Orange County Featured City: Brea

Brea is not one of the more famous Orange County beach cities such as Laguna or Newport, but it

has a lot to offer. Located north of Fullerton and just south of the Orange County border, Brea is the northern most part of the county. The city was first founded on crude oil production and had refineries set up all over the cities. Once the oil was pumped dry, citrus such as lemons, and of course oranges, were the major product of export and supported the city until about 1970 when the 57 freeway was built and the Brea Mall broke ground.

Before a city itself, the village of Olinda was founded in what is today Carbon Canyon in early 1800 and many came over to look for black gold, which is also known as petroleum. Abel Stearns, the owner of much of the land sold around 1,200 acres in 1984 to the west of the village to the Union Oil Company of California. The company decided to make it an oil field and wooden oil-drilling towers popped up all over the land. This oil field needed a place where the workers could live because there was no city around for miles and most people didn’t have the means to commute. Randolph village was founded just south of Brea Canyon for the workers and their families. Walter Johnson, a Pittsburgh Pirates legend of the MLB grew up and worked there in the early 1900’s before the lefty made it up to the big leagues and eventually got his family out as well.

Brea is now known as one of the major retailing cities of Orange County thanks to the mall and the newly redeveloped downtown which includes hundreds of shops, restaurants, and bars. Brea is also nationally known for their art program founded in 1975 and has obtained over 140 artworks in the city and continues to run programs throughout the area. Their dedication to art and sustaining and preserving art has been inspiring to programs around the country. Brea might not be a beach city, but it sure has a lot going for it.