Civic Center Dr East, Lacy

Civic Center Drive is where the Superior Court House is and is a combination of municipal buildings and regular housing, although a lot of the houses have been to converted to businesses and/or attorney offices.

Across the street from the Court House is a little, old-fashioned shoe shine stand where a man sits outside waiting to shine the lawyers shoes before they go into court. On top of the stand, there's a cute sign that says “Shoe Shine” along with some lawyer advertisements above it.

It's a pretty clean, cute and nice neighborhood; all of the houses are older and probably around 75 to 80 years old, but they're pretty well kept. Sadly, there's metered parking in front of all of the houses and because of the court house and jail, the traffic is pretty heavy most of the time.

On the sidewalks, there are several hot dog and tamale vendors who sell lunches to attorneys, courthouse personnel, sheriffs and others going to the court house. The vendors are almost always out there, rain or shine.

This is a very busy street! The Civic Center is located on this street, as is the Santa Ana Public Library, Santa Ana Police Department, and the Orange County Jail. Parking can be a pain because of all of the activity going on here on a daily basis. It is definitely worth seeing the area for it's historical value alone; many of the buildings are on the historic register.

As a previous resident of Santa Ana, my favorite landmark to stop in to is the Dr. Howe-Waffle House. This beautiful Queen Anne Victorian home is on the corner of Civic Center Drive and Sycamore and encompasses the history of the entire city. The home was owned by Dr. Willella Howe-Waffle whom had an active medical practice and an aviary. With a large portion of my family in the medical field, the history of Dr. Willella being one of the county's first medical doctors is very inspiring. Though the architecture and decor of the home is unseen and may inspire or interest anyone.