Via Tract

Via Tract covers 47.2 acres and the city's address layer records 222 addresses inside the boundary across 229 parcels, on 1.56 miles of street with lots running to a median of 0.149 acres. Every one of the ten street names begins with Via: Via Arroyo, Via Balboa, Via Gancho, Via Media, Via Norte, Via Riviera, Via Sevilla, Via Sola, Via Vico and Via Vista.

The city zones 35.4 acres for 6,000 square foot one family residential lots and the whole boundary sits inside the published liquefaction zone. Mail carries the 90620 zip code, and the neighborhood feeds San Marino Elementary, Orangeview Junior High and Western High.

Via Tract was built inside a decade. The first two maps were recorded on the same day, 9 February 1956, putting 107 lots on one and 91 on the other, and a third closed the last corner on 31 March 1961 with nineteen more. The county assessor dates 202 of the 222 homes to the 1950s and twenty to the 1960s, which matches the filing record almost exactly.

Via means way, and every one of the ten street names is one. Via Vista is the view way, Via Norte the north, Via Media the middle, Via Arroyo the creek, Via Sola the solitary one and Via Gancho the hook. The rest are names rather than directions: Sevilla for the Andalusian city, Balboa and Riviera for places closer to hand, and Via Vico. The neighborhood is one panel of a much larger Spanish naming system across the western half of Buena Park, where the grids are sorted by article into el, la, los, san and santa, with via reserved for the ways.