|
When Willmore City was first laid out in 1884, the areas north of town consisted entirely of farms and ranches. In the vicinity of Sunrise Boulevard, the Densmore Ranch grew fruit; the Moore Ranch was a forty acre orange grove. The Harnett Ranch was a small five-acre plot on Atlantic, a block south of Willow, acquired by Julia and Ernest Harnett who emigrated from England in 1889. The Harnetts later built one of the largest homes on Sunrise Boulevard in 1918 (individually designated as a City landmark). The Saunders Ranch on the east side of Atlantic was the source of land for the Burnett School, donated by Mr. Saunders from a corner of his forty-acre ranch.
The ranch that later became the Sunnyslope Tract, of which this district is a part, was the Butler Ranch. Mr. Frank G. Butler was a prominent politician, and when a school district was first organized in Long Beach in 1886, Mr. Butler was elected as one of three trustees on the first school board. By the time the Sunny Slope Tract was laid out, Frank and Hannah Butler had moved to a site on the north side of Willow Street, east of Atlantic Avenue. At this time, Mr. Butler was proprietor of the F.G. Butler Company, acetylene gas manufacturers.
The Butler residence on the ranch later became the Porter Milk Sanitarium (Case, 1927). This large, rambling Victorian structure was situated on Sunrise Boulevard and Glendale (now Olive) in the center of the district. The Porter Milk Sanitarium was founded by Charles Sanford Porter, M.D., who came here from the East in 1895. Dr. Porter was the author of "Milk Diet as a Remedy for Chronic Disease." This sanitarium was typical of many health resorts established at that time in Southern California, catering to Easterners attracted to California for its restorative climate. A photograph in the City Directory of 1916/17 advertises the sanitarium for its "Holstein Milk and Rest Cure Treatment," and lists the location as Burnett, California. Burnett referred to the station on the Salt Lake Railroad line nearby; the Burnett Station was at Burnett Street and California Avenue. A grocery story and post office run by the Kellum family was located at the station. The Porter Milk Sanitarium was listed on Sunrise Boulevard from 1907 through 1922/23. Today, a Spanish Colonial Revival bungalow court exists on that site.
The impetus for developing the neighborhood around the sanitarium arose from the Pacific Electric Railway, which came to Long Beach in 1902. The Huntington Beach segment of the Pacific Electric line was completed from the Long Beach line at the Willow Street Station to Huntington Beach in 1904, and later to Newport Beach (in 1905) and Balboa (in 1906). Along this line between Atlantic Avenue and California Avenue, Stephen Townsend laid out the Sunnyslope Tract of 30 acres, of which this district comprises a part. Mr. Townsend was one of the City’s most influential developers, with extensive activity also in Huntington Beach, Newport Beach and Pasadena. He served as Mayor of Long Beach from 1902-1904, and was active in political, civic and religious affairs. He was President of the First National Bank of Huntington Beach and Vice President of the First National Bank of Long Beach. He organized and was President of the Land & Navigation Company that purchased 800 acres of the Seaside Water Company where later was dredged the harbor of Long Beach.
The configuration of curving streets in this district is reminiscent of Carroll Park, and evokes the horse and buggy era. This streetscape pattern is unusual in the City, and both streetscapes may have been the creation of the same person.
Most of the structures existing today were built between 1910 and 1928, and consist of California bungalows, and Spanish Colonial Revival homes. The first two bungalows, which are small scale and were built on Olive, still exist: at 2550 Olive, built in 1908; at 2490 Olive, built in 1910. Next, a group of small bungalows was built on the south side of Sunrise Boulevard. Their size and history indicates that they were workers housing.
A very large and magnificent California Craftsman bungalow was constructed at 2540 Lime Avenue in 1916, as the home of William Samuel Stevens, a prominent Long Beach businessman, real estate developer and financier. He served as first secretary, then president, of the Building and Loan Association, which he built into a large financial institution. Some years later, in 1924, a smaller Craftsman bungalow house was built next door at 2522 Lime as a second family home. Both Houses shared a famous wisteria vine which they opened for public viewing regularly.
Another large Craftsman home was built in 1915 at the corner of Willow and Lime, today used for offices. Shortly thereafter, the Harnett family built a large Tudor Craftsman home at 730 Sunrise Boulevard, in 1918.
Several major structures were relocated from other sites into this district. The large Craftsman home at 638 Sunrise Boulevard was built as a Bixby home, originally at 3535 American Avenue (now Long Beach Boulevard, near Wardlow). It was moved to its present site in 1926, probably for the Los Cerritos extension of the Long Beach oil field. The owner was listed as Amelia Mary Elizabeth Bixby, wife of George Bixby, son of Jotham Bixby. In 1948, the structure was listed as owned by the Roman Catholic Bishop of Los Angeles. It was recently sold and is being used as a hospice.
The large Spanish Colonial Revival home, now located at 710 Sunrise, was built in 1925 and moved to its present location in 1954.
One of the major homes built in 1930 is the structure at 723 Sunrise Boulevard, an architectural, exception as it was built in the American Colonial Revival style. Its owner, Mr. Howard Hicks, was a prominent Long Beach educator, and served as principal of Polytechnic High School.
Today, this district is a blend of small-scale bungalows built for the working class, large-scale Craftsman homes built for prominent and prosperous citizens, and mid-scale bungalows in the Craftsman and Spanish Colonial Revival styles built for the middle class. There are 70 homes in the district, of which 48 are "contributing" and 22 are "non-contributing." The period of historic significance is 1906-1930.
With its vintage homes, curving streets and large street trees, the Sunrise Boulevard Historic District retains a sense of past time and place that evokes and earlier era. Bounded by the Pacific Electric Right-of-Way on the South, Atlantic on the West, Signal Hill on the East and Willow on the North, this relatively isolated enclave contains a mix of structures linked to the working class as well as the "movers and shakers" of Long Beach. Its history, related to the pioneering milk sanitarium, and later housing development along the Pacific Electric Railway, illustrates the growth of Long Beach from a farming community into a large-scale city. |
