Hewn and Hammered

Pasadena's Bungalow Heaven in Photographs

Pasadena, like Santa Barbara and a few other communities in southern California, has a very large number of beautiful, well-preserved Craftsman homes. Home to several Greene & Greene masterworks, the town also hosts an annual Craftsman Heritage Weekend (this year's just ended) which is always worth a visit should you be in the area.

With its combination of typical Southern California sun, wide streets and the overhanging canopy of huge old trees, Pasadena is also a photographer's heaven. Here's a little gallery I'm in the process of building on Flickr.

Chicago Bungalows

In November, I'll head to Chicago for an annual 4-day trip with my father and uncles. We're all big Craftsman fans and fans of interesting American architecture in general, and would love to take a tour of, say, an interesting architecturally-significant neighborhood and/or a few Frank Lloyd Wright homes, or other buildings of note. Any particular suggestions for tours or groups we should contact?

video: tour of Pasadena, California

A nice video tour of Pasadena, including Bungalow Heaven and the Gamble House.

Tucson's best neighborhoods

I've never been to Tucson, although my friend Keena used to tell me how pretty it is. After reading today's article on the best neighborhoods in that city at Charles & Hudson, though, I'd certainly like to visit. Beautiful old Tudor, Storybook, and Mission Revival homes dot Tucson, and some of them are particularly noteworthy.

Last week we re-visited our hometown of Tucson, Arizona to join the family in celebrating Father's Day. It's been 12 years since we've lived there and my how things have changed. We checked out the resurgence downtown and hope the new movie Public Enemies shines some light on an already very cool Hotel Congress as this is where John Dillinger and his gang were first captured and is now celebrated by a Dillinger Days festival.

A stones throw from Hotel Congress is the West University neighborhood which This Old House just named as one if it's 50 Best Old House Neighborhoods. The homes consist of Spanish Revival, Craftsman Bungalow, and Prairie-style which range from $175,000 to $400,000. A light rail system is almost complete that will flow through this neighborhood from downtown and up to the University of Arizona. In a city where cars are nearly a requirement, residents of West University could almost forgo their vehicles especially if they work or study at the nearby University or downtown.

neighborhood renovations in Pasadena's Bungalow Heaven

Reader Sarah Hilbert writes to tell us about how, earlier today, residents of Pasadena's beautiful Bungalow Heaven Landmark District to celebrate the new, enhanced versions of the neighborhood's signature street signs:

The streets of Pasadena's Bungalow Heaven Landmark District just got a little brighter: The neighborhood is installing brand new street signs both to proclaim its new designation on the National Register of Historic Places and to honor its 20th anniversary as Pasadena's first Landmark District.

A group of neighbors gathered on March 31 to watch the first sign get hung and to make a celebratory toast to many more years of being historic and furthering old homes' preservation. Several media outlets were also present to cover the event.

The signs are enhanced versions of those that have hung for nearly 20 years, which have faded significantly in the sunlight. Toni Devereaux, the designer of the original signs, was asked to lend her expertise once again in crafting a brighter version. Now crafted from computer-cut vinyl and featuring a dark brown bungalow in the center, the new signs will be longer lasting and stay more visible over time. All signs will be installed by April 26, when the 20th Anniversary Bungalow Heaven Home Tour takes place.

Sacramento Historic House

Tracy Doolittle lives here in Sacramento and is just as much a fan of our beautiful old houses as I am. For $300, she'll do very extensive history on your home, finding out a timeline (and biographical highlights) of its past owners & residents, a permit history, the original property or historic neighborhood map, and other information - including, sometimes, historic photographs. She has also written a how-to article if you'd like to attempt this yourself.

A useful service, certainly. Tracy also has a website, Sacramento Historic House, which profiles several representative properties (including the beautiful and enormous Cranston-Geary house, in whose listing she gives a shout-out to us). Several of the most impressive Victorians are already listed, and it looks like she's adding new structures all the time. There's a blog, too, with many recent entries focusing on the historic homes and castles she encountered on a recent trip to London.

foreclosure heat maps from hotpads.com

Hotpads.com presents various types of housing maps, including those that cost out buying vs. renting over time in certain areas. One new feature of the site is a heatmap showing foreclosures, with most large cities nationwide represented. I didn't find any on my street, but there's a whole cluster - four at the same corner - just a block away, which leads me to be rather suspicious of the map - being that all four listings are for the same house. It's a neat tool, but take the data with a very large grain of salt.

