National Register, Fullerton List

The Clark House is a unique example of the Eastlake style in Fullerton. Moved to the Fullerton Arboretum from its original location at 114 North Lemon Street in 1972, the house was subsequently restored over a number of years and has been given the name Heritage House. The original gabled roof had to be removed for the move; a new roof as well as a double chimney was reconstructed, identical to the original. The interior has been fully restored and refurbished with furniture and medical equipment of the era. A new ramp for handicap accessibility was constructed on the backside.

The Muckenthaler Cultural Center is the former estate home of Adella and Walter Muckenthaler, situated on a large lot that is elevated above Malvern Avenue. The main portion of the house is two stories in height, with one-story wings at both ends and a garage on the north side. The two-story portion, which includes a full basement, is an outstanding example of the Mediterranean variation of Spanish Colonial architecture.

This building is one of the last remaining packing houses in Fullerton, where at one time as many as ten such plants lined the railroad tracts. It exemplifies the importance of the citrus industry in the growth of the city.

Designed by Anaheim architect M. Eugene Durfee, the Chapman Building is Fullerton's most outstanding commercial structure. Its design is a combination of the Chicago School of skyscraper architecture, as developed by Louis Sullivan, and a Southern California ethic.

The Fullerton Union Pacific Railroad Depot was originally constructed at 109 W. Truslow Avenue on the opposite side of Harbor Boulevard from its current location. The Union Pacific Railroad was the third to lay tracks through Fullerton and to build a depot, which firmly established the city as the regional rail center for northern Orange County.

The present Santa Fe Depot replaced the original Victorian depot that was constructed in 1888, a year after the arrival of the railroad in Fullerton. Built slightly east of the old depot, this poured-in-place concrete structure is about 256 feet long (plus a 150-long covered platform), designed in a Spanish Colonial style. The building's long, low-profile shape appears as a composite of forms, each with distinct features, which are assembled in a linear fashion. Arches of varying profiles appear throughout the building, while the use of a staggered gable and shed roofs with Mission tile adds to the visual complexity of the whole. This style of architecture is fully developed, with a fanciful use of detailing, such as quatrefoil windows, wooden shutters, concrete grillwork and a Monterey style balcony.

This magnificent structure is the finest example of residential Mission Revival architecture in Fullerton. This residence features unique detailing, and its prominent parapet, scalloped arched openings on the centered balcony, Egyptian-influenced columns and capitals, leaded and beveled glass windows, arched doorway and sidelights, bands of casement windows, and open porches with large cast concrete urns, distinguish the house like no other in Fullerton.

The two-story, 4,000-sq.-ft. Pierotti House is the finest example of Neo-Classical residential architecture in the Fullerton area. Designed by Charles Shattuck of Los Angeles, the redwood-sided house features a diversity of architectural elements. Prominent among these are two pairs of fluted Ionic columns made from redwood, which support a richly detailed pedimented portico. The front balcony extends to the north to form the top of the porte-cochere. Palladian-style fans accent some of the windows, and the variety of bays and window arrangements contributes to the appearance of intricate detailing. The interior features rosewood paneling, ceiling beams and cabinetwork. The house was built with a cellar that still contains a coal-fired furnace to heat the rooms above.

The Farmers and Merchants Bank building, initially constructed in 1904, received its beautifully detailed beaux-arts façade in 1922. Frank Benchley, a local architect, designed this embellishment. Accented with ornate classical motifs, this two-story building located on the southeast corner of Amerige Avenue and Harbor Boulevard is the only example of the Beaux-Arts style in Fullerton.

Designed by architect Carlton M. Winslow and constructed for $295,500 in 1930, the Fullerton Auditorium is an outstanding example of Spanish Colonial Revival architecture with Italian Renaissance design elements. The walls are poured-in-place concrete and the gable roof features red clay tiles. The imposing front fagade is symmetrical in design and richly decorated with Neo-classical motifs. A wide variety of cast concrete emblems embellish the classically shaped parapet, windows, and rectangular portico. The four story high tower is crowned with an octagonal dome clad in mosaic tile in rich shades of blue, gold, and green.

