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Downtown Anaheim | |
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  Downtown Anaheim Location within Anaheim and Northern Orange County Show map of Anaheim, California Downtown Anaheim Location within California Show map of California | |
| Coordinates:33°50′02″N117°54′56″W / 33.833914°N 117.915446°W /33.833914; -117.915446 | |
| Country | United States |
| State | California |
| County | Orange |
| City | Anaheim |
Downtown Anaheim, also known asAnaheim Colony Historic District, and asAnaheim Historic Center, is a neighborhood that serves as the administrative and historic center of the city ofAnaheim, California. It is delimited by East, West, North, and South streets, and the main roads within it are Anaheim Boulevard (formerly named Los Angeles Street), and Center Street.
Some of the structures that stand out in Anaheim's downtownskyline are theBank of America andWells Fargo buildings, which are both over 10 stories high. Other high-rise buildings in Downtown Anaheim include City Hall, West City Hall, the AT&T Building, the Anaheim Memorial Manor, and theKraemer Building. The Anaheim Police Department's headquarters, Anaheim's public Central Library, and the Anaheim Chamber of Commerce are also located in the downtown area.
Downtown Anaheim's Farmers Market can be found alongside other retail and dining establishments along Center Street Promenade. Other attractions in or around the downtown area include: the Mother Colony House, the oldest museum in Orange County; Anaheim's "Art in Public Places" Artwalk; the Muzeo museum (hosted in the old building ofCarnegie Library), which opened in the Fall of 2007; theAnaheim Packing House, which is a gourmetfood hall that opened in 2014 in a formerSunkistpacking house;[1][2]Anaheim Ice, an ice skating rink open to the public that also serves as the practice arena for theNHL professional hockey team, theAnaheim Ducks; Pearson Park, named after former mayor Charles Pearson; the Pearson Park Amphitheatre, an outdoor theater; and Anaheim's History Walk, which was unveiled on June 20, 2007.
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When Anaheim was arural community surrounded byorange groves, the geographic center of town was at the intersection of Center Street and Los Angeles Street (now Center Street and Anaheim Blvd.) and the central business district was built around the center of town anchored by the likes of theSQR Department Store, Chung King Restaurant, and Pickwick Hotel.
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Disneyland brought the need for expansion of the Heart of Anaheim. Prior toWalt Disney's death in 1966, the city of Anaheim had plans to construct a forty-story officetower on the other side of Ball Road from Disneyland. Walt Disney knew that theskyscraper would be seen from inside Disneyland, thus altering the theme park's atmosphere. Disney met with Anaheim city officials and an "anti-skyline ordinance" was passed, which stated that no high rise in Anaheim could be built which could be seen from inside Disneyland. This forced the city to expand outward, instead of upward.
Today, the commercial heart of Anaheim consists of three districts: Downtown Anaheim, the Anaheim Resort, and thePlatinum Triangle. Anaheim experienced rapid suburban growth in the 1960s, and many regional shopping malls opened in and around Anaheim, taking business from Downtown Anaheim and causing it to deteriorate. By the mid-1970s, Downtown Anaheim had experienced severeurban blight.
While many American cities tried to revitalize and save their historic downtowns, Anaheim chose to demolish it. While at first, downtown merchants tried to attract shoppers by renovating their properties and the city provided off-street parking, it was not enough. In 1973, the city adopted a Redevelopment Plan "Alpha" which called for the demolition of nearly all the buildings in the 200-acre (81 ha) historic downtown and replacing them with a new downtown with a new civic center, the Anaheim Towne Center strip mall and office buildings. This process took a little more than fifteen years.[21][22]
In August, 1978, Diann Marsh tried but failed to get 24 buildings listed on the National Register of Historic Places, including:[23]
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For years, Downtown Anaheim remained a series of dusty vacant lots. But in 1991, it came to life with the opening of two new office buildings, small retailers and hundreds of new homes. However, Pacific Bell relocated 200 workers and closed its office in Fall 1995, causing Downtown retailers to lose traffic.[24] In 2002, Anaheim approved a $65 million project for a new library, retail, 500 apartments, and parking, including the revitalization of Anaheim Towne Center.[25] However Anaheim cancelled the library plans and put the Towne Center improvements on hold in 2003.[26] TheAnaheim Packing Housefood hall did later open.
In 1978, the city gave W&D Commercial Properties Inc. permission to develop the 10.83-acre (4.38 ha) Anaheim Towne Center site. The city had spent $8.8 million to acquire the site, move the merchants and make site improvements, but W&D paid just over $1 million.[27][28] The center replaced the buildings that were located south side of the 100 and 200 blocks of West Lincoln Av. (orig. Center Street), and its parking lot and outbuildings replaced the buildings on the north side. Safeway, Sav-On and Anaheim Savings & Loan were the initial anchor stores. Developer Don C. Bode was critical of what he called the "cheap" construction and plain design of the Anaheim Towne Center strip mall, which opened in October 1980, developed by Watt Commercial Development Co. of Santa Monica. Some of the merchants there did business in the old downtown, such as Olsons Barber and Beauty Supply.[22]
Lincoln Avenue was diverted one block north from Harbor Boulevard to East Street. The old Lincoln Avenue disappeared from Harbor to Lemon and became part of the parking lot of Anaheim Towne Center. From Lemon to East Lincoln was renamed Center Street, its original name.[25]
The only structures from the old business district which still stand today are the old Carnegie Library, now the Muzeo, and theKraemer Building (the oldBank of America Building)-the tallest building in Anaheim prior to Disneyland's opening in 1955. The tallest building in Downtown Anaheim today is West City Hall at fourteen stories high.
Anaheim Historical Society says that the Fairyland Theatre was built in 1917 by John Cassou and designed by Eugene Durfee as a theatre primarily for motion pictures.