Overview
About Delhi
Delhi covers 384 acres and the county records 1,288 parcels and 1,264 site addresses inside the boundary, at a median distinct legal lot of 6,647 square feet. Twenty four named streets run 12.54 miles within it, among them Halladay St, Kilson Dr, Measor St, Goetz Ave, Emmett St and Flora St. The zoning layer gives 108.5 acres to single family residence, 68 acres to two family residence and 67.9 acres to light industrial, with 30.6 acres carried as open space land.
Delhi Park sits inside the boundary at 9.9 acres, and the city records an all purpose field, a ball diamond, a basketball court, a handball court, a picnic area and a playground on it, with the joint use field at James Monroe Elementary adding 2.91 acres. Four campuses sit inside the boundary on the city school layer: Monroe Elementary, Thomas A. Edison Elementary, Cesar E. Chavez High and Montessori International Academy.
View available homes in DelhiHistory
How Delhi was built
Delhi is named for a town in New York. James McFadden came west and bought a large tract of Santa Ana land in 1868, and he called this stretch of it after Delhi, New York, the hometown he and his brother Robert had left behind. Locals have said it "dell-high" ever since. The McFaddens went on to build the wharf and lumber business at Newport that brought in much of the wood that built Orange County.
The houses came in waves and the streets still name the men who laid them out. The Hinze brothers subdivided first in 1909, W. G. Emmett followed in 1912 selling to what his advertising called "the man of small means," and Catherine Measor Leieritz, a bootlegger, filed hers in 1915. Emmett Street and Measor Street are both still on the map. The 1920 census counted about 500 people here, many of them families who had left the Mexican Revolution and could buy land and take factory work at a time when that was rare in the county. Delhi was annexed to the City of Santa Ana in 1929. In 1969 neighbors, the Catholic church and the Junior League of Newport Beach incorporated the Delhi Center, which started life in two war surplus Quonset huts donated by the National Armory and opened its present building on December 17, 2001.
By the Numbers
Delhi by the numbers
Lifestyle
The Delhi lifestyle
Schools
Schools serving Delhi
Santa Ana Unified covers the whole boundary and assigns campuses through its own address locator rather than a published boundary map. Three of the district campuses below sit inside the boundary itself. Enrollment is the 2024-25 federal count.
09-12 · 350 students
KG-05 · 332 students
KG-05 · 217 students
KG-08 · 811 students
KG-06 · 749 students
06-08 · 1,005 students
KG-05 · 529 students
07-12 · 1,451 students
09-12 · 1,519 students
FAQs
Common questions about Delhi
Where does the name Delhi come from?
From Delhi Road, which the 1909 South Santa Ana map labels along the Pacific Electric right of way at the top of the sheet. The map was surveyed by F. E. McCarter and filed at the request of Fred H. Heege.
How big is Delhi?
The City of Santa Ana draws it at 384 acres, with 1,288 parcels and 1,264 site addresses on the county record. Twenty four named streets run 12.54 miles inside the boundary.
When were the homes in Delhi built?
The county carries a year built on 1,213 parcels here. The middle of them is 1946, with 404 dated to the 1940s, 301 to the 1950s and 205 to the 1920s. The range runs from 1895 to 1990.
What is inside the boundary for recreation?
Delhi Park at 9.9 acres, which the city records with an all purpose field, a ball diamond, a basketball court, a handball court, a picnic area and a playground. The joint use field at James Monroe Elementary adds 2.91 acres on the open space layer.
Which schools sit inside Delhi?
Four on the city school layer: Monroe Elementary, Thomas A. Edison Elementary, Cesar E. Chavez High and Montessori International Academy. Santa Ana Unified covers the whole boundary and assigns campuses through its own address locator.