This building was the second Masonic Temple in Fullerton, taking the place of the much smaller facility at the northwest corner of Harbor Boulevard and Amerige Avenue. Rectangular in shape and three story (though multi-leveled) in height, it was constructed of hollow clay tile on a poured concrete foundation. Its Spanish Colonial Revival style is not ornate but is rather clean-lined and eclectic. For example, parts of the building have a flat roof with Mission Style parapets at the north and south sides. At the same time the front portico, with its elevated entrance, has a Neo-Classical treatment.

An impressive Gothic Revival structure, this masonry building is the oldest remaining church in Fullerton and has served the needs of three different congregations. The Methodists erected the church in 1909, at a cost of approximately $20,000. When the Methodists built their present church across the street in the late 1920s, they sold this property to the Seventh Day Adventist Church, which occupied the church until 1964. The Methodist Church took ownership a second time, with the intention of demolishing the building to use the property as a parking lot. That endeavor proved too expensive, so the property was again sold, this time to the First Church of Religious Science.

This imposing three-story brick structure was designed and built by Oliver S. Compton for the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Lodge #103, as evidenced by the 1927 cornerstone at the building's northwest corner. Designed from the start as a profit-making venture, the building was used as meeting and activity space for the Odd Fellows. Lodge members reserved the second floor for their exclusive use while leasing out the first floor for office and retail space and the third floor to other local patriotic and fraternal organizations. One of the first tenants on the ground floor was the United States Post Office. The original pressed tin ceiling, which graced the lobby of the Post Office, is still in place. A later use for the ground floor was a food locker, and since the 1950s, the Williams Company has occupied this space. The Odd Fellows Lodge occupied the upper level of the building in some capacity until 1949, and the structure continued to serve as a lodge and meeting room for various groups well into the 1970s, when occupancy was restricted to the ground level for safety reasons.

An exceptionally fine example of the Spanish Colonial Revival style applied to civic architecture, the former Fullerton City Hall, now the Police Station, was one of a number of Work Projects Administration (WPA) buildings completed in Fullerton in the 1930s and 1940s. The building was originally designed to house all city government offices and departments, including a jail, city council chambers, and a courtroom. At the time, Fullerton residents believed the City Hall would contain all the services the city would ever need.

Hillcrest Park was placed on the National Register of Historic Places for both its historical importance to the development of the City of Fullerton and its distinctive landscape characteristics. Constructed on 35.6 acres, Hillcrest Park is the City's largest, most beautiful, and historically significant park. In January 1920, the City of Fullerton purchased 33.649 acres from Fred M. West for $67,298 for use as a park. Two acres of the property had been acquired earlier for a reservoir on September 8, 1913, and the remaining property was considered ideal for park purposes. At the time of the purchase, the property was vacant aside from a few wildflowers and barley fields. Two local businesses were using the parkland: Dean Hardware was storing a cache of dynamite in the hillside off Brea Boulevard, and Arthur W. Purdy was leasing land at the base of the hill off Lemon Avenue for his diary business. Fullerton had only 4,415 residents in 1920, but town boosters, who were primarily transplants from other areas of the nation, recognized that they were building a town and were eager to establish a park system. Then known as Reservoir Hill, the parkland property was selected because it would be a recognizable landmark from the northern approaches to the city. It was also envisioned as Fullerton's "great" park. The Fullerton Board of Trade was entrusted with naming the site, and after soliciting suggestions from the general public, the parkland was christened "Hillcrest Park" on May 19, 1920.

