Brea ( ; ) is a city in northern Orange County, California, United States. The population as of the 2020 census was 47,325. It is southeast of Los Angeles. Brea is part of the Los Angeles metropolitan area.
The city began as a center of crude oil production and was later propelled by citrus production. It is a significant retail center, including the Carbon Canyon Dam, Carbon Canyon Regional Park, Brea Mall and downtown Brea. The city has an extensive public art program that began in 1975 and has over 140 artworks placed throughout the city.
History
Indigenous
The area began as part of the homelands of the Tongva, who lived in the area for thousands of years before any contact was made with Europeans. The Tongva established extensive routes for travel and trade between Tongva villages as well as with neighboring Indigenous nations. The closest known village site to the city of Brea today is Hutuknga.
Spanish era
The area was visited on July 29, 1769, by the Spanish Portolá expedition, the first Europeans to see inland parts of Alta California. The party camped in Brea Canyon, near a large native village and a small pool of clean water.
left|thumb|[[Oil fields of the Brea area, early 1900s]]
The village of Olinda was founded in present-day Carbon Canyon at the beginning of the 19th century. Many entrepreneurs came to the area searching for "black gold" (petroleum).
Mexican era
The majority of the current city borders of Brea were within the Rancho San Juan Cajon de Santa Ana. The cessation of territory to the United States in 1848 ushered in a new era of decline for the ranchos as rigorous title-proving processes enacted in 1851 and drought in 1860 caused most owners to sell their land.
American era
The 1880s saw the development of agriculture in northern Orange County, particularly in the form of Valencia Oranges after it was found that the crop grew better in the cool foothills. Additionally, the construction of the Santa Fe Railroad as well as the discovery of oil in the area created an environment that kept winter frost from damaging the plant. Nearby oil fields provided supply for a process called "smudging", subsequently causing a grimy fog to settle over the area which reportedly caused health issues for the workers.
thumb|left|The [[Spanish Colonial Revival-style former Brea City Hall in the 1940s.]]
Olinda and Randolph grew and merged as the economy boomed. On January 19, 1911, the town's map was filed under the new name of Brea, from the Spanish language word for natural asphalt, also called bitumen, pitch, or tar. With a population of 752, Brea was incorporated on February 23, 1917, as the eighth official city of Orange County.
As oil production declined, some agricultural development took place, especially lemon and orange groves. In the 1920s, the Brea Chamber of Commerce promoted the city with the slogan “Oil, Oranges, and Opportunity.”
In 1950, Brea had a population of 3,208, 641 more than ten years earlier. The citrus groves gave way gradually to industrial parks and residential development. In 1956, Carl N. Karcher opened the first two Carl's Jr. restaurants in Anaheim and Brea. The opening of the Orange Freeway (57) and the Brea Mall in the 1970s spurred further residential growth, including large planned developments east of the 57 Freeway in the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s.
In the late 1990s, a swath of downtown Brea centered on Brea Boulevard and Birch Street was redeveloped into a shopping and entertainment area with movie theaters, sidewalk cafes, a live comedy club from The Improv chain, numerous shops and restaurants, and a weekly farmer's market. It is locally known and signed as Downtown Brea. The downtown area opened in 2000.
Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has an area of . of it is land and 0.26% is water.
It is bordered by unincorporated Orange County and Los Angeles County to the north and east, La Habra to the west, Fullerton to the southwest, Placentia to the south, Chino Hills to the northwest, and Yorba Linda to the southeast.
Climate
According to the Köppen Climate Classification system, Brea has a hot-summer Mediterranean climate, abbreviated "Csa" on climate maps.