Placentia, California, United States

🇺🇸 Placentia is a city in northern Orange County, California. Its population includes the community of Atwood, which is included in the city of Placentia, and is located in its south-eastern quadrant. Primarily referred to as a bedroom community, Placentia is known for its quiet neighborhoods.

In 1971, Placentia was honored with the prestigious "All America City" award, given out annually by the National Civic League to 10 cities in the United States.

History Indigenous peoples of California referred to by the Spanish as Gabrielenos, known as the Tongva, lived in the area for thousands of years. One estimate wrote that the native population in what was to become northern Orange County was at least 1000. The large village of Hutuknga was closely situated to the area that is now Placentia.

In 1837, the Mexican government granted the area that is now Placentia to Juan Pacifico Ontiveros as part of the Rancho San Juan Cajón de Santa Ana land grant.

In 1865, American pioneer Daniel Kraemer arrived and purchased 3,900 acres (1,600 ha). Many other American pioneers soon followed, and the community developed.

The local school district was originally named the Cajon School District. In 1878, the school district's name was changed to Placentia School District by Sarah Jane McFadden, Placentia being derived from a Latin word meaning "pleasant place to live". She was the wife of William McFadden, who was the second White settler to arrive in Placentia. The town eventually took its own name after the school district.

The first commercial orange grove was established in 1880, worked by mostly Mexican and Anglo laborers.

History: 20th century From a handful of scattered ranches, the core of the town was developed around 1910. It functioned as a major railroad stop along the Santa Fe Railroad for processing oranges. Later, during the Great Depression, a brief strike of citrus workers occurred in Placentia.

Oil was found in 1919, which led to the development of numerous oil wells in eastern and northern Placentia. The town of Richfield, which later became Atwood, was built to house oil workers. Mexican laborers formed the majority of the labor force in the oil industry. The neighboring town of La Jolla, Placentia was constructed for a similar reason as a segregated colonia.

Several schools were constructed in Placentia from the 1910s to the 1930s that were segregated between White and Mexican students. Isabel Martínez was the first student of Mexican parentage to graduate from Fullerton High School in 1931, being celebrated in the Placentia Courier as an "exceptional" Mexican. Within six years, the number of Placentia students graduating high school numbered only six.

The predominately Mexican areas of Placentia were heavily hit by the Santa Ana River flood of 1938, which destroyed everything in the area but "the La Jolla School Building and three brick structures". The flood left 3,700 refugees and 1,500 homes uninhabitable, and "caused more than 50 deaths, most from the Atwood area".

Mexican-American war veterans from World War II worked to end school segregation in Placentia in 1948. This campaign was led by Alfred Aguirre, who noted that some white ranchers believed Mexicans were good fruit pickers, but that "the White kids are too advanced" for Mexican students to keep up in the classroom.

The Mexican-American community in Placentia developed its own political power base in the 1950s. This resulted in the election of Aguirre to Placentia's city council from 1958 to 1962 and the registration of hundreds of Chicano voters in the city.

In July 2020, Placentia organized and established its own fire department, Placentia Fire and Life Safety Department, leaving the Orange County Fire Authority as the first city to ever disband from the OCFA.

Geography According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 6.6 square miles (17 km²), of which 0.22% is covered by water. State Route 57 (the Orange Freeway) runs through the south-west section of Placentia. State Route 91 (the Riverside Freeway) passes directly south of the city. Districts in Placentia include the neighborhood of La Jolla and the formerly unincorporated community of Atwood.

Economy Placentia has a $20 million Metrolink project that started in the downtown area in 2013. This project is in conjunction with the Orange County Transit Authority (OCTA), and will assist in the continued revitalization of the area, which is also scheduled for the building of more transit-oriented housing to complement the train station, mixed use, retail, and entertainment. All are designed to enhance Placentia's unique presence in Orange County. Placentia is also working with the OCTA on the OC Bridges project. The project, combined with the city of Fullerton, provides around $580 million in funding to build underpasses and/or overpasses at the major north-south roadways in the two cities. The roadways are Lakeview Avenue, Rose Drive/Tustin Avenue, Orangethorpe Avenue, Kraemer Boulevard, Placentia Avenue, State College Boulevard, and Raymond Avenue. The underpasses and overpasses at Placentia, Kraemer, Rose/Tustin and Lakeview are complete.

