Community Development

Drake Park/Willmore City Historic Landmark District Boundary Survey and Re-study

The City of Long Beach is updating the historic resources survey for the Drake Park/Willmore City Historic Landmark District and wants your involvement and feedback. The goals for the project, beside updating individual property survey information, which was originally collected decades ago, are: To improve the concentration of properties that contribute to the historic designation of the district (a minimum of 60% is required to be eligible as a historic landmark district), and To remove from the historic district boundaries those properties that were built outside of district's period of historic significance, which is from 1889-1931.

As early historic districts in the City, the combined Drake Park/Willmore City district has a low concentration of historic properties and includes a number of properties from the 1950s and later that do not contribute to the historic significance of the district but are nonetheless required to go through historic district reviews because they are located within district boundaries. The Drake Park/Willmore City Historic District is comprised of a high percentage of renters and has property owners and residents of all ages and economic circumstances.  Many properties in the district are in need of repair, and the City is looking for ideas on how to best support community needs while also preserving historic properties.

The information provided on this website represents updated property-level (Drake Park Willmore City - Individual Property Evaluations) as well as aggregated data (Drake Park Willmore City GIS Map & Data) for properties currently within the district and some nearby surrounding properties, which have been collected for the purposes of this study. The maps do not represent recommendations about any changes to district boundaries at this time but are being shared with the public to invite those who are most familiar with the area to help “ground-truth” the information. Many long-standing property owners and residents have significant knowledge of the area and can help corroborate and add to the findings of this study. The City welcomes your input on this information.

Please keep checking back on this website to keep tabs on this project and/or sign up for our mailing list (coming soon) to receive project updates. At some future time, Planning Bureau staff will share preliminary recommendations for district boundary changes and will invite feedback on potential changes early in a process that is expected ultimately to lead to re-adoption of district boundaries by the Long Beach City Council.

More about the links:

• Drake Park Willmore City - Individual Property Evaluations: Updated property-level survey data. Additional properties outside of the current district boundaries were surveyed to capture other nearby potentially historic properties and improve the percentage of historic properties in the district.
• Drake Park Willmore City GIS Map & Data: The maps display aggregated information for all the surveyed properties. Information that can be accessed by clicking on this link include: the date of construction of the surveyed properties; the artchitectural styles represented; the style of land uses and building types (i.e. single family, multiple family, commercial, church, etc.); the number of stories of buildings in the surveyed areas; and type of historic designation the buildings have (i.e. local, state or national).

For any comments or questions on the information provided on this website please contact the staff planner Alejandro Plascencia, Preservation Planner, alejandro.plascencia@longbeach.gov or 562.570.6437.