THE INCORPORATION AS A CITY

Late in 1952, the people living in the two and one half square miles of the Sanitary District decided they could best serve themselves by incorporating. The incorporation was voted, and on January 27, 1953, the first City Council was sworn in by the County Clerk beside the building that was soon to become the first Council Chamber at 7695 9th Street.

SWEARING I THE FIRST COUNCIL, JANUARY 27, 1953

The first year was quiet, but before the end of 1954 the tidal wave. hit. The State decided the actual Santa Ana Freeway must be built on the right-of-way already bought. This cut the city in half and eliminated the business district. Annexations began with farms changed to home tracts that required the Civic Center to be built in 1957, for the city became four times its original size, and began the population jump now approaching 70,000.

Its commercial development, drawing sales from surrounding areas, furnishes a sales tax income that allows property taxes to be kept low. Its more than 150 of the top industries of the country helps make a balanced tax structure and good employment.

The Alligator Farm, Movieland Wax Museum and Palace of Living Art, the Japanese Village and Deer Park, and the Movie World with its cars and planes, have joined Knott's Berry Farm in making Buena Park a Mecca for millions of tourists every year.

CIVIC CENTER NEARING COMPLETION AND THE FREEWAY

From Rancho Los Coyotes to Cityhood, the Buena Park citizen can be proud of his, heritage. The little hamlet that grew up around a creamery laid the foundation for the city that has truly become what its seal shows it to be:
"THE CENTER OF THE SOUTHLAND"