• Brea’s Bungalows

    Richard Dodd’s May 19 article in the Orange County Register on Brea, California’s Union Oil Co. neighborhood is a good one:

    The 1882 discovery of oil in shallow wells in Brea Canyon had a major influence in the history and economy of Orange County. Several small oil companies sprang up shortly afterward and in 1890, some of them merged to form Union Oil Co. of California.

    Many local communities faced a housing shortage for new workmen during the oil and land boom in the 1920s. Union Oil built 61 homes for their employees in the southwestern part of Brea. This area became known as the "Union Oil neighborhood."

    The bungalow period was in full swing at the time. As a result, most of the homes are California, Craftsman and Pueblo bungalows and other variations interspersed with a few
    provincial revivals.

    read the whole thing

  • old homes make way for strip malls in Lubbock TX (and everywhere)

    Lubbock’s North Overton neighborhood – once sparsely populated with sprawling ranch-era Craftsman bungalows – is slowly being reseeded with strip malls, tract developments and other signs of the coming apocalypse. One such home is being picked up and moved to make way for that harbinger of class, culture and the real building block of a modern neighborhood, the strip mall.

    "This
    was called a craftsman-bungalow house, it was built in 1911. It’s one
    of the oldest houses in Lubbock, it’s also one of the most historic
    because of the people lived here the first 75 years," said former
    resident, Frank Potts.

    In 1924 A.B. Davis moved to Lubbock.
    Soon after moving into the home. A.B. served as the manager of the
    Chamber of Commerce and later as Lubbock’s City Manager. His family
    called 1724 Main their home for 60 years.

    Frank Potts is A.B.’s grandson, he
    said, "lots of memories here, there really are. As a child it was a big
    world out there, World War II was going on when I first moved here and
    I just remember everything just seemed, the house seemed like a huge
    mansion and I was just a little bitty guy and wondering what happens
    next."

    The original plans for the home show a 4,500 square
    foot house with wide overhanging eaves, deep porches with large square
    brick posts and beautiful wood paneling, all adding to the charm of
    this old home. With the vision and financial help of Lubbock attorney
    Ted Hogan, this old house will be able to stand for another hundred
    years. He said, "a lot of heavy lifting (will go into moving the
    house)! and quite frankly the fellas that the credit goes to are the
    movers because they’re the guys that have the technical knowledge."

    With
    the development in the North Overton area, this old houses days were
    numbered as a strip mall is slated to go here. But in 5 weeks, 1724
    Main will get a new address on the corner of 16th and Avenue R after
    it’s moved, piece by piece, down Avenue R.

    Hogan said, "we
    have about 5 weeks to get it done, we have a May 1st deadline. There’s
    new development coming in here. If the weather permits and if it
    doesn’t rain, we should be good to go at the end of April." Giving this
    old Lubbock home a new lease on life.

    It should be noted that Lubbock’s Overton Park project is currently the largest private residential development in the state. Questions regarding the number of homes destroyed or moved directed to the McDougal Company, the firm tasked with making rubble of old homes in the way and clearing it, were not answered