After Sam Tustin’s donated 1912 Buick touring car was converted to a fire engine, the Tustin Fire Department grew. Thirty-two men volunteered to help at their first meeting. A siren was installed on top of the First Nation Bank building to call the men out in case of a fire. This photo was taken in about 1924. (Photo courtesy Tustin Area Historical Society)

Coming straight from the fields, Fenlon Matthews is pictured circa 1910 riding atop a horse and wagon with a full load of fruit from the pickers. The fruit would then go to the packing house to be sorted and shipped by refrigerated rails cars to various destinations east. While motor-driven vehicles were starting to become common, the older method of using horse and wagon stayed popular when moving crops from the fields to nearby packing houses. (Photo courtesy of Tustin Area Historical Society)

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An early car owner, C.A. Vance is shown taking his wife and children out on a drive in the 1920s. Vance was a banker at the First National Bank of Tustin and one of the early Tustin residents who purchased cars  once garages and gas stations opened in the city. (Photo courtesy of Tustin Area Historical Society)

William Huntley and Nick Gulick show off Tustin’s new fire truck soon after it came back from conversion around 1924. Previously, volunteer firefighters responded to fires by pulling a 40-gallon chemical tank mounted on two large wheels. (Photo courtesy of Tustin Area Historical Society)

Before citrus orchards became king in Tustin, walnuts and apricots were the major crops for growers. Pictured here are workers in a walnut orchard. While the trees were easy to care for, walnut harvesting was very labor intensive. Eventually, growers would develop “shakers” with belts strapped to the trees that would shake the nuts off. (Photo courtesy of Tustin Area Historical Society)



This photograph, taken in the 1950s, shows workers at the Golden West Citrus Association’s packing house, on Newport Avenue near Irvine Boulevard. The woman is culling frost-damaged lemons as they float to the surface of the water. (Photo courtesy of Tustin Area Historical Society)

Original Tustin High School: The majestic Tustin Union High School opened in 1922 with numerous regular classrooms, a 1000-seat auditorium and state-of-the-art scientific classrooms. The building was demolished and replaced in the mid-1960s due to fears of the quality of construction in the event of an earthquake. (Photo courtesy Tustin Area Historical Society)

The inside of the First National Bank at Main Street and El Camino Real (then D Street) was very ornate but stately  much like the outside building’s architecture. Shown here around 1916, the bank grew successfully for more than 40 years until it was purchased by First Western Bank in 1959. The building was eventually torn down in 1963 and the lot is used for parking by Mrs. B’s Consignments (formerly Tustin Hardware). (Photo courtesy Tustin Area Historical Society)

Main Street as dirt street seems unrecognizable. The majestic trees and the neoclassical-style building with columns, now Rutabegorz restaurant, make this location familiar to locals. This view is looking west from El Camino Real, then D Street. (Photo courtesy of Tustin Area Historical Society)

Picking citrus required teams of men climbing up trees to quickly gather the ripening fruit. Large orchards competed with each other when trying to hire enough pickers for a common harvest time. The fruit would go immediately to the nearby packing houses for shipment to markets around the country. This photo was taken in the 1920s. (Photo courtesy of the Tustin Area Historical Society)



In the early 1900s, automobiles began to offer the freedom of travel as they became somewhat affordable. El Camino Real was a rough and poorly-marked 600-mile route between the California missions running up and down the coast of California. The California Federation of Women’s Clubs began to install distinctive mission bells on high poles to mark the route and help travelers. This photo above shows one of the original bells in Tustin. (Photo courtesy Tustin Area Historical Society)

Gas Lines: Cars lined up for blocks to get their maximum two-gallon allotment at the Tustin Garage in the 1920s. In Orange County and across the country, refined gas production could not keep up with the growing numbers of cars on the road as ranch horses were increasingly replaced with gas-powered tractors and trucks. While gas cost 30 cents per gallon then, with inflation, it equates to about $3.50 today. (Photo courtesy Tustin Area Historical Society)

The Swartz family dressed up for a Sunday outing in this photo, taken in the early 1920s. Their home behind them was located on the future site of the Tustin High School. After the sale, the house was used as the residence of the principal and became known as the “Means House.” The home was later moved to Main Street. (Photo courtesy of Cliff Prather)

In this photo taken in the 1950s, women select and grade fruits that come down a conveyer belt to be boxed and shipped to Sunkist orange purchasers across the country. This packing house was the Tustin Citrus Association located on Newport Avenue near Main Street. During harvest season, the packing houses would run at full speed in order to get the fresh product to market after picking as soon as possible. (Photo courtesy of the Tustin Area Historical Society)

When Tustin officially became a city in 1927, it was really just a small town.

Streets were unpaved. Trees by far outnumbered residents. For years to come, the main industry would be orange farming.

The city will celebrate its 90th birthday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 24, in the area of 3rd Street and El Camino near Peppertree Park.

Bring a cooler and chairs to the main stage at El Camino Real and Third Street to rock out to Stone Soul. Grab a bite to eat from food trucks, including In-N-Out and Kogi.

And, don’t miss the Columbus Tustin bust reveal at noon on Main Street and El Camino Real.

The photos and accompanying information were supplied by Guy Ball of the Tustin Area Historical Society. Ball compiled the photo books “Images of America: Tustin” and the upcoming “Tustin Through Time.”

To learn more about Tustin’s roots, go to: TustinHistory.com.

Information: tustinwebmaster@tustinca.org.