Downtown Anaheim is the administrative and historic center of Anaheim,

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

. It is also known as Anaheim Colony Historic District and is bordered by East, West, North, and South streets. The historic center of the city is Anaheim Blvd (originally named Los Angeles Street) and Center Street.

Buildings and attractions

The Downtown Anaheim

skyline A skyline is the outline or shape viewed near the horizon. It can be created by a city’s overall structure, or by human intervention in a rural setting, or in nature that is formed where the sky meets buildings or the land. City skyline ...

consists of the

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Building and the

Wells Fargo Wells Fargo & Company is an American multinational financial services company with corporate headquarters in San Francisco, California; operational headquarters in Manhattan; and managerial offices throughout the United States and intern ...

Building, which are both over 10 stories high. Other high-rise buildings in Downtown Anaheim include City Hall, West City Hall, the AT&T Building, the Anaheim Memorial Manor, and the Kraemer Building. Anaheim Police Headquarters, Anaheim's Main Central Library, and the Anaheim Chamber of Commerce are also located in Downtown Anaheim. The "Center Street Promenade" consists of shops, restaurants, and Downtown Anaheim's Farmers Market. Other attractions in the Center Street Promenade include Anaheim's "Art in Public Places" Artwalk, and Anaheim's History Walk which was unveiled on June 20, 2007. Also near the Center Street Promenade are The

Muzeo The Carnegie Library in Anaheim, California is a Carnegie library building built in 1908. The Classical Revival style building was designed by John C. Austin, and opened in 1909. It was a public library until 1963. During the 1970s it served ...

, a museum which opened in the Fall of 2007, and Anaheim Ice (formerly called "Disney Ice"), an ice skating rink opened to the public that also serves as the practice arena for the NHL team, the Anaheim Ducks. Also located in Anaheim's Colonial District is the oldest museum in Orange County — the Mother Colony House. The neighborhood includes Pearson Park, named after former mayor Charles Pearson. The Pearson Park Amphitheatre, an outdoor theater, is located in Pearson Park. The Anaheim Packing House is a gourmet food hall opened in 2014 in a former Sunkist

packing house A packing house is a facility where fruit is received and processed prior to distribution to market. Bulk fruit (such as apples, oranges, pears, and the like) is delivered to the plant via trucks or wagons, where it is dumped into receiving bins ...

History

When Anaheim was a

rural In general, a rural area or a countryside is a geographic area that is located outside towns and cities. Typical rural areas have a low population density and small settlements. Agricultural areas and areas with forestry typically are descri ...

community surrounded by orange groves, the geographic center of town was at the intersection of Center Street and Los Angeles Street (now Center Street and Anaheim Blvd.) and the central business district was built around the center of town. Prior to the opening of

Disneyland Disneyland is a theme park in Anaheim, California. Opened in 1955, it was the first theme park opened by The Walt Disney Company and the only one designed and constructed under the direct supervision of Walt Disney. Disney initially envision ...

, the old business district consisted of establishments such as the SQR Department Store, Chung King Restaurant, and the Pickwick Hotel. Disneyland brought the need for expansion of the Heart of Anaheim. Prior to

Walt Disney Walter Elias Disney (; December 5, 1901December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the American animation industry, he introduced several developments in the production of cartoons. As a film p ...

's death in 1966, the city of Anaheim had plans to construct a forty-story office

tower A tower is a tall structure, taller than it is wide, often by a significant factor. Towers are distinguished from masts by their lack of guy-wires and are therefore, along with tall buildings, self-supporting structures. Towers are specifi ...

on the other side of Ball Road from Disneyland. Walt Disney knew that the skyscraper would be seen from inside Disneyland, thus altering the theme park's atmosphere. Disney met with Anaheim city officials and an "anti-skyline ordinance" was passed which stated that no high rise in Anaheim could be built which could be seen from inside Disneyland. This forced the city to expand outward, instead of upward. Today, the heart of Anaheim consists of three districts: 1) Downtown Anaheim, 2) the Anaheim Resort, and 3) the Platinum Triangle. As Anaheim expanded outward more during the mid-late 1960s and 1970s, the old downtown district began to deteriorate. By the mid-1970s, Downtown Anaheim had experienced severe

urban blight Urban decay (also known as urban rot, urban death or urban blight) is the sociological process by which a previously functioning city, or part of a city, falls into disrepair and decrepitude. There is no single process that leads to urban deca ...

. The city began the process of demolishing the old downtown district and replacing it with a new Downtown District with a miniature

development. This process took a little more than fifteen years. The only structures from the old business district which still stand today are the old Carnegie Library, now the Muzeo, and the Kraemer Building (the old

Building)-the tallest building in Anaheim prior to Disneyland's opening in 1955. The tallest building in Downtown Anaheim today is West City Hall at fourteen stories high.

New developments

New skyscrapers are planned for the city's A-Town Project
which is currently under construction in the Platinum Triangle District. A-Town is supposed to be Orange County's Main "Downtown District" once it is completed. Downtown Anaheim's newest and most recent developments include the Muzeo, the Promenade @ Anaheim, Carnegie Plaza, and the Harbor Lofts.

References

External links

City of AnaheimDowntown Anaheim Official Website
{{Coord, 33.8339142, -117.9154455, format=dms, display=title Neighborhoods in Anaheim, California