The Tustin Area Historical Society was founded in 1976 for the purpose of preserving and celebrating the rich and colorful history of our local area. The Heritage Committee of Tustin’s U.S. Bicentennial Foundation in 1975 established the Tustin Area Museum with the Tustin Area Historical Society becoming the parent organization in November of 1976. Our founders were Carol Jordan, Mary Etzold, and Vivien Owen.

Since those years, our collection of artifacts and photographs have grown into one of the largest local archives in Orange County. We have participated in city-wide events, created our now-annual Old Town Tustin Home and Garden Tour, offered free tours to children and residents of our museum collection, and assisted authors in the publications of several books on Tustin history – most available for sale in our museum and online.

To accomplish this work and maintain the museum at no cost to visitors, we rely on membership dues, generous donations from individuals and businesses, and proceeds from our Home and Garden Tour.

These funds allow us to maintain and enhance our Museum, provide programs to stimulate historical interest in the area, protect historical papers and photographs for future research and to continue our History-in-a-Box program for all of the third grade classes in the Tustin Unified School District. 

Our general meetings feature interesting guest speakers and routinely begin at 7:00 PM at a downtown location noted in our event listing/promotion. We also offer occasional “Night at the Museum” speaker events at the Museum itself.