Finance, Economic Development and Jobs Committee
September 22, 2025

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made an unprecedented move when it decided to establish dormitories for students who did not live close by. In 1913, a dormitory designed by Clarence Cullimore was established on the school’s 27-acre farm.224 In another case, a local family, the Blodgets [924 C Street], donated their home in 1918 as the first girls’ dormitory.225 In 1919, another girls’ dormitory was established when the high school bought Mrs. Callie McDonald’s property and was later moved to [1207 C Street].226 A boys’ dorm was established in 1922 at 2230 California Avenue and later moved to 1205 G Street.227 Eventually all of the buildings were sold/razed/moved.

Another important local institution, Bakersfield College, was established in 1913, and remains one of the oldest community colleges in the nation. Various accounts suggest that the board of trustees for Kern County High School (present-day Bakersfield High School) may have approved junior college classes as early as 1910, just three years after California State Senator Anthony Caminetti sponsored a law to create junior colleges throughout the state. The initial Bakersfield College program offered a one-year curriculum. In 1915, the trustees authorized a second year of junior college and normal school courses. The purpose of the school was to “provide the first two years of regular four-year college courses” and “enable pupils who have not planned to go away to college get two years of schooling at home.”228 As an outgrowth of the Kern County High School, Bakersfield College was originally located on what is now the campus of present-day Bakersfield High School.

The first two decades of the 20th century saw a proliferation of social and civic organizations in the city, many of which erected dedicated clubhouses during this period, often designed by Bakersfield’s leading architects. Notable buildings included the Elks Lodge [1531 17th Street]; the Woman’s Club of Bakersfield [2030 18th Street/1806-1808 D Street] by Charles H. Biggar; the Caledonia Masonic Lodge [718 Oregon Street] by Orville L. Clark; the multi-story Bakersfield Club (19th and F streets) by T.B. Wiseman; and the Odd Fellows Hall (Chester and 17th Street), also by Wiseman.

A three-story Masonic Temple [1920 18th Street], designed by San Francisco-based architect Carl Werner, opened in 1924. The Renaissance Revival-style building cost over $300,000. Clad in marble, it was “embellished with the symbolical figures of the Masonic order.”229 The lavish interior featured travertine and mahogany. The third floor featured a large auditorium with seating capacity for 1,600. The basement housed a banquet hall capable of seating 1,000.

With significant population growth during this period, many churches expanded or built new sanctuaries. These large and imposing structures were key to the character of the built environment in Bakersfield in the early decades, as they conveyed a sense of the permanence and prosperity fitting a respectable city. In 1902, a new St. Paul’s Episcopal Church (17th and

224 Gilbert Gia, “Bakersfield High’s Dormitories 1915-1955 (v.7),” 2005, 2017, Historic Bakersfield and Kern County, https://hcommons.org/deposits/objects/hc:15154/datastreams/CONTENT/content (accessed January 20, 2023), 3. 225 Gia, “Bakersfield High’s Dormitories,” 5.
226 Gia, “Bakersfield High’s Dormitories,” 8.
227 Gia, “Bakersfield High’s Dormitories,” 12.
228 The Bakersfield Californian, July 26, 1913, quoted in Emily Claffy, “Bakersfield College Centennial: 100 Years of Higher Education, https://www.bakersfield.com/bakersfield_life/bakersfield-college-centennial-100-years-of-higher-education/article_87b99d70- e468-519c-949e-019fa1329ad4.html (accessed March 27, 2023). 229 “Masonic Temple to Be Dedicated Monday in Italian Type,” The Bakersfield Californian, May 31, 1924, 9.

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present-day Eye streets) was designed by architect Ben MacDougall, and the 1886 church on the site was relocated to Kern City.230 Like many of Bakersfield’s early churches, St. Paul’s did not survive the 1952 earthquake. St. Joseph’s Catholic Church [1515 Baker Street/720 Pacific Street] met a similar fate. Built in 1923 and designed in the Spanish Colonial Revival-style, it was constructed of hollow clay tile and was rendered uninhabitable not by the main temblor, but by one of the aftershocks.231
In 1910, the trustees of the First Presbyterian Church [1707 17th Street/present-day 1705 17th Street] were working on plans for a new sanctuary with Train & Williams, a Los Angeles-based firm that opened a branch office in Bakersfield.232 Plans for a Tudor Gothic Revival-style structure were drawn by Thomas B. Wiseman, who had recently relocated to Bakersfield for the firm of Train & Williams. In late 1919, the church was consumed by fire and architect John Galen Howard (1864-1931) was called in to consult on its replacement.

