L.A. Is My Beat: California Heights Home & Garden Tour

Lemon Avenue Home, built in 1929. Original cost, $4,500

On Sunday we drove down to Long Beach for the California Heights Home & Garden Tour. Our friends (and probably relatives), Ellen and Tom Underhill live there and are active in the community.

There were many Craftsman style homes

From Wikipedia: California Heights is a historic area of Long Beach nestled just south of North Long Beach and the neighborhood of Bixby Knolls and north of Signal Hill. Until the early 1920s California Heights was part of the Bixby Ranch and was used primarily as grazing land. It was the discovery of oil on Signal Hill and the ensuing land boom in the 1921 that caused the Jotham Bixby Company to subdivide and sell of lots in the California Heights tract. In 1927, California Heights included Chateau Therry (the subdivision on the west side of California Avenue) and petitioned the City of Long Beach for paved streets, sidewalks, curbs and ornamental lighting. The California Heights-Chateau Thierry area grew rapidly with approximately 250 families moving into the neighborhood between 1925 and 1927. The area continued to attract new families and by 1939 most of the building was complete.

Tudor Revival Style Home

The City of Long Beach has 18 historic districts. California Heights is one of them. I do love that many of the homes had Historic District signs posted. Most of the homes are of the Spanish Colonial Revival style. You can also see a few examples of Craftsman bungalows and Tudor Revival and Neo-Traditional homes of the late 30s and 40s. Some older homes were relocated to California Heights from downtown Long Beach.

It was extremely hot on Sunday, but we managed to trudge through the neighborhood and see most of the featured homes. It was helpful that the San Pedro Trolley made a loop through the area so we could catch a ride to some of the farthest homes. We were not allowed to take photos inside the homes, but many had been remodeled for today's life-styles, most retaining many of the historical details of their original plans.

Tour Docent, Ellen Rooney Underhill in front of the Gundry Home, built in 1930 at a cost of $4,000

Our tour consisted of primarily Spanish Revival homes. I was surprised to see so many different types of architecture in one neighborhood though. We even ran into some modern ranch-style homes, labeled Cinderella or Swiss Miss homes!