’re headed for a big brouhaha over the annexation of North Tustin. . . . Supervisor [Don] Saltarelli has suggested that it’s time to annex and relieve the county of the unincorporated land.