In 1910, the First Church of Christ, Scientist (17th and G streets) was dedicated in service to the community, designed by Los Angeles-based architect Elmer C. Andrus. Eleven students of Christ Science established the church just six years prior. Around 1911, St. John’s Evangelical Church erected a small sanctuary and bell tower [2119 20th Street/1916 C Street]. During the 1920s, another out-of-town architect, Robert Orr of Los Angeles, was tapped to design the First Christian Church [1603 I Street, present-day Eye Street] and First Methodist Church [1701 Truxtun Avenue]. In 1920, a more modest church was erected for the Mormon congregation, the American Colonial Revival-style Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints [800 Monterey Street].

The population growth and expansion that fueled the development of social, civic, and religious buildings during this period also significantly impacted Bakersfield schools. Between 1906 and 1929, many schools were built, among them Thomas Jefferson School [816 Lincoln Street] by Thomas B. Wiseman, c. 1917); Lincoln School [801 Eureka Street] by Charles H. Biggar and Thomas B. Wiseman, c. 1921); and Roosevelt School [2300 Verde Street] by Eugene K. Martin, c. 1922.233
Criteria NRHP: A, B CRHR: 1, 2 BRHP: a, b, e Eligibility Standards
 Dates from the period 1899-1928
 Is one of the few remaining intact examples of civic/institutional development from this early period in Bakersfield
 May also be associated with a person that played an important role in the history and development of Bakersfield during this period

230 With its relocation, it became known as St. Barnabas Chapel. 231 Elements such as the historic stained glass window, stations of the cross, some oak pews, and some roof tiles were salvaged and used in the new building.
232 “Presbyterians Accept Plans for New Church,” Bakersfield Morning Echo, February 1, 1910, no page. 233 It appears that nearly all of these schools were replaced by more modern designs after the earthquake.

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 May also be associated with an important early ethnic or cultural group in Bakersfield, such as the local Chinese, Japanese, Basque, Italian, Mexican, or African American community
 In East Bakersfield, may also be a rare remnant of Kern City  Retains sufficient integrity to convey its significance from the historic period  Properties with regional or national significance, or with exceptionally good integrity from the historic period, may be eligible for listing in the California and/or National Register.

Integrity Threshold
An eligible property under this theme should retain integrity of location, design, materials, feeling and association.

THEME: Early Commercial Development
During the early 1910s, Bakersfield’s commercial development sky-rocketed, fueled by the oil and agriculture money. The Bakersfield Morning Echo featured numerous stories of wealthy businessmen building three- and four-story buildings in the downtown area and moving eastward. Buildings typically had retail storefronts on the ground floor and apartments, hotel rooms or offices on the upper floors. They were commonly of brick construction, with stone or marble on their primary facades. Many existing buildings were expanded or built multi-story additions.

One example was the Dinkelspiel Bros. building [1600-1612 19th Street], built by German-born brothers Louis and Emile Dinkelspiel, prominent members of the local Jewish community.234 Constructed around 1894, the Bakersfield Morning Echo described it as “one of the most substantial brick business houses in the city.”235 The two-story building housed the brothers’ general mercantile store on the ground floor with rooms above.236 The general store closed around 1906,237 after which the retail space was occupied by the Haberfelde Furniture Co. In 1912, the building was purchased by the Hay family and remodeled.

Like the Dinkelspiels, other early merchants in the city were also pioneering members of the Jewish community in Bakersfield. In 1915, Hosia Shapiro purchased the Red Front Store [1316 19th Street], remodeled the front and opened it as the Star Clothing Company later that year.

Soon he was working the business with Osias Shapiro. The Shapiros were Romanian jews who spoke Yiddish; Osias was an early member of the local B’Nai Jacob congregation. By 1923, Osias’ son Benjamin “Bennie” Shapiro (1904-1989), had opened his own men’s furnishings store [1529 19th Street]. Four years later, when Osias retired, Benie operated both businesses.

234 “Second Amputation of Leg Necessary,” Bakersfield Morning Echo, July 14, 1906, 6. 235 “His Death Was Sudden,” Bakersfield Morning Echo, June 30, 1906, 2. 236 Hay Building plaque, Kern County Historical Society, dedicated 2015. 237 Hay Building plaque.

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Other examples of early commercial development included the three-story Scofield Building (east side of Chester Avenue, opposite the Hall of Records) by T.B. Wiseman; the 1910 S.

Brodek Building (corner of 18th and K streets) by architect J.M. Saffell; the Harding Building [1517-1521 19th Street] designed in 1910 by Bemus & Clark; and the 1910 Bakersfield Security Trust Company Bank [1800 Chester Avenue] designed in the Beaux Arts-style by Frederick H.

