That bleak patch of open ground in...

That bleak patch of open ground in the 1887 photograph at left was destined to become the symbol of Orange--its downtown plaza at Glassell Street and Chapman Avenue. The photographer, looking east, stood in the plaza’s fledgling park, nowadays located inside the plaza’s traffic circle, at bottom.

The plaza was a part of Orange even before there was such a town. Two Los Angeles lawyers, Albert Chapman and Andrew Glassell, who had obtained a piece of the old Rancho Santiago de Santa Ana, plotted their city in 1871 with the plaza at its center.

Their interest was profit. They were the first in the area to name a town with a sales brochure in mind--they called it Richland--and they figured a plaza would be an attractive feature.

“Every city wanted to be seen as modern and well-appointed and with all the Eastern conveniences,” said Phil Brigandi, who has published several books on the history of Orange. “Parks were one of the amenities that could make an area attractive to buyers.”

By 1880, the lawyers had sold all their land and the city had been renamed Orange, but still there was no plaza park. It took the real estate boom of the 1880s to prod townsfolk into action.

In 1886 the streets running through the plaza were rerouted along its perimeter, and a park with gravel paths was laid out. The next year, a fountain and fishpond were added. The photograph above recorded the new civic improvements.

Or perhaps the photo was meant to record the newest, biggest building in town, the Bank of Orange in the background on the park’s east side. A bank is still there, although the original building was demolished in 1927.

Who are the men posing by the fountain? Some speculate they are Chapman and Glassell, but Brigandi doubts it. “One of them may well be Chapman, but neither of the faces resembles Glassell. They were Los Angeles people and never lived here.”

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O.C. Then and Now calls, (714) 966-5973; e-mail, OCthenand now@latimes.com