The Orange Traffic Circle
Artist
Scott FitzGerald
Date1974
MediumPrint
Dimensions8 x 10 in. (20.3 x 25.4 cm)
ClassificationsPrintmaking
Credit LineGift of Dan and Cathy Thomas
Object number2020.012
DescriptionThe two main streets which dissect the Orange Plaza (which most Orange Countians today call the Orange Traffic Circle) were named for the men who founded the town in 1870 – Andrew Glassell and Alfred Beck Chapman.The first building erected (1872) was on the southwest corner of the crossroads and served as a tract office for Andrew’s brother, Capt. W.T. Glassell, who laid out the 40-acre (at $6/acre) townsite. A general store on the northeast corner and a two-story building on the southeast corner soon followed. The formative years of the City of Orange (incorporated in 1888 with a population of 600) saw the completion of the first school building, churches, a post office, and several hotels: The Plaza, owned by Emma Larkin and built by G.P. Cuddeback of concrete with cement shipped from Belgium; and the Palmyra and Vineland Hotels.
In 1883 a group of the townswomen declared the dusty, dirty crossroads at Glassell and Chapman a disgrace, and with dogged will and effort transformed it into a delightful little park. It remains today, its shrubbery and flowers shielded by 100-year-old trees. A green, shady circle, the little park offers the visitor a brief retreat in the midst of the four-directional flow of twentieth-century traffic.
(July 1974)
Written by the artist, Scott Fitzgerald
On View
Not on view
