California Heights Historic District (Long Beach, California)

 Upload a photo

Long Beach's largest historic district, until the early 1920's was part of neighboring Bixby Ranch (now Rancho Los Cerritos) and was used primarily as grazing land. An oil discovery on neighboring Signal Hill and a land boom in 1921 caused the Jotham Bixby Company to subdivide and sell off lots, calling the tract "California Heights." Ads for the homes suggested the possibility that a buyer may find and be privy to oil, playing on the then-recent Signal Hill discoveries.

On October 10, 1922 the Jotham Bixby Company placed 830 lots on the market. The California Heights tract was just 1500 feet from the Wiley No. 1 oil well, and lots offered included oil rights. It seems that this was an attractive offer (since oil had been discovered on nearby Signal Hill the previous year and many there had become wealthy), so attractive apparently that 185 of the 830 lots were sold that very day, and within 24 hours another 250 were purchased by hopeful buyers with dreams of oil riches. At least one swath of 25 homes was purchased by a partnership of oil speculators.

The Jotham Bixby Company started the neighborhood off by building 25 ready-made Spanish style bungalows which they offered on an "easy payment plan." Other homes were built on a parcel-by-parcel basis, creating an eclectic variety of home styles characteristic of the district; including Tudor Revival, Spanish Colonial Revival and the well-known California Bungalow.

www.calheights.org/