Back to the Future with Santa Ana’s Historic Pacific Electric Substation and the new Trolley System

As I paused and surveyed the vibrancy of the Orange County city center late in the day, I saw a metropolis bustling with a variety of activities- patrons taking a break at a streetside coffee shop, busy outdoor vendor kiosks, diners at outdoor downtown restaurants and cafés, and residents making their way up to their office or work-live space. The newest electric light rail innovation gracefully glides through the city center- the chic mode of clean transportation working to serve a diverse population in a prospering multi-use downtown milieu.

While this may sound like a scene in the near future, it actually describes downtown Santa Ana at the turn of the 19th century. Let’s hop into our DeLorean, fire up the flux capacitor, and vault ourselves to 21st-century Santa Ana- 88 miles an hour down a Fourth Street Alley! We make a thunderous exit from the space/gravity/ time continuum, with asphalt etched by lightening, crackling flux capacitor, and swirling smoky tire entrails arriving downtown in the early morning hours in 2022 to see the new OC Streetcar in progress. I deplane to take a peek only to hear my madcap driver thunder away into time- but not before babbling something about grabbing pan dulce and an ‘espresso ectofusion’ in a late 21st century Santa Ana Amazon Skyport café. I turn my attention to the street scene where the OC Streetcar has made significant progress toward the renewed vision of downtown Santa Ana and will capture the 19th-century vibe in a modern way. Already, we are seeing large-scale housing and multi-use developments spring up along the route ahead of the trolley opening-promising to invigorate the city center. Construction complexities and logistics in a congested downtown area invariably challenge our nerves. Still, in time, the ultimate completion will deliver an alternative to the automobile and create new housing, business, and cultural opportunities.

While downtown businesses eagerly await the completion of the new trolley system, another significant related project was recently completed and recognized. The Pacific Electric Power Substation at Garfield Elementary School, Affectionately dubbed ‘The Red Car Building’, was constructed in 1904 to serve as a power transformer to service the electric rail line between Santa Ana, Huntington, and south Los Angeles. It recently received the Governor’s Design Award for outstanding Historic Preservation, a Historic Resources Commission Award, and an A4LE award for design excellence in education. The SAUSD School Board’s Wellness Center Initiative and the community’s passion for the project were key to this building’s revival. The project’s timing is impeccable, and while the building no longer contains trolly power systems, it now stands along the trolley route as a stalwart reminder of Santa Ana’s roots in powering the original Southern California Electric Trolley system.

The School District, Community, and Morrissey Associates design team worked to repurpose the building to provide programs to help stabilize and reinvigorate the community. Most importantly, due to the School Board’s initiative, the ‘Red Car Building’ has altered how we think about investing in education. The School District provides services at the site that promote community connection and engagement through family health, stability, and gathering programs. The School District arranged partnerships with St. Joseph and St. Jude to provide much-needed health services on-site. Research confirms that the program benefits will stabilize housing, retain the close-knit neighborhood culture and reduce student stress, thus increasing student attendance and performance.

The Red Car Building architecture is a striking example of an era of transportation optimism that provides a point of reference for our new forms of digital and electric public transportation technologies. These technologies are transforming the way we use and think about metropolitan transportation. A wide array of digital media enables us to transport our intellectual capital and facilitate connections. However, we find that physical transportation, which allows in-person connections, is just as meaningful. In concert with that, the new trolley system serves an unmistakably unique downtown area, and it is also an essential part of an integral, diverse, clean energy transportation system. Additionally, it will be more than a novelty and create vital connections between the SARTC, DTSA, Metrolink, and Garden Grove.

Working late into the night, I occasionally hear the clap of thunder, the screeching tires, and the unmistakable pop of the flux capacitor preceded by a flash of lightning. It reminds me that progress continues under the watchful eye of that zany, eccentric, transtemporal traveling friend. Come to think of it, I did notice an empty espresso cup and pan dulce crumbs in our parking lot recently.

Learn more about the OC Streetcar