On April 16, 1888, the City of Orange held its frst council meeting. Just ten days after its incorporation, and with no offcial meeting place, the “Board of Trustees” met in the offces of the Santa Ana Valley Irrigation Company located on North Glassell Street. At the time, city staff included just two offcers; a City Clerk and Treasurer. The city would have to wait until 1921 to have an offcial City Hall, following decades of renting space in various buildings downtown. For the frst time since the city was founded, most of the city’s services were housed under one roof. The Mediterranean Revival style building’s location directly across the street from the city library, established the civic heart of the city.

In the ensuing decades, the city experienced eras of both growth and wan. The lean years between the Great Depression and the close of World War II were, however, eclipsed by unprecedented growth that occurred in the post-war years. Between 1955 and 1959, the city processed 28 residential developments with more than 2,400 homes being built. The pace rapidly accelerated with over 250 tracts approved and 5,000 homes being built between 1960 and 1964. A mere 30 years old, it was evident that the existing City Hall building could no longer accommodate the growing city. Properties adjacent to city hall were acquired as an expansion of the civic center was soon becoming inevitable.