Vintage Rose Park Blossoms Anew

When Jose and Alicia Esquivias first saw their 1920s Spanish Revival bungalow in the historic Rose Park district of Long Beach, it definitely didn’t look like their dream home.

Squatters had invaded the house, causing damage. “My wife’s reaction was, ‘No way am I going to live here,’ ” Jose Esquivias said.

The two-bedroom, one-bath house had 30 code violations that had to be corrected before the Esquiviases could move in. In the bathroom there were holes in the walls and the floor. The plumbing was in need of repair, and the yard was overgrown.

In spite of the obvious flaws, the low price of $89,000 made the home appealing. The good news was that the underlying structure of the house was basically sound. Jose Esquivias knew that it could be restored.

“We were expecting a baby and needed to move in right away, so I worked hard to get the house ready,” he said.

“I put in new water lines and gas lines to code. Fortunately, the wiring was OK, and the roof didn’t need to be replaced. I painted the exterior beige with green and brown trim. I chose the colors from looking at magazine pictures.”

Jose Esquivias was familiar with Rose Park because he had grown up in a nearby neighborhood. He was impressed by the continuing improvements in the area.

“This area from Cherry [Avenue] to Redondo [Avenue] has been getting a lot better. It is a quiet neighborhood. It’s close to everything--the beach and downtown Long Beach,” he said.

Vintage Homes With

Original Components

Rose Park, one of Long Beach’s oldest neighborhoods, is bounded by 10th Street on the north, 4th Street on the south, Redondo Avenue on the east and St. Louis Avenue on the west.

Originally part of Los Alamitos Rancho owned by the Bixby family, the area was subdivided into lots between 1910 and the 1920s.

A neighborhood of about 1,400 houses, Rose Park has a concentration of Craftsman bungalows, Spanish Revival and Colonial Revival homes built early in the 20th century. The neighborhood is ethnically and economically diverse.

And one of the big draws for residents is Rose Park’s location.

“I can’t think of any other place in Southern California where you can buy so close to the beach for under $200,000,” said Shannon Jones, an agent with Century 21 Sparow in Long Beach.

Jones and her husband, Brad, bought their 2,300-square-foot Craftsman home for $173,000 in 1996. They had been looking in Huntington Beach but could not find anything other than condos in their price range. They discovered the listing, a foreclosure, on the Internet.

“The house was filthy and smelled, but it had good bones,” Jones said.

A former owner had remodeled the kitchen and bath, adding copper plumbing and new wiring to the 1911 two-story house. The kitchen also has a roomy walk-in pantry. The living room and dining room have the built-ins typical in a Craftsman home.

Upstairs, there are a roomy master bedroom and a bathroom with a deep tub and large shower. The couple converted the additional upstairs bedrooms into home offices.

They also added air-conditioning and insulation and painted the exterior and interior. Shannon Jones, an avid gardener, landscaped the gardens.

Rose Park’s housing stock varies widely in price. The highest-priced listing recently was $320,000 for a three-bedroom two-story California bungalow with a studio over the garage, Jones said.

The lowest-priced home was $89,000 for a small house on a tiny lot.

A typical two-bedroom, one-bath house with between 1,000 and 1,100 square feet would sell for about $170,000.

Jones says the variation in price reflects the condition, location and size of the house. Homes that are closer to the beach have higher prices. Those that were surrounded by apartments before the neighborhood was rezoned to mostly R-1 in 1988 are more reasonable.

Condition is also an important factor for many buyers who particularly prize vintage homes that have original components, such as light fixtures and built-ins. These home buyers are drawn to Rose Park because they want to live in a historic area.

“Rose Park is a good example of historic preservation,” said Ruthann Lehrer, neighborhood preservation officer for Long Beach.

In 1996, the city designated the area between 4th and 10th streets and St. Louis and Redondo avenues as a historic district. The designation means that external changes to buildings are subject to review by the city’s Cultural Heritage Commission.

