Villa Park is a city in Orange County, California, United States. It was incorporated in 1962. As of the 2010 Census, the city had a population of 5,812, the lowest population for a city in Orange County.
The city is largely zoned for single-family residences on lots that average about 20,000 square feet (1,900 m2), or 1/2 acre, in size. Within the city limits there is one small shopping center. City Hall, including a community room, and a branch of the Orange County Public Libraries system is adjacent to the city’s only shopping center.
About the City
After the 1769 expedition of Gaspar de Portolà, a Spanish expedition led by Father Junipero Serra named the area Vallejo de Santa Ana (Valley of Saint Anne). On November 1, 1776, Mission San Juan Capistrano became the areas first permanent European settlement in Alta California, New Spain. In 1810, the Spanish Empire granted 62,500 acres (253 km2) to Jose Antonio Yorba, which he named Rancho Santiago de Santa Ana. Yorba’s rancho included the lands where the cities of Olive, Orange, Villa Park, Santa Ana, Tustin, Costa Mesa and Newport Beach stand today.
After the Mexican-American war in 1848, Alta California became part of the United States in 1850 and American settlers arrived in this area.
Villa Park was known as “Mountain View” in the 1860s. The U.S. Post Office refused to allow the local post office to be so named as there was already a post office with that name in Mountain View), so the post office and hence the area came to be called Villa Park. It was then an agricultural area producing, in turn, grapes, walnuts, and apricots. Finally, citrus became the major crop for about 60 years.
Ranchers established the Serrano Water District, which still provides Villa Park’s water, and founded the Villa Park Orchards Association (still a business in Orange, although the packing house that was a local landmark was torn down in 1983).
Where to go
The Santa Ana River Trail is a multi-use trail complex that runs alongside the Santa Ana River in southern California. The trail stretches 30 miles from the Pacific Ocean at Huntington Beach along the Santa Ana River to the Orange/Riverside county line. Planned extensions of the trail reach to Big Bear Lake in San Bernardino County. When completed, it will be the longest multi-use trail in Southern California, at approximately 100 miles (160 km). In 1989, the Los Angeles Times described the path as “a veritable freeway for bicycles.”
Irvine Park in Orange, California is a 160-acre (65 ha) park that became Orange County’s first regional park in 1897. It includes architecture by Frederick Eley. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983. It includes six contributing buildings, four contributing structures and four contributing objects.