By Tim Rush

“Modern Progress shows no reverence for the old or the picturesque. It spares neither the work of human hands nor natural scenery. The romantic old city of Nuremberg is torn down to make way for railroad depots, modern shops, and palatial hotels. There was at one time talk of leveling the lofty rock on which stands the castle of Edinburgh, and nothing saved it but the outcry of execration which the proposal roused from a few people of taste.”
(Somber reflections with their depressingly timeless quality, were written over 100 years ago by American artist and illustrator, Charles Stanley Reinhart, 1844-1896.)

The Orange County Title Company, 1953. California State University Fullerton Special Collections.

The Orange County Title Company building (OCTC) at 5th and Main Street in downtown Santa Ana is known to most as First American. That block of assembled buildings between 4th and 5th, Main and Bush Streets comprises not just one old building but originally numerous.

Let me take you down memory lane back to the start of the Great Depression. First American was known as Orange County Title & Abstract Co., and in 1931 the owners commissioned a grand new headquarters in what was then a popular architectural style of the day, Art Deco, with Classical Revival details. The chosen architect was Allen K. Ruoff, Ruoff & Allen /Ruoff & Munson of Los Angeles, the same gentleman who had designed the beautiful mausoleum at Fairhaven Memorial Park, the Cooper Hotel (604 N. Main), now long gone, also built by Fairhaven interests (ca.1922) and the Horton Furniture building ca.1920 (519-523 N. Main). It seems likely that the company hired Mr. Ruoff as he had designed the Hotel Cooper across the street and the Horton Furniture Co. building on the next block, at Santa Ana Boulevard and North Main. So Mr. Ruoff had an established clientele in the capital city of Orange County.

Montgomery Ward Department Store at the corner of Main Street and 4th Street, Santa Ana in 1954. Demolished in 1974. The space has been used as a parking lot since then. Santa Ana Public Library collection.

The building originally had just one floor and a full sized basement, but was built tall enough to allow for a future addition of a mezzanine as the company grew along with the County’s growth. Period light fixtures, marble floors, a grand staircase, two-story tall marble columns and “bullet style” windows graced the entry. As was typical of this style, the poured concrete walls are carved with stylized images gracing the north and west façades. Next to the smart new OCTC building was the Albert Sheetz café (one of 28 in Southern California!) and on the corner of 4th and Main was the grand-daddy of all Art Deco buildings in Orange County, the Montgomery Ward department store, built in the early 1930s. On the east end of the block at 4th and Bush was the Kress Department Store which became K-Mart years later.

Horton’s Furniture, Main Street at 5th Street, Santa Ana, in 1965. Also designed by Allen Ruoff. The Orange County Title building is in view on the next block, far right. Santa Ana Public Library collection.

Fast forward to 1960, Orange County Title Company changed their name to First American Title Insurance Company as they had plans to expand nationally. In addition, they created First American Trust Company which grew along with their associated title and real estate businesses. Later in that decade it appears that First American wanted to create an entire block of their title and trust enterprise and had assembled all the buildings to do so. To create “First American Square,” a couple of period commercial buildings were demolished, and eventually, in 1974, the Montgomery Ward building was demolished for a parking lot. (Where was Joni Mitchell when we needed her?). The department store had been vacated in 1960 and moved to Alison Honer’s Honer Plaza at Bristol & 17th Street.

A corporate look for First American Square was decided upon, and in 1966 the Jeffersonian Neo-Classical style was adopted. The buildings that remained on the block, including the 1931 Art Deco building were wrapped in the façade that we see today.That façade is mostly metal and a great deal of high density foam molding, some paint, and a six foot high brick-cladded base, and badda- bing….you have Monticello west! Most folks had forgotten that underneath the facade was some great architectural history. Oh sure, the JC Penney and Kress Buildings were not particularly remarkable and the Montgomery Ward was about to meet its fate…and no one said a word as it was “just another old building in the decaying civic center of Santa Ana.” (As an aside, the wrought iron decorative panels that covered the mezzanine windows on the Monkey Wards building survive. Some were made a part of the barrier around First American Square and some wound up as a fence in the Park Santiago neighborhood in Santa Ana.) Now we march on to 2005 and the First American HQ moves to its new campus at the 55 Freeway & MacArthur Boulevard. Plans are made to vacate the old home offices and the block is put up for sale.

First American building today, west side, main elevation. Note exposed section of original Orange Title building. The pediment was added with the 1966 facade treatment but the columns are original.

The block is surrounded on three sides by three different historic districts and the original HQ building built in 1931 was underneath that 1966 cladding. First American and the City of Santa Ana knew it and Toll Brothers, the company under contract to buy and develop the block, discovered it but it was kept quiet. The rationale was that as the historic building couldn’t be seen, it technically wasn’t a historic building. The preservation community argued that that was a pretty small nail on which to hang a defense. As a commissioner on the City’s Historic Resources Commission, I kept asking the City about the plans for the First American complex. I was told “nothing,” when in fact it was sold to Toll Brothers Apartment Communities with plans to raze the entire block, in other words, to save nothing.

When this transaction was finally announced the preservation community sprang into action but it was too late to save the entire OCTC building as the developer and First American Financial were deep into their plans and we were told “it’s pencils down time. We are so sorry but we couldn’t possibly change a thing.” We said, not so fast! We lobbied planning commissioners, city council members, historic resources commissioners and city staff. What we wound up with was a negotiated agreement whereby the developer would hire a preservation architect, architectural historian and structural engineer to work with a firm to surgically remove parts of the façade and determine if what we alleged was there and if so, what condition it might be in.

First American, March 2020, north elevation. Partial demolition underway.

On March 15 and 16 the partial demolition was done under the watchful eye of members of the preservation community including representatives from Historic French Park Neighborhood Association, Heritage Orange County, Preserve Orange County, Santa Ana Historical Preservation Society, Santa Ana Historic Resources Commission, City of Santa Ana planning department and of course the developer, Toll Brothers. I am proud to tell you that yes, what we alleged all along was in fact present and in remarkably good condition. There will be some repairs necessary but nothing too extensive.

Carved ornamentation of original building exposed for the first time in over fifty years.

The report from the preservation architect has been released to the parties and a path forward is being discussed imminently. It does appear that the west and north facades of the OCTC building will be preserved and made a part of a new 270+ unit mixed-use development. While this is not a perfect solution by any means, given where we started we came a long way from what was 100% demolition. It remains to be seen where this project goes given the pandemic interruption but between this and the downtown trolley construction DTSA has its hands full with torn up streets and inoperative street lights. We will keep you posted.

First American building, 421 Main Street, Santa Ana, CA

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