Driving through California Heights for a recent garden tour, just before sunset I happened upon this house, seemingly fixed in amber during the rancho period of old California. This little house sits (as does ours) on the 300,000-acre tract that was granted by the Spanish crown to a Spanish soldier, Manuel Nieto, in 1790 as a “reward for his military service and to encourage settlement in California,” a tract later broken up into five ranchos.
(California Heights, originally part of Rancho Los Cerritos)
I love it. “It was one of those California Spanish houses everyone was nuts about ten or fifteen years ago.” (Double Indemnity)
I grew up in Long Beach in the 1950s and seeing houses like that transport me back there instantly. My cousins, who lived in an old part of Pasadena, had a house like that. Stucco, Spanish-style tile roof, wrought iron, the works. Probably built in the 1920s.
Great stuff, thanks.
What a great building.
That’s a great line from a movie I may need to rewatch tonight — thanks, Bob!
I can’t take my eyes off that Agave. Methinks we need an IU Long Beach.
@Kathy, on the small size, but if the lot in back is big enough for a garden…
@Sue, this lawn-to-garden tour was a great idea. As far as I know, that’s the only of its kind. No GC Open Days here, only up in Los Angeles, Pasadena.
Interesting little house, looks quite authentic in the roof, but the windows must have been enlarged. Love the front yard, of course.
Raising Cain, Mildred Pierce’s little Spanish cottage in Glendale is still there, viewable via Google Street View, slightly altered but quite recognizable.