Located at one of Fullerton 's busiest intersections in the heart of the central business district, the Italian Renaissance-inspired Alician Court Theatre has been the dominant landmark in the City's historic downtown for over eighty years. Constructed in 1924-25 for $300,000 by local businessman C. Stanley Chapman, the son of Fullerton's first mayor, the mixed-use building was designed to function as a combination vaudeville/silent movie house flanked by a one-story retail unit on the south side with a two-story garden café on the north. The Theatre was Orange County's first movie palace, and the site of regularly scheduled film premiers. When it opened in May of 1925, the Theatre was the largest motion picture house in the County, representing the height of Hollywood glamour and sophistication. In 1929, a Spanish Colonial Revival super service station, designed by Stiles O. Clements of Morgan, Walls & Clements, was added to the south side of the building. In 1930, the Chapman family traded the Theatre Complex for a 940-acre ranch, and the building went through a series of names changes before finally becoming the Fox Fullerton Theatre, the name most popularly associated with the movie house.

Lushly landscaped and well-designed, the Dewella Apartments, located at 234-236 East Wilshire Avenue , were constructed for $11,000 in the historic central core of Fullerton , California , in 1929. The Dewella is the only apartment or garden court apartment in the City of Fullerton . The complex is also the only time that the Spanish Colonial Revival style was applied to an apartment building in Fullerton . The Dewella's superb use of Spanish Colonial Revival architectural details—railings, gates, locksets for doors, weathervanes, lighting fixtures, decorative grills, etc.—provide a unifying theme for the complex, while also providing a counterpoint to the complex's large areas of white stucco.

The Fullerton Post Office, a neat, attractive example of the Spanish Colonial Revival style applied to civic architecture, was one of a number of Depression-era government relief projects completed in Fullerton in the 1930s and 1940s. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on August 28, 2012 for both its architecture and interior mural.  Although the building is often categorized incorrectly as a Works Project Administration (WPA) structure, it actually was designed by the United States Treasury Department's Office of the Supervising Architect.  The Office of the Supervising Architect's plaque is positioned on the front of the building.

On July 23, 2013, the Fender Radio Service Shop was placed on the National Register of Historic Places. On October 19, 2010, the Fullerton City Council designated the building a Local Landmark for its historic association with guitar legend Clarence Leonidas ("Leo") Fender .

On January 31, 2017, the Beckman Instruments, Inc. Administration Building (4300 North Harbor Boulevard) was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

On December 14, 2017, Pomona Court and Apartments were listed on the National Register of Historic Places . The properties are also designated Fullerton Local Landmarks.

The Hunt Center and Library complex consists of two landmark buildings, landscaped surroundings, and other structural elements. A four-story, rectangular, International Style Hunt-Wesson, Inc. Headquarters building, located at 1645 West Valencia Drive, is complemented by the one-story Hunt Library, located at 201 South Basque Avenue, in the same style. Contributing resources include the two buildings, the designed landscape, a platform with metal canopy, and ten modernist benches and ten hexagonal planters.

The Hugh Edgar Johnson House was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on February 4, 2021. It is also a designated Fullerton Local Landmark. The dwelling is associated with prominent and influential newspaper editor/owner Hugh Edgar Johnson, who along with his wife Mildred, had the home constructed in 1928 by notable local building contractor Evan J. Herbert. On May 31, 1927, the Johnsons purchased three lots facing Richman Avenue in Brookdale Heights from local developer Harry Gantz. On February 29, 1928, the couple signed a contract to have the home constructed for $15,000, an enormous sum for a home at the time, on the newly purchased land. The Johnsons, who had been living at the same location on West Commonwealth Avenue since moving to Fullerton in 1893, appeared to be planning their final dream home with the expectation that Hugh Edgar Johnson would retire in 1929. Newspaper society articles indicate that the couple had settled into their newly constructed home by September 1928. Mildred Johnson died of a stroke in the home on October 22, 1931, and her husband continued to live in the dwelling until his death in 1935.

Planned, laid out, and constructed from 1935 to 1942, the Fullerton College Historic District comprises the historic core of the campus. The campus plan, featured in the November 1936 issue of California Arts & Architecture, was completed in 1934 by Master Landscape Architect Ralph D. Cornell. Cornell created a formal plan and layout for the college inspired by Thomas Jefferson’s plans for the University of Virginia. Formal multi-level buildings are positioned around a central quadrangle known as the Quad, which is intersected and connected by formally arranged wide terracotta, concrete, and brick walkways.