Appendix F2- Streamline Documentation for Group Properties Map ID Name APN Address City Year Built Status Code* F2-A-1 through F2-A-20 Gardena Neighborhood Multiple Multiple Glendale Multiple 6Z F2-B-1 through F2-B-48 Seneca Neighborhood Multiple Multiple Los Angeles Multiple 6Z *California Historical Resources Status Codes: 6Z: Found ineligible for NR, CR or Local designation through survey evaluation. Appendix F2: Streamlined Documentation (Group) Gardena Avenue Neighborhood Cover Sheet MR Number: F2-A-1 through F2-A-20 APN: Multiple, see attached matrix City: Glendale Address: Multiple, see attached matrix Year built: Multiple, see attached matrix Context: Residential Development Alterations: The Gardena Avenue neighborhood is an example of a residential tract developed as a part of a streetcar suburb. It consists primarily of modest single family residences in the Craftsman style, constructed during the 1910s and 1920s. Infill development includes a few single family residences constructed in the 1930s through 1950s, and a number of two to three-story multifamily residential buildings constructed in the 1960s. The multifamily buildings are visually prominent within the neighborhood and out of scale with the smaller single family residences. The Craftsman cottages that do remain in the neighborhood have been altered over time, most commonly with changes to the exterior cladding, and the replacement and resizing of windows and doors. These alterations have diminished the integrity of the individual resources such that they no longer reflect their historic identity as 1910s- 1920s Craftsman bungalows. As a result of cumulative changes to the neighborhood, including diminished integrity of the individual buildings and the residential blocks as a whole, it no longer reflects its historic identity as a streetcar suburb. Small-scale residential properties like those found in the Gardena Avenue Neighborhood are extremely ubiquitous in Southern California, particularly those constructed during the 1920s and after World War II. Economic prosperity, population increases, and building booms during these two periods prompted high levels of construction activity, resulting in thousands of similar resources throughout the region. Many single-family homes and duplexes were built in large quantities by tract developers using simplified designs inspired by the era’s most popular architectural styles. The homogenous nature and sheer volume of these residences makes it unlikely that any single example would rise to the level of individual significance. The history of these resources is better understood as a representation of wider development patterns in the twentieth century; as such, they are better evaluated as a group. However, as discussed above, the Gardena Avenue Neighborhood as a whole has been significantly altered over time and no longer retains sufficient integrity to reflect its history as a streetcar suburb. This group of properties has no demonstrable potential for historic significance within the residential context, for a significant historical association, or as an excellent example of an architectural style or property type. Furthermore, it has been substantially altered from its historic appearance. Building History: When the first houses on Gardena Avenue were built, they were not in Glendale. They were instead in the center of a town called Tropico, which existed from 1911 to 1918. Going back further, in 1868, 671 acres of what had started as the 36,000-acre Rancho San Rafael were sold to W.C.B. Richardson. He Appendix F2: Streamlined Documentation (Group) Gardena Avenue Neighborhood Cover Sheet named this land straddling the Los Angeles River Santa Eulalia Ranch, and it was eventually known for its strawberries, dubbed “Tropico Beauties.”1 Development began slowly in 1873, when Richardson gave the Southern Pacific Railroad 16 acres for a train depot in the present site of the Glendale Transportation Center, just three blocks from the future site of Gardena Avenue.2 In 1887 the depot was named Tropico. Later the main east-west road (now Los Feliz Boulevard) was named Tropico Avenue. In addition to leasing out land to Japanese strawberry farmers and making the depot a major shipping center for regional produce,3 Richardson brought in another major industry in 1900. Along with prominent partners like Griffith J. Griffith, he opened a large tile factory at what is now 2901 Los Feliz Boulevard, one mile from Gardena Avenue. The first of its kind west of the Mississippi, Tropico Art Tile Works employed over 800 employees, a third of them women, and 100 artisans from the east. By 1909 the factory was producing 30,000 enamel bricks per day.4 Around that time, Richardson provided a right-of-way to L.C. Brand and Henry