Additionally, to get more detailed info, you need a free trial or paid subscription to RealtyTrac - at least you did for every property I looked at. Not sure if this is just a come-on for RealtyTrac or that was just a coincidence. Still, it's an interesting way to look at how some folks (and by folks I mean both brokers and buyers) greed and bad judgment is costing us all a hell of a lot of the equity we've built up over the last decade.

McMansions bring tensions to old neighborhoods

A good article by Kytja Weir in last week's Charlotte Observer, on the constant butting of heads between historic preservationists who look at a neighborhood as an organic whole and selfish me-firsters who want the freedom to do whatever they want with their own property, damn the neighbors and everyone else. Gee, can you tell which camp I fit into? An excerpt:

Tim Griffin, the association president, had invited builders, architects and others, trying to inspire his neighbors about how to renovate their homes without changing the feel of the newly popular neighborhood.

"I'm just so adamant about no more McMansions," he said.

But he knows his neighborhood has no power to restrict renovations. "We're not a homeowners' association. We're not a historic district. So the next best thing is to educate."

The neighborhood of small homes, many dating from the 1930s, is starting to feel a tension already experienced in Charlotte's older neighborhoods around uptown such as Dilworth, Myers Park, Elizabeth, Plaza-Midwood and Wesley Heights as people with bigger tastes move in.

Today Americans seek more space than their parents. In new developments bigger homes can be built without hindrances.

But the desire for more space creates a tension in some older neighborhoods, built for the needs of the past. Neighbors there find themselves walking a line between preserving the past and maintaining property rights, promoting growth yet controlling how it takes shape.

Los Angeles' Arts & Crafts jewels are in ... Garvanza?

LAist's "Neighborhood Project" feature included a report this past week on a part of Northeast LA that I'm not at all familiar with - I always assumed that was Highland Park - and found extremely interesting:

Once the heart of the Arts and Crafts movement in Los Angeles and a bohemian artists' colony, Garvanza is today one of Northeast LA's hidden treasures seeking to retain its turn of the century identity while creating a liveable neighborhood for the twenty-first century. Although many consider Garvanza to be just a part of Highland Park, this small and hilly area brimming with historic buildings has more than enough charm and character needed to stand out on its own. Named for the wild sweet peas (garbanzo beans) that used to grow on the hillsides, Garvanza itself is much like a hearty wildflower, blooming stubbornly amidst the dominant concreted landscape, unabashedly colorful and pleasantly surprising to discover.

Check out the whole story for plenty of photographs and maps and a reasonably complete history of the region.

"like watching Ann Coulter debate Al Franken"

Neighbors in the Decatur, Georgia neighborhood of Oakhurst are definitely not agreeing to disagree about a proposal to turn their area into an official historic district. Scott Henry fills us in on the story, something that may not be all that hard to imagine for many of you who live in historic districts, whether recognized or not:

Threats. Intimidation. Yard signs. Snotty e-mails. Yes, the knives are out in Oakhurst, where the proposed creation of what would be Decatur’s largest historic district has resulted in a nasty neighborhood-wide squabble in which many homeowners have been forced to choose sides.

Terry Michel, a real estate agent who says she supports voluntary design guidelines rather than city imposed building restrictions, says she’s stopped discussing the issue with neighbors because the rhetoric on both sides has become too overheated.

“The vitriol is off-putting to me,” Michel explains. “It’s like watching Ann Coulter debate Al Frankin (sic).”

So what is it about a historic district that has so many peoples’ knickers in a wad?

Mainly, the argument comes down to control over one’s own property. If a house is included in the district, then the owner would need to get a “certificate of appropriateness” to tear it down, build an addition or make significant exterior changes. Construction plans that aren’t seen as keeping within the historic character of the neighborhood – say, replacing a 1920s Craftsman bungalow with a modernist stucco triplex – may not be allowed.