From the 1920s to the ‘60s, Rose Park was a neighborhood of working-class families, many of which came to Long Beach from the Midwest.

“As older folks died or had to move to rest homes, houses were sold,” said longtime resident Kurt Barthel, who has lived in Rose Park since 1957.

“In the late 1950s and 1960s, contractors would smash down houses and build cracker-box apartments,” he said. “This brought a more transient population.”

In the 1980s, Neighborhood Watch groups were created to fight drug dealings and gangs. The Rose Park Neighborhood Assn. was formed to organize cleanups and tree plantings.

“Now, there are a lot of families and younger people,” Barthel said. “The neighborhood has come back.”

A Multicultural

Neighborhood

Because of its affordable homes and the proximity to the beach, Rose Park attracts a number of first-time buyers, like Laurie Atherton.

A disabilities evaluation specialist for the state of California, Atherton wanted to buy near her office in downtown Long Beach.

She hadn’t thought about Rose Park until a friend overheard her talking on the phone with a Realtor. “He came up to me and said he lived in a great neighborhood, which was Rose Park,” Atherton said.

One of the first homes she looked at was a 9-foot-wide house on a 10- by 50-foot lot. Known as “Skinny House,” it has been chronicled as the world’s narrowest house.

A foreclosure, the house had been bought by a speculator in December. He re-listed it, and Atherton bought it for $100,000 and moved in on March 31.

“I’m so pleased with it,” Atherton said. “I have met the nicest, friendliest people in my new neighborhood and through the Rose Park Neighborhood Assn. They help me feel very safe and comfortable.”

Monica and David Meade agree. The couple and their college-age children, who have lived in Rose Park for 10 years, also enjoy living in a multicultural neighborhood.

“There are Cambodians, Latinos, Anglos and African Americans all living together here,” said David Meade, an independent studies teacher for the Los Angeles County Office of Education in Compton. Monica Meade is a teacher at Millikan High School in Long Beach.

“Kids learn to get along with all types of people here. Living in this kind of neighborhood has helped them to be exposed to all kinds of people.”

The Meades’ California bungalow, built in 1919, has three bedrooms and one bath. The kitchen has an adjacent breakfast nook that receives the morning light. Like many homes in Rose Park, the house has a single-car garage, a throwback to an earlier era when most families had one car.

Preserving Original

Craftsman Quality

Craftsman bungalows are a dominant architectural style in Rose Park, and one of the nicest belongs to banker Paul Lanouette, who bought his 1913 home in 1995 for $163,000.

“I was living in a condo in downtown Long Beach,” Lanouette said. “I come from the East Coast, and I wanted a garden. I really wasn’t actively looking for a house, but I used to drive through this neighborhood on the way to work in Signal Hill. One day I saw that this house was for sale. I peeked in the window and saw the wonderful woodwork.”

The living and dining rooms of Lanouette’s bungalow are paneled in cedar. The built-ins have the original stained glass. The lighting fixtures are also original in the house, which has two bedrooms, two baths, a music room, living room and dining room.

“The house needed landscaping and a good cleaning,” he said. “I also painted the exterior and replaced some of the piers in the front of the house. Now when I drive up to my house, I get the feeling that it looks like a real home.”

Lanouette’s home has been featured in several books about Craftsman design, and he is picky about maintaining the original elements of the home.

“Restoration is important to many residents here who want to preserve the original quality of their homes,” he said. Lanouette and Shannon and Brad Jones are active in the Rose Park Neighborhood Assn., which has been instrumental in improving the neighborhood. In the last five years, the association has planted more than 750 trees. Its members plan to transplant some historic rose bushes from the Long Beach Naval Station in the small neighborhood park.

Shannon Jones appreciates the neighborhood’s friendliness and pride.

“This is the first place I’ve lived where I know a lot of people,” she said.

“When we go on vacation, the neighbors will feed and medicate my two cats. It’s also a neighborhood where people turn out for tree planting and an alley cleanup. I feel like it’s home.”

Marilyn Tower Oliver is a Los Angeles freelance writer.