Anaheim was born in 1857, when 50 German-American families from the San Francisco area paid $750 each to invest in the Los Angeles Vineyard Society. Founders John Frohling and Charles Kohler hired George Hansen, Los Angeles County's assistant surveyor, to purchase and lay out the new wine-making colony.
Hansen bought the 1,160-acre rancho of Juan Pacifico Ontiveros -- land Ontiveros candidly told him "couldn't support a goat!" Hansen surveyed and planted 50 20-acre vineyard lots with 400,000 vines, hiring Indian and Mexican labor -- and making Anaheim Orange County's first master-planned city. They dug a five-mile irrigation ditch from the Santa Ana River. None of the investors had any experience in viticulture. But when the first colonists arrived in September 1859, the vineyards were planted and waiting for them.
Anaheim, "home by the Santa Ana River," was originally bounded by North, East, South and West streets, and a fence of willow poles.
Colonists suffered through many hardships in the early years, including a massive flood in 1862, followed by years of drought that destroyed Southern California's cattle industry. Vintners planted cactus to keep starving and thirsty cattle from trampling the vines, but the project was eventually abandoned. Vaqueros were hired to shoot cattle -- a more humane death than starvation.
Wine was first shipped out of Alamitos Bay, but when an 1867 flood changed the San Gabriel River's course and washed tons of silt into the already shallow bay, Anaheim Landing was moved south to Seal Beach, at the present site of the Naval Weapons Station.
Some colonists left from discouragement from the many setbacks. But as the years wore on, their persistence paid off. By the early 1880s, Anaheim was one of the state's biggest grape-producers. Then, suddenly, the glory was over -- a pest ate its way into every grape vine in Orange County over a few years, forcing farmers to shift to walnuts, oranges and other crops. The pest, a leafhopper too small to be seen by the naked eye, wasn't discovered until 1947.
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While farming was the financial backbone of the community, its members found time for artistic and educational pursuits. The city's first public buildings were not administrative offices or even a church. They were a school and an opera house.
Anaheim was the first city in Orange County to incorporate, in 1878 with a population of 881. Today, the city has grown to 49.7 square miles and has a population of 306,300. The growth has come in spurts. With it, have come growing pains.
The Ku Klux Klan took over the Board of Trustees (what is now the City Council) in 1924. The four trustees, who were secretly backed by the Klan, were recalled in 1925 in a special election that resulted in a 90 percent turnout.
In 1938, five years after the Long Beach earthquake caused $100,000 in damage in Anaheim, the city was under water. During a five-day period culminating on March 3, 9.17 inches of rain fell – 3.35 inches in the last 24 hours of the storm. Throughout the county, at least 45 people died, 600 acres of agricultural land was destroyed and another 10,000 acres was heavily damaged. Virtually every building in the city was damaged.
Anaheim was one of the biggest beneficiaries of the post-World War II boom, as cheap housing and the expanding defense and aerospace industries lured hundreds of thousands of people to the area. The boom went into overdrive after the Korea War's end in 1953, doubling Anaheim's population in two years, to 66,000. The opening of Disneyland on July 18, 1955, exposed Anaheim to a nationwide audience and became the beginnings of a tourist mecca in the city, joined by the California Angels (1966) and the Anaheim Convention Center (1967).
These changes contributed to growth of the city's population, which jumped from 14,556 in 1950, to 146,000 by 1965, to 219,312 in 1980 and 328,014 in the 2000 census. It also has become a more cosmopolitan city – changing from a settlement founded by German immigrants to a city that is home to Latinos, Middle Eastern immigrants, Asians and others, as well as to the city's longtime families. The 2000 Census shows that Latinos now make up 46.8 percent of the city's population, up from 31.44 percent in 1990. The white population is now 35.9 percent, down from 56.6 percent in 1990, while Asians/Pacific Islanders make up 12.4 percent of the population, up from 9.4 percent in 1990.
While the city continues to change, it has not forgotten its roots. The City Council created the Anaheim Colony Historic District, roughly formed by the city's original boundaries of North, South, East and West streets and is installing entry monuments to inform passers-by of the area's significance.
Today, the city's expansion is limited mostly to Anaheim Hills. The Hills area was conceived as a master-planned community. It has grown continuously since the 1970s, with new housing developments and business corridors adding to the city's tax base. Today, the Hills has its own police substation and community center and several new housing developments are planned at the city's outer edge, stretching eastward to the Riverside county border.
But the town still is changing. And, to the delight of some and the chagrin of others, Disney is responsible for most of it.
A remodeled Anaheim Stadium was rechristened in 1998 as Edison International Field of Anaheim after more than $100 million in improvements. The changes came after the Walt Disney Co. bought an interest in the Angels from former singing cowboy Gene Autry, and bought out Autry's interests after his death in 1999. The city-owned Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim opened in 1993 with a Barry Manilow concert. Later that year, the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, a Disney-owned National Hockey League team, played its first game there.
Disney also has expanded beyond the borders of its original theme park. It has built Disney's California Adventure, a $2 billion second amusement park on the former Disneyland parking lot. The expansion also includes Disney's Grand Californian Hotel, a 750-room, Craftsman-style luxury hotel, and Downtown Disney, a public shopping and entertainment area that separates the new park from Disneyland. Downtown Disney is home to the world's second-largest Disney Store, the House of Blues, Y'Arriba! Y'Arriba! and ESPNZone.
And the Convention Center, which has expanded several times since it opened, completed a $177 million renovation and expansion that already is helping the city re-book conventions that left Anaheim in search of larger venues.
With the expanded facilities, The Santa Ana (I-5) Freeway underwent a $1 billion expansion, adding lanes, off-ramps, on-ramps and special lanes dropping motorists off at Disneyland and Edison Field. The freeway expansion also led to the reconfiguring of Katella Avenue and Anaheim Boulevard, two of the city's most traveled thoroughfares.
Anaheim continues to change in other ways. As with much of Orange County, Anaheim is luring high-technology companies, building on a long-standing relationship with Odetics, a firm that specializes in hardware used in space missions. The Anaheim Technology Center at La Palma Avenue and Miller Street added 590,000 square feet of high-tech manufacturing and industrial space.
And the Germans are still around. Just check out the Phoenix Club, especially around Oktoberfest. But don't be surprised if pop singer Ricky Martin has sold out the nearby Pond.
