"Santa Ana is a beautiful city.  Many of its streets are ornamented with graceful pepper and gum trees and its residences models of architectural skill...For after all, the houses we live in are a pretty good index of our civilization and progress."
Craftsman Row on French Street between 10th and Washington	from History of Santa Ana City and Valley,1887. This 40 page booklet, placed in a time capsule for 100 years, was republished in 1999 by The Paragon Agency

During the 1890s, George Wright purchased a triangular-shaped area from this subdivision for his new home. The property was eventually bought by surrounding neighbors.  Mr. Wright's home, at left, was moved from this plot to the southeast corner of Minter (then G. St.) and Vance Place. When the house was moved, the neighbors donated the vacated land to the city for a park, with the stipulation that French Street be opened to its full width.  Flatiron Park, named because it was shaped like a flatiron, is now known as French Park.

The turn-of-the-century brought wealth and prosperity to Santa Ana. When Miles Crookshank built his large, beautifully-detailed Colonial Revival house at 802 North French in 1900, it set the standard for more Colonial Revival, Victorian and Neo-Classical homes to be built along the oak tree-lined street. The area soon became known as the "Nob Hill" of Orange County. By 1905 the lots in the north end of the neighborhood were beginning to fill up with superior versions of the Craftsman Bungalow style. 

Growth and Decline...

By 1910 there were 8,429 persons living in Santa Ana. During the late teens and twenties a dozen unique Spanish Colonial and Spanish Eclectic Revival homes and fourplex apartment buildings were contructed on the few remaining lots in French Park. The 900 block of Lacy still contains several of these graceful buildings.

The 1940s brought thousands of military men from all over the country to serve at the four large military bases in Orange County. Several of the large houses in French Park were spacious enough to be divided into apartments for the families of these young men. Many of the original owners had died and their children were established elsewhere. The conversion of these fine old homes to rooming houses and apartments, coupled with absentee landlord owners, began a period of neighborhood decline.  Some of the great Victorians, including the house of C.E. French, were torn down and replaced by large parking lots, apartment complexes and condominiums.  One that survived, the Dr. Howe-Waffle House, was moved to the corner of Civic Center Drive and Sycamore Street to be restored.

Revival...

The movement to preserve and restore the French Park neighborhood began in the late l970s. A new group of people with an appreciation for old houses began to move into the neighborhood. They organized the Historic French Park Association in 1979 with the goal of working together to solve problems and enhance the historical features of the remaining original buildings. In a positive step toward preservation of the area, the association began working with the City to create the French Park Historic District.  The district was formally established by the City Council in 1984.