Fullerton ( ) is a city in northern Orange County, California, United States. As of the 2020 census, the city had a total population of 143,617.
The area of the city was a part of the homelands of the Tongva for thousands of years. There was a large village in the area along the Santa Ana River that has since been identified as the Hutuknga. The village was one of the largest throughout all of Tovaangar, or the Tongva world. It was connected by marriage ties to other villages in the area, including Genga. Acorns and seeds from grasses and sages were regularly cultivated. Trade connections were established with villages on the coast and those further inland.
American era
Fullerton was founded in 1887 and named after George H. Fullerton, who at the time was president of the Pacific Land and Improvement Company, a subsidiary of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway. Fullerton, on behalf of the California Central Railway (another Santa Fe subsidiary at the time), helped secure the right of way for the railroad to go through where the city is now. George and Edward Amerige, two brothers from Malden, Massachusetts, who came to California in 1886, purchased 430 acres and would become the founders of the city. In 1894, Charles Chapman purchased an orange orchard in eastern Fullerton. The Valencia oranges he promoted from his Santa Ysabel Ranch, well suited to the local climate, proved a boon to producers; Fullerton boasted more orange groves than any other municipality in the United States. Cultivation of walnuts and avocados also flourished, and the Western railroad town became an agricultural center. Fullerton was incorporated in 1904,
Boom years
thumb|[[Fullerton Union High School's auditorium, built 1930–32]]
thumb|[[Union Pacific depot, built 1923]]
Drilling for petroleum began in 1880 with the discovery of the Brea-Olinda Oil Field and fueled the first real boom, peaking in the 1920s. Construction reflected the vogue for Spanish Colonial Revival and Italian Renaissance–inspired architecture, as in the historic Fox Fullerton Theatre (erected 1925); the Muckenthaler House, designed by Frank K. Benchley (erected 1924); and the city's chief landmark, the Plummer Auditorium and clock tower (erected 1930). Fullerton College was established at its present location at Chapman Avenue and Lemon Street in 1913. Meanwhile, the city banned all overnight street parking in 1924 – a law enforced to the present day, unless an area is specifically exempted.
In 1943, the Alex Bernal residence became the site of one of the first successful lawsuits against household covenant laws in the country after Alex and Esther Bernal purchased a home in a Fullerton neighborhood that barred purchases from "Mexicans." After a home invasion that resulted in their belongings being thrown into the street and a petition signed by fifty neighborhood residents to have the Bernal's removed from the neighborhood, a lawsuit was issued against the Bernals on the basis that their presence caused "irreparable injury" to the neighborhood that could lead to "coming in contact with said other races, including Mexicans, in a social and neighborhood manner." Lawyer David C. Marcus represented the Bernals in Doss vs. Bernal and won the case, which received national attention.
In 1949, Leo Fender developed and refined the world's first commercially successful solid-body electric guitar, the Fender Telecaster.
Postwar suburbanization
Although Fullerton, like other Southern California cities, had experienced an expansion of population due to housing development, this increased by an order of magnitude during the post war years. Fullerton's population soared after World War II as American veterans migrated to the region, bought housing in developments which consumed the area's farmland, and in particular after the construction of Interstate 5 and development in neighboring Anaheim.
To serve the growing population, the California State Legislature authorized Orange County State College in 1957, which began operating out of Fullerton high schools in 1959. In 1963, it moved to its present campus on State College Boulevard, and later, after several name-changes, was finally redesignated California State University, Fullerton. The Fullerton Arboretum, a 26-acre (105,000 m<sup>2</sup>) botanical garden, opened in 1979.
Manufacturing growth leveled off as ever-soaring property prices, increasing environmental regulation, traffic, and other pressures increased. By the late 20th century the city had lost much of its rural character in favor of suburban housing tracts and shopping centers.
In the 1980s, Fullerton hosted a community of Punk and LGBTQ youth in the former Black Hole Apartments.
Recent history
In the 1990s, the downtown commercial district had become economically depressed, and was known mainly for being an area of sleepy antique stores and small shops. A symbol of downtown's problems was the Fox Theatre, a local landmark which had fallen into disrepair partially due to a fire. As of November 2004, a fundraising drive had accumulated sufficient funds to buy the theater, but not yet enough money to restore it. By 2006, restoration was started. As of 2024 these renovations were still ongoing.
During this same period, downtown Fullerton (DTF), especially in the south of Commonwealth area (SOCO), has become more of a busy entertainment district, described by the OC Weekly as "Bourbon Street West." In less than five years, some 30 businesses that sell alcohol have opened, making the downtown area much more active at night. In 2008, City Manager Chris Meyer called together department head and the finance department and reported to the city council that the Restaurant Overlay District (established December 2002) was costing the city $935,000 over and above the sales taxes collected.
The Hughes Aircraft Company's Ground Systems Group campus in western Fullerton was redeveloped into a new residential and commercial district called Amerige Heights, in between 2001 and 2004.
Geography
thumb|right|[[Fullerton Arboretum]]
thumb|[[West Coyote Hills]]
Fullerton is located approximately southeast of downtown Los Angeles, and approximately north-northwest of Santa Ana, the county seat. The city lies approximately northeast of the Pacific Ocean straight-line distance.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which is land and , comprising 0.05%, is water.
West Coyote Hills is a ridge in northern Fullerton, including owned by Pacific Coast Homes (a land development division of the Chevron Corporation) that is the largest remaining tract of undeveloped land in north Orange County.
Climate
According to the Köppen Climate Classification system, Fullerton has a hot-summer Mediterranean climate, abbreviated Csa on climate maps.