Meyer. One of the most elegant buildings was the Standard Oil Building, also known as the Jastro Building [1800 19th Street], designed by Everett M. Hinshaw. Bakersfield’s place in the California oil industry was solidified when Standard Oil moved its Central Valley operations from Fresno to this location.

An exemplar of commercial development in downtown Bakersfield was the 1927-1929 Haberfelde Building [1700-1706 Chester Avenue/1412-1414 17th Street]. Designed by local architect Charles H. Biggar, the five-story office building was owned by George Haberfelde and his daughter Clarisse. The building offered 80 offices for business and professional services, and for years was the city’s premiere address for doctors, dentists, lawyers, and architects. Sitting prominently on a corner lot, the ground floor was lined with glassed-in retail storefronts along 17th Street and Chester Avenue. When completed, it was one of the tallest buildings in the San Joaquin Valley. George Haberfelde (1871-1962) also owned a thriving Ford dealership and was Mayor of Bakersfield from 1923 to 1925.

During these early decades, Bakersfield served as the urban center for much of Kern County.

As such, the city was home to five-and-dime stores, large department stores, and other commercial retailers. Examples include the 1920 Hochheimer & Co. [1918 Chester Avenue/1415 20th Street] by Orville L. Clark, which became Brock’s Department Store in 1924;238 and the Redlick Brothers Department Store (corner of 18th and Chester Avenue) by E.L. Jefferson.

The period also spawned the development of several hotels In Bakersfield. In 1911, plans for the Renaissance Revival-style Palace Hotel [1407 19th Street] were drawn by architects Jefferson & Griffiths, with more than 200 guestrooms, a ballroom, dining rooms, and card

238 Historical Marker Database, https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=55116 (accessed August 1, 2022).

Security Trust Company Bank, c. 1910. (Kern County Museum) Haberfelde Building, c. 1960. (Kern County Museum)

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rooms. That same year, the three-story brick Hotel Kosel [1102 19th Street] was designed by Bemus & Clark for Peter Kosel. In the mid-1920s, preparations began for the development of a “community hotel” for which funds were raised from investors within the community. Known as the El Tejon Hotel (at the corner of Truxtun and Chester avenues), it was designed by T.P.

Morehead in the Spanish Colonial Revival style. Opened in May of 1926, it was an instant success and talk of building an annex immediately commenced. In 1928, the eight-story Padre Hotel [1702 18th Street/1801-1813 H Street] was designed by Los Angeles architect John M.

Cooper in the Spanish Colonial Revival style, with Art Deco and Mission Revival influences.

For many Kern County residents, Bakersfield was also an entertainment draw. The Bakersfield Opera House [1721 19th Street] was erected in 1906 and featured 800 electric light bulbs over the sidewalk; in 1938 it would be remodeled into the Nile Theater. By 1909, Chester Avenue was known as theater row. Along the avenue were Morely’s, Para’s, Scribner’s, Grogg’s, the Empire, and the Lyceum. During the 1920s, new theaters were built including the Elite Theater (at 17th Street and Chester Avenue), the Rex [1305 19th Street], the Virginia Theater [1224 19th Street], and the C&S.

During this period, local architect Charles H. Biggar (1882-1946) received commissions for some of Bakersfield’s most prominent buildings. They included the 1925 Beaux Arts-style First National Bank [900 Baker Street], and the 1926 The Bakersfield Californian Building [1707 Eye Street/1614 17th Street], designed in the Renaissance Revival style.239 In addition to the building boom in downtown Bakersfield, the commercial strip in East Bakersfield grew and expanded. By 1925, the 700, 800, 900, and 1000 blocks of Baker Street boasted grocery stores, men’s furnishings, a furniture store, and various other small retailers.

Orville L. Clark designed the remodel of the Bank of Italy [824 Baker Street], when the financial institution opened its East Bakersfield branch. Thomas B. Wiseman designed the Kern Plumbing Co. [950 Baker Street] and the First Bank of Kern [801 Baker Street]. The Spanish Eclectic-style Granada Theater [616-618 Kentucky Street] was the first “movie palace” built in

239 This property was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.

The Bakersfield Californian Building, 1926. (Kern County Museum) Virginia Theater, c. 1920s. (Kern County Museum)

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this part of the city in 1927. It was built for novelty shows as well as the screening of silent films.240
Criteria NRHP: A, B CRHR: 1, 2 BRHP: a, b, e Eligibility Standards
 Dates from the period 1899-1928
 Is one of the few remaining intact examples of commercial development from this early period in Bakersfield
 May be a rare remaining example of early auto-related commercial development from the period
 May also be associated with a person that played an important role in the history and development of Bakersfield during this period
 May also be associated with an important early ethnic or cultural group in Bakersfield, such as the local Chinese, Japanese, Basque, Italian, Mexican, or African American community
 In East Bakersfield, may also be a rare remnant of Kern City  Retains sufficient integrity to convey its significance from the historic period  A geographically concentrated grouping of intact commercial development from the period may be eligible as a historic district
 Properties with regional or national significance, or with exceptionally good integrity from the historic period, may be eligible for listing in the California and/or National Register.

