The History of Tustin, CA

Although the Orange County region had long been inhabited by various Native American tribes and settled by Spanish missionaries, the city of Tustin did not begin to take shape until the arrival of two Northern California carriage makers, Columbus Tustin and Nelson Stafford, in the late 1800s. Dreaming of a future “Tustin City,” Columbus Tustin purchased the former Rancho Santiago de Santa Ana, intending to divide the 1,300 acres into home sites and sell them to interested settlers. Unfortunately for Tustin, there weren’t many interested buyers and he ended up giving away many of the home sites. Nevertheless, a community was born and by the 1880s the town of Tustin boasted three churches, one hotel, one bank, and a trolley line that connected it to Santa Ana. Tustin’s economy at the turn of the 20th century was primarily based in agriculture, thriving on its many acres of Valencia orange groves and other fruit orchards.

Today, Tustin’s orchards are nothing but a memory for the city’s oldest residents, but many aspects of the city’s proud past are preserved in the Tustin Old Town district located on Main Street and El Camino Real, which contains several historic buildings and homes that date back to the 1880s. At the center of Tustin Old Town is the Tustin Museum, which houses exhibits and photographs of the history and growth of the city.

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