This fall, Preserve Orange County is launching an online map. Mobile and desktop-friendly, it features the cultural resources and historic buildings and landscapes found throughout the county that are listed on the California Register of Historical Resources and the National Register of Historic Places. The map also includes the county’s own historic parks and those places identified with a special plaque by the Orange County Historical Commission. The sites are searchable by a variety of criteria including property type, city and architectural style.

In addition to the officially designated sites, the map features properties that Preserve Orange County has identified as historically or culturally significant that have not yet been designated. This list includes hundreds of modern and late modern sites associated with the development that occurred after the Second World War that came to define Orange County. They include vernacular dwellings as well as architecturally- designed master works, many of which the general public will become aware of for the first time.

If it isn’t identified, it can’t be protected

The map was made possible by a generous donation from Phil Chinn (left) and Heritage Orange County. Phil is a lifelong preservation advocate in his home city of Santa Ana and is a member of the Orange County Historical Commission. He inspired us to think of an online map as a fundamental extension of our mission.
Phil is pictured above (left) with his wife, Irene Chinn, and Mark McGloughlin at Preserve Orange County’s inaugural event on November 4, 2017 at the Hilbert Museum of California Art in Orange, CA.

A guiding assumption of the practice of historic preservation and heritage conservation is that resources that aren’t publicly recorded are more vulnerable to insensitive alteration and demolition. So the map helps us keep track of our oldest and most significant places. It also serves as a single point of reference for anyone doing research on the historic built environment of Orange County. And, for residents and visitors alike it will be a useful guide to our older neighborhoods and historic sites open to the public.

The map was made possible because of a generous donation from Phil Chinn and Heritage Orange County. Phil is a lifelong advocate for preservation at the county level and in his home city of Santa Ana. Phil inspired us to think of an online map as a fundamental extension of our mission. With his donation Preserve Orange County was able to hire an experienced map developer, Juan Thomassie and his firm, Data-Visual.

Local landmarks will also be included… eventually

Once funding is secured for a second phase to the project, the hundreds of historic resources that are listed on local registers will be added to the map. If you’d like to be informed when the map launches, make sure you’re on our mailing list by signing up here. Or watch our Facebook page, @preserveorangecounty.

Soon to be Released-- an Interactive Map of Historic Places in the County