On April 2 I opened the doors at 206 West 4th Street, in downtown Santa Ana.
The address is the W. H. Spurgeon Building. Ground was broken on it in August of 1913, and when it was finished it was the tallest thing in the city: four storeys, Neo-classical, with a domed Swiss clock tower on the corner. Santa Ana's first skyscraper. Most people here just call it the Clock Tower. It has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1979.
William Spurgeon bought seventy-four acres of the Rancho Santiago de Santa Ana in 1869 and laid out a town on it. He became its first mayor. The building carries his name because he built it, more than forty years after he built the city around it.
Why this building
I grew up in Santa Ana.
That is the part that makes this more than a lease. This city shaped me long before I was an attorney. I spent years working in other people's law offices. I took night classes after full days of work, and a bar exam that took more than one attempt.
So opening my own doors in the building that started this city is not a coincidence I arranged afterward for the sake of a story. It is simply where I wanted to be.
What it means if you are my client
There is a practical side, and it matters more than the history.
The Orange County Superior Court is a few blocks away. When something has to be filed or argued, it happens down the street rather than at a distance. And when you want to sit across a desk from the person handling your case, that person is me. This is a solo practice, so there is nobody to hand you off to.
If you have been hurt and you would rather talk it through in person than over the phone, the entrance is on 4th Street. Look for the clock tower.