Integrity Threshold
An eligible property under this theme should retain integrity of location, design, materials, feeling and association.

THEME: Early Industrial Development
The expansion of the agriculture and oil industries resulted in more industrial development during this period. The presence of so many farms (and to a lesser degree ranches) around Bakersfield resulted in the construction of a number of buildings associated with the cultivation, storage and processing of crops such as cotton, alfalfa, fruits and vegetables.

According to A Historical Context and Archaeological Research Design for Agricultural Properties in California, virtually all farms would have had one or more barns. Some of these would have been associated with livestock and some for storage. In addition, farms usually

240 Gilbert Gia, “Jim Spohn’s Old Granada Theater (v.5),” 2012, 2, Historic Bakersfield and Kern County, https://www.historicbakersfieldandkerncounty.com/_files/ugd/caae83_d1ef5305a49145e4af6d0a5e75342de4.pdf (accessed March 4, 2023).

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included a number of shed buildings that would be associated with individual crops such as drying sheds or smokehouses. The vast majority of these structures were constructed from rough-sawn milled lumber, although adobe may have been used in some cases. Other common agricultural system features would have included fencing, corrals, pens, fields, orchards, activity areas, trash dumps, water conveyance systems/irrigation, silos, water storage tank sheds, and artesian wells.241
The Historical Context and Archaeological Research Design for Agricultural Properties in California distinguishes ranches from farms, as the primary product of a ranch relates to animals (cattle, sheep, eggs, milk, etc.). In addition to barns, ranches may also include watering troughs, dairy barns, milk storage houses, etc.242
With respect to worker housing, rural worker housing was generally located on-site, particularly in the days before automobile and truck transportation. In some cases, especially with seasonal crops, workers camped. Yet other farms had vernacular farm laborer cabins. Still other workers cobbled together temporary housing for themselves from cardboard boxes, crates, or other found materials. Owner/farmer/rancher housing would also commonly be on the farm itself in a range of architectural styles, often using mail-order kit houses or designed in a vernacular style.

Oil fields contain many structures necessary to continued extraction of oil and gas. The most common structure, the wooden oil derrick, became an iconic symbol of Bakersfield’s oil boom.

During the 1920s, the development of the pump jack “revolutionized the business of oil extraction.”243 A pump jack is an oil drilling apparatus that supports oil extraction when wells are in a depleted pressure state. An early example, and likely the first device to use the term pump jack was the Simplex Pumping Jack developed in 1913 by the Oil Well Supply Company of Oil City, Pennsylvania. In 1925, Walter Trout of the Lufkin Foundry and Machine Co. of Texas developed the counter-balanced pump jack. These kinetic metal structures take many forms, including the “nodding donkey,” the “horse head” or the “thirsty bird.”244 Other oil-industry related buildings and structures include steel tanks, piping networks, fractionation towers (that remove chemical compounds), offices, and maintenance buildings.

The rise of the oil and agriculture industries in Bakersfield also supported related industrial development. One important company was the Bakersfield Iron Works [23rd and M streets], which built oil field machinery. In 1910, The Bakersfield Californian reported they had so much business that the plant consistently worked overtime and on Sundays to meet demand. That same year, the Iron Works hired Bemus & Clark to design an additional building at 23rd and L streets. Other oil well supply companies in Bakersfield during the teens included Fairbanks Morse & Co., National Supply Company, and Oil Well Supply Company, all located in the 1900 and 2000 blocks of Chester Avenue.

241 California Department of Transportation, A Historical Context and Archaeological Research Design for Agricultural Properties in California, Sacramento, CA, 2007, 154-155.
242 California Department of Transportation, 146.
243 City of Los Angeles, Office of Historic Resources, SurveyLA: Citywide Historic Context Statement: Industrial Context, 1850-1980, 2018, 85.
244 SurveyLA: Industrial Context, 1850-1980, 86.

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Like many cities, much industrial development in Bakersfield developed along the railroad tracks with short spurs on which they could load and offload materials. Along the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe tracks that ran east/west south of downtown, facilities included A.W.