Economy: Top employers According to Placentia's 2012 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report:, the top employers in the city include: 1 Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District; 2 Placentia-Linda Hospital; 3 Hartwell; 4 Premedia; 5 City of Placentia.

Arts and culture The George Key Ranch Historic District is a historic citrus ranch and Victorian ranch house in Placentia. It is now within the 2-acre (0.81 ha) George Key Ranch Historic Park, with the historic house museum, outdoor displays, and a citrus grove. It is on the National Register of Historic Places. The Placentia-Santa Fe District is in the south-west or downtown area. The town is home to the A. S. Bradford House, a historic house museum. It is also home to the 100-year-old Berkenstock Mansion.

In 1973, Chicano Park's "founding lead artist" Guillermo Aranda and "founding apprentice artist" Ernesto "Neto" Paul (San Diego natives) collaborated with the art students of the University of California, Irvine (UCI) in painting a mural (about 8 x 36 ft) on the walls of the Tlatepaque Restaurant. Aranda was invited by a professor at UCI. The following year, the chairman of Toltecas en Aztlan, and the board director of the Centro Cultural De La Raza, Guillermo Aranda, also invited these same Orange County artists referred to as the "Santa Ana muralists/Santa Ana artists", to come to Chicano Park and paint on one of the first pillars (second painted pillar) of Chicano Park.

Placentia Library District Placentia is home to one of the 13 special district libraries in California. The Placentia Library District is a single-purpose library district governed by an elected board of trustees. Its principal source of income is property tax proration. The library's early history is much like other communities. Beginning in 1914, the Women's Christian Temperance Union established a reading and recreation room for boys in a storefront on Bradford Avenue. After a successful petition and election by the residents, the Placentia Library District was officially formed on September 2, 1919. The new library district included seven square miles of the Placentia area: the north line was beyond Golden Avenue, the east line along Linda Vista through Hazard's subdivision,the south through Golden State Tract but not as far as Miraloma Avenue and the west line along the Fullerton boundary. The library board of trustees hired Placentia's first librarian, Sara Rideout, for $0.25 an hour, and the Women's Christian Temperance Union turned over their reading room and 193 books. The library officially opened to the public on January 15, 1920, from 2:00–5:00 pm and 7:00–9:00 pm. By 1926, a new library building was needed to meet the needs of the growing community. The building, designed in the Spanish Colonial Revival style by renowned architect Carleton Monroe Winslow, features beautiful Talavera tiles created by Mexican potter Pedro Sanchez. In March 1927, the grand opening was held for the new library building located at 143 S. Bradford Avenue. In 1974, the library again become too small for its growing collection and was moved to its current location in the Civic Center Plaza. That same year, the library boundaries expanded to reflect the same boundaries as the city.

Today, the Placentia Library District has over 330,000 visitors annually, with over 42,000 library cards issued. The library holds over 102,000 materials. In September 2018, the Placentia Library began a major $2.3 million renovation/modernization project as part of the library’s centennial anniversary. The project was completed on September 14, 2019.

Transport The Metrolink 91/Perris Valley Line passes through the southern portion of the city. The city has been preparing the area of a proposed new station located at Melrose Avenue and Crowther Avenue in Old Town Placentia. Placentia Station is estimated to cost $35 million; the city will contribute $5.4 million. A tentative completion date was set for June 2022, but construction is now "on hold" pending further negotiations with BNSF.

In 2007, the city became the first city to implement a quiet zone for the cargo-carrying trains that pass through the city daily, using locomotive grade-crossing predictors and intercrossing ground-based radio communications to effect a corridor where crossing gate arms become actuated prior to the train's approach, enabling trains to not be required to announce their approach by sounding the Morse code letter "Q" on their whistles, which is otherwise mandated by the Federal Railroad Administration. The city's Quiet-Zone-Update web pages offer information on the zone's scope and any temporary or long-term alterations to the quiet zone.

The city is served by the Orange County Transportation Authority, with: • Route 153 running along Placentia Avenue • Route 129 running also Kraemer Blvd • Route 71 running along Rose Drive • Route 26 running along Yorba Linda Blvd • Route 123 running along Chapman Avenue • Route 30 running along Orangethorpe Avenue

The 2002 Placentia train collision occurred on April 23, 2002, when a BNSF Railway freight train collided head-on with a Metrolink train in Placentia, near the Atwood Junction, at the intersection of Orangethorpe Avenue and Van Buren Street. Two people died in the crash and 22 were seriously injured.