My Belmont Heights

In the ongoing battle with "teardown development" in our neighborhood I am convinced that nothing will serve our cause better than to "personalize" this debate.

One effective way to do this is to research and develop a database of original owners of these architecturally important - from the standpoint of their origin as catalog homes - an unique representations of turn-of-the-century development in this area.

I found the Crane House quite by accident. I had gone to the planning commission - City Hall - to take out a permit to allow me to remove the aluminum siding on my house; a relic from the "Tin Man 1960's". Sifting through the microfiche I discovered other documents on file regarding the house among which were original documents dating from 1923 when the original owner a Ms. L.P. Crane took out a permit - in fine flowing writing - to build a garage for her home.

I also found permits for work - shall we say "not quite so commendable" - that was also done, the point being here that this is your best starting point for original data.

A second stop that you might consider is the Long Beach Historical Society (to the best of my knowledge housed in the basement of the Breakers complex on Ocean Ave.). The historical society has phone books from those early days that can also provide valuable research data on the whos and whens of your house.

Armed with this information we can develop house plaques etc., and then when a house is subject to the "breakers yard" to make way for another building with a 30 year lifespan we can address this in the eprmit proceedure with a reference point for the history of the house at threat.

I have also heard that many of the original houses - in the area - were built as summer homes for residents of such areas as Pasadena.