Overview
About Downtown
Downtown covers 21.3 acres on Birch Street and Brea Boulevard, and 114 of its 120 addresses sit on those two streets: West Birch Street carries 68 and South Brea Boulevard 46. Ninety-four of the addresses carry a unit designator and the parcel layer records twenty-five parcels across the whole boundary, so most of the housing sits in buildings rather than on lots of its own. The general plan carries 14.7 acres as Mixed Use I, a designation that appears in only one other Brea community, Avalon.
The city's tree inventory records 235 street trees inside these 21.3 acres, the second densest canopy in the city after Canyon Country. Three works from the art collection stand here: Marsh Scott's Mandril de Rosa and Meg Cranston's Orange Grove Fountain, both from 2000, and Cheryl Ekstrom's The Brea Angel from 2002. The Brea Welcomes You sign on Birch Street is carried on the city's historic property register, one of only two entries on that register inside any of the 43 communities. Laurel Elementary is 0.22 miles away with 434 students, Brea Junior High 0.56 miles with 921, and Brea Olinda High 1.64 miles with 1,676.
View available homes in DowntownHistory
How Downtown was built
This is the original town. Speculators first promoted a townsite here in 1903 under the name Randolph, after the railway engineer Epes Randolph, laying out a school district and courting the railroads and the oil companies, but the effort collapsed between the farmers already on the ground and the competing oil interests. A new group refiled the old map with the county on 19 January 1911 under a name people already used for the area, Brea, defining a tract of about 230 lots and enticing oil equipment suppliers to open. The chamber of commerce first met in March 1913, and after opposition from ranchers and oil companies was settled, incorporation passed on 15 February 1917 by 245 votes to 45.
The downtown a visitor walks today is the third version. The 1970s took the trade a mile east to the Brea Mall and the Orange Freeway, and several revitalization schemes failed to bring it back. In the 1990s the city moved a handful of historic homes, scraped the blocks north of Imperial and Brea Boulevard, and rebuilt from nothing; the new district opened in 2000.
By the Numbers
Downtown by the numbers
Lifestyle
The Downtown lifestyle
Schools
Schools serving Downtown
Downtown sits inside Brea Olinda Unified, a quarter mile from Laurel Elementary. Brea Junior High is 0.56 miles away and Brea Olinda High 1.64 miles. Enrollment below is the 2024-25 federal count. Attendance boundaries set the assignment, so confirm a specific address with the district.
9-12 · 1,676 students
9-12 · 41 students
7-8 · 921 students
K-6 · 649 students
K-6 · 544 students
K-6 · 504 students
K-6 · 498 students
K-6 · 460 students
K-6 · 434 students
K-6 · 13 students
FAQs
Common questions about Downtown
What is Downtown Brea?
A 21.3 acre mixed use district on Birch Street and Brea Boulevard. The city's address layer records 120 addresses inside it, 94 of them carrying a unit designator, on twenty-five parcels. The general plan carries 14.7 acres as Mixed Use I.
How old is the ground?
It is the original town grid. The Map of the Town of Randolph was recorded in 1908 and the Map of the Town of Brea in January 1911, both before the city incorporated in 1917. The parcel record still holds structures dating to 1922.
Why was it called Randolph?
Randolph was the settlement's name before Brea. Land speculators promoted the townsite and declared a school district for it in 1903, and that attempt failed. On January 19, 1911 a new group refiled the old map with the county under the name Brea, defining a tract of about 230 lots. A northerly extension filed the same day carries the certificate of the Union Oil Company of California.
Why does downtown Brea look new?
Because most of it was rebuilt. The Brea Redevelopment Agency certified an environmental impact report for the Brea Downtown Master Plan in 1991, approved the Birch Street Component agreement with Brea Center Associates Limited Partnership that August, and adopted a relocation plan for the fifty acre project in August 1992. The city's own history records a few historic homes being moved and the blocks north of Imperial Highway and Brea Boulevard scraped to the ground.
What public art and historic property is downtown?
Three sculptures stand inside the boundary: Marsh Scott's Mandril de Rosa and Meg Cranston's Orange Grove Fountain from 2000, and Cheryl Ekstrom's The Brea Angel from 2002. The Brea Welcomes You sign on Birch Street is carried on the city's historic property register.