The new century brought many changes here, as elsewhere. As early as 1903, there were two telephone companies. Electricity became available in 1906. And, or course, automobiles became so common that the State Highway (101) passing through town had to be paved.
The 1920's ushered in a new period of growth. Tustin built its own high school in 1922. By 1927, the population toped 900 and voters deemed it was time to incorporate. The new City Council elected Byron Crawford the first mayor and hired "Big John" Stanton as the police force. The volunteer firemen continued to serve, using Sam Tustin's converted 1912 Buick firetruck (now on display in the Tustin Area Museum).
The impact of World War II was magnified in this area by the establishment of three military bases on nearby beanfields: the Santa Ana Army Air Base, the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station, and the Navy's Lighter-Than-Air Base (where the huge hangars housed coast-patrolling blimps).
It was not until the mid-1950's that Tustin's growth began in earnest. Freeways, quality schools, and post-war industries attracted thousands of people. The "quick-decline" disease, which decimated area orange groves, and rising land values induced the orchardists to to sell their land to builders and developers. By 1970, the population has jumped to 32,000.
Almost all the orchards are gone; now the surrounding landscape sprouts houses, schools and shopping centers instead of trees. But Main Street, though sandwiched by elements of progress, will take you back through the years of Tustin's development, revealing, like a tree's rings, its boom years, its lean times, its changing tastes, and its gradual metamorphosis decade by decade.
---- Carol H. Jordan, TAHS Historian