Anaheim Packing House keeps citrus history busy

Anaheim is famous for theme parks now, but the Packing House points back to the city’s citrus years. The building began as a 1919 orange packing facility, the kind of place where fruit moved from local groves into crates, rail cars, and markets far beyond Orange County.

That older job is easy to miss if you only see today’s food hall. The building has been preserved and reused, with two levels of places to eat and gather. The wider Packing District also includes other historic pieces, including the MAKE building, which began as the Crawford Marmalade Factory in the citrus era.

This is the kind of reuse that makes history feel less sealed off. Instead of asking people to look at an old packing house from the sidewalk, Anaheim has a place where people can meet friends, eat lunch, hear music, and still stand inside a building tied to the city’s farm past.

The Packing House works because the old use and new use both involve food, work, and people coming through. The details have changed, but the building still feels active.