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 one of the City’s early historic districts, the combined Drake Park/Willmore City Historic District has relatively few historic properties. It also includes properties built in the 1950s and later that do not contribute to the district’s historic significance. However, these properties must still go through historic district review because they are within the district boundaries. The Drake Park/Willmore City Historic District consists largely of rental properties and includes 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) and aggregated data (Drake Park Willmore City GIS Map and Data) for properties within the district and some nearby properties. The data was collected as part 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. In the future, Planning Bureau staff will share preliminary recommendations for possible district boundary changes and ask for community feedback. This process is expected to lead to the Long Beach City Council re-adopting the district boundaries.

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More about the links:

• Drake Park Willmore City - Individual Property Evaluations: Updated property-level survey data. Additional properties outside 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 and 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 architectural 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).

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For comments or questions, please contact Alejandro Plascencia at Alejandro.Plascencia@longbeach.gov or 562.570.6437.