Huntington for their Interurban Pacific Electric Railway connecting Los Angeles and Glendale.5 The line opened in 1904, running along what is now Glendale Boulevard. During this same period Richardson moved away from farming and subdivided the ranch. In 1902, the appropriately named 40-acre Richardson Tract was subdivided, followed by the Atwater Tract across the railroad tracks.6 The Richardson tract was advertised as “adjoining the Los Angeles city limits,” so, “city taxes are avoided.” It was also “properly restricted.”7 A further subdivision, the Santa Eulalia Tract, encompassing the railroad depot and the future Gardena Avenue, followed in 1910, the streets being laid out in 1912. The next 10 years would see a flurry of construction as Gardena Avenue and the streets around it filled up with single-family residences. Though newly incorporated as a municipality, Tropico was already feeling the pull of annexation. The improvements necessary for a new community would be easier as part of a city, so the southern portion of Tropico (now Atwater Village) joined Los Angeles in 1910, while the northern portion held out until 1918, when it joined its neighbor to the north, Glendale.8 Today, little exists from the days of Tropico. The oldest buildings in its business district, which was centered at San Fernando Road and Central Avenue, date from the 1920s. Many of the Tropico-era houses in the Santa Eulalia tract have been replaced as well. Even on Gardena Avenue between Topock 1 Nathan Masters, “The Lost City of Tropico, California,” KCET, June 16, 2004, accessed August 8, 2016 https://www.kcet.org/lost-la/the-lost-city-of-tropico-california. 2 Carr, Nancy, Sandra Caravella, Luis Lopez, and Ann Lawson. Images of America: Atwater Village. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2011., 7. 3 Ibid. 4 Dan Mosier, “Tropico Potteries, Inc., Western Tile Company,” California Bricks, 2016, accessed August 8, 2016, https://calbricks.netfirms.com/brick.tropicobm.html. 5 Carr, Caravella, Lopez & Lawson, 8. 6 Ibid. 7 Carr, Caravella, Lopez & Lawson, 17. 8 Masters. Appendix F2: Streamlined Documentation (Group) Gardena Avenue Neighborhood Cover Sheet and Tyburn Streets, with its high concentration of Craftsman style houses, only 15 of 42 properties date from the time of Tropico (with seven from the 1920s and the rest ranging from the 1930s to the 2000s). Topock Street itself is a later addition, having replaced two lots as it connected Gardena and Vassar Avenues after Gardena Avenue was cut off from Glendale Boulevard (likely as a result of the grade separation of the Glendale Boulevard and the SPRR right-of-way in 1960). With the former Tropico depot having been rebuilt in 1923 and the tile factory long gone, the last major remnant of Tropico is Forest Lawn Cemetery four blocks away, which opened in 1906. Appendix F2: Streamlined Documentation (Group) Gardena Avenue Neighborhood Map Sheet The Santa Eulalia Tract is outlined in red. The portion of the tract that falls within the APE, referred to as the Gardena Avenue Neighborhood for the purposes of this Streamlined Documentation form, is outlined in black. Appendix F2: Streamlined Documentation (Group) Gardena Avenue Neighborhood Property Matrix APE Map Assessor’s Parcel Address Year Built Status Code Reference No. Number (APN) 1817 GARDENA AVE F2-A-1 5640-041-003 GLENDALE CA 91204 1913 6Z 1821 GARDENA AVE F2-A-2 5640-041-004 GLENDALE CA 91204 1912 6Z 1823 GARDENA AVE F2-A-3 5640-041-005 GLENDALE CA 91204 1912 6Z 1827 GARDENA AVE F2-A-4 5640-041-006 GLENDALE CA 91204 1912 6Z 1831 GARDENA AVE F2-A-5 5640-041-007 GLENDALE CA 91204 1911 6Z 1835 GARDENA AVE F2-A-6 5640-041-008 GLENDALE CA 91204 1913 6Z 1839 GARDENA AVE F2-A-7 5640-041-009 GLENDALE CA 91204 1913 6Z 1843 GARDENA AVE F2-A-8 5640-041-010 GLENDALE CA 91204 1912 6Z 1847 GARDENA AVE F2-A-9 5640-041-011 GLENDALE CA 91204 1912 6Z 1905 GARDENA AVE F2-A-10 5640-041-013 GLENDALE CA 91204 1912 6Z 1909 GARDENA AVE F2-A-11 5640-041-014 GLENDALE CA 91204 1911 6Z 1911 GARDENA AVE F2-A-12 5640-041-015 GLENDALE CA 91204 1963 6Z 1913 GARDENA AVE F2-A-13 5640-041-016 GLENDALE CA 91204 1911 6Z 1917 GARDENA AVE F2-A-14 5640-041-017 GLENDALE CA 91204 1911 6Z 1925 GARDENA AVE F2-A-15 5640-041-018 GLENDALE CA 91204 1923 6Z 1927 GARDENA AVE F2-A-16 5640-041-019 GLENDALE CA 91204 1962 6Z 1933 GARDENA AVE F2-A-17 5640-041-020 GLENDALE CA 91204 1938 6Z 1937 GARDENA AVE F2-A-18 5640-041-021 GLENDALE CA 91204 1912 6Z 1910 S BRAND BLVD F2-A-19 5640-041-025 GLENDALE CA 91204 1953 6Z 1851 TOPOCK ST F2-A-20 5640-041-028 GLENDALE CA 91204 1964 6Z Appendix F2: Streamlined Documentation (Group) Gardena Avenue Neighborhood Photo Sheet GARDENA AVE OVERVIEW, GLENDALE CA, VIEW LOOKING NORTHWEST, APRIL 2015 (GOOGLE MAPS) GARDENA AVE OVERVIEW, GLENDALE CA, VIEW