UNCLE BILLY’S STORE: When Santa Ana Was Spurgeon-ing

Santa Ana historian Charles D. Swanner estimated that the photograph above of the rustic, redwood, board-and-batten house was taken around 1905.

If so, it must have been a nostalgic visit for the man with the Smith Brothers beard seated on the front porch.

He’s William H. “Uncle Billy” Spurgeon, founder of Santa Ana, posing with his second wife, Jennie. And the house is Santa Ana’s first structure, erected by Spurgeon more than 30 years earlier as a general store, a post office and probably his household.

A young Kentucky clerk who failed to find riches in California’s gold fields, Spurgeon had come south in 1869 and gone into real estate. For about $600, he and a partner bought 74 isolated, mustard-covered acres three long miles from the stagecoach line that went by Tustin.

Within a year, Spurgeon had taken his share, 33 acres, and filed a tract map for a town called Santa Ana after the rancho that originally contained the land. The boundaries are still clear today: 1st, 7th, Spurgeon and West streets, although West is now Broadway.

According to contemporary reports, Spurgeon was living in a tent until the house was built on the southwest corner of 4th Street and Broadway. There was little business, and almost all of it was barter. Landing a post-office contract probably was the first hard cash in Spurgeon’s pocket.

“The mail was brought here semi-weekly by the stage running to San Diego,” wrote one old-timer. “When it arrived, the addresses were read aloud and the people claimed their own.” Any unclaimed mail went into the real post office, a shoe box on a store shelf.

Santa Ana caught on. By the time the photo was taken, Uncle Billy had served as one of Orange County’s first supervisors. He was also the city’s first mayor.

And as he planned, the locale of his old general store became part of a downtown commercial district, which is showing a revival. Above, the business now occupying the historic site: Continental Currency Services Inc.

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