Bannister Hay Grain & Storage, Union Lumber Co., the Ranier Bottling Works, Maier Brewing Co., Wieland’s Bottling Works, and the Bakersfield Lumber Co. On the south side of the Southern Pacific tracks, the King Lumber Co. operated a large mill, and the Kern County Land Company operated a large warehouse next to several smaller independent warehouses and oil well supply firms. The San Joaquin Compress and Warehouse Company [4130 State Road]245 constructed the first building on its 36-acre property in 1925. The complex expanded in ensuing decades during the company’s dominance of the cotton compress business.246 Light industrial development also flourished east of downtown along 18th, 19th and 20th streets. Many of these businesses were related to the increasing popularity of the automobile, including automotive service, auto repair, and tire installation. Typically, these were one-story commercial vernacular style structures of brick or wood. One example was the Bakersfield Machine Shop Co. [903 18th Street].

Criteria NRHP: A, B CRHR: 1, 2 BRHP: a, b, e Eligibility Standards
 Dates from the period 1899-1928
 Is one of the few remaining intact examples of industrial development from this early period in Bakersfield
 May be associated with an important early industry in Bakersfield, such as agriculture, farming or ranching, or oil and gas
 May be a substantial feature of a larger municipal or regional infrastructural system, such as water, power, or transportation (rail or automobile)  May also be associated with a person that played an important role in the history and development of Bakersfield during this period
 May also be associated with an important early ethnic or cultural group in Bakersfield, such as the local Chinese, Japanese, Basque, Italian, Mexican, or African American community
 In East Bakersfield, may also be a rare remnant of Kern City  Retains sufficient integrity to convey its significance from the historic period  Properties with regional or national significance, or with exceptionally good integrity from the historic period, may be eligible for listing in the California and/or National Register.

245 This property was determined eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places in 2016. 246 California High-Speed Rail Authority, Draft Supplemental EIR/EIS: Fresno to Bakersfield Section, November 2017, Page 3.17-29.

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Integrity Threshold
An eligible property under this theme should retain integrity of location, design, materials, feeling and association.

THEME: Early Residential Development
Bakersfield’s reputation as a “Bungalow Town” was well-deserved. The proliferation of single- family houses throughout Bakersfield’s residential tracts during this period typically took the form of the modest Victorian cottages or the Craftsman-style bungalow. Owners who did not purchase kit homes typically engaged builders and/or architects to design and construct custom residences.

Architect-designed examples included the W.W. McGregor Residence by J.M. Saffell [1615 Baker Street]; J.H. Wagner Residence by Orville L. Clark [2929 22nd Street]; F.L. Repologle Residence by architect E.H. Lieritz [1215 L Street]; Philip Klipstein Residence by Thomas B.

Wiseman [216 D Street]; and the John Nelson Residence by architect G.H. Thurber [907 Monterey Street]. Two rare, intact examples of the Victorian cottages that once populated Bakersfield’s earliest residential neighborhoods are the James McKamy Residence [2124 E Street],247 and the adjacent R.L. Brown Residence [2128 E Street], both designed in the Queen Anne style.248
The wealth that flooded into the city as a result of the oil and agriculture economies also meant that a number of wealthy patrons (typically doctors, lawyers, bankers and other professionals) engaged architects to build custom homes in the city. Typically ranging from $5,000 to $10,000 in budget, these homes were larger and built in the popular architectural styles of the day. For example, an American Foursquare-style residence was designed by E. Bemus and Orville L.

Clark for dentist P.S. Wilbur [2300 18th Street]. Clark also designed a Tudor Revival-style residence [2128 18th Street] for oilman J.W. Brisco, and a residence [present-day 1627 Baker Street] in East Bakersfield for J.B. Cauzza. Although the architect of the Queen Anne-style Spencer/Stark Residence [1321 N Street] is unknown, its elaborate detailing suggested the wealth and stature of its original owners.

During the first decade of the 20th century, some of Bakersfield’s wealthiest and most prominent citizens began building large homes and residential estates in the strip of the original township that extended southward along Oleander Avenue between California Avenue and Chester Lane, in what is now the city’s Oleander/Sunset neighborhood.249 Ads for these lots first appear in the Bakersfield Morning Echo in May of 1904. A 1905 Sanborn map of the area identifies just one large home in this area, at the southwest corner of California and Oleander avenues, while a 1912 Sanborn map depicts multiple developed residential properties, suggesting that development along this stretch of Oleander Avenue was largely concentrated

247 This property was listed on the Bakersfield Register of Historic Places in 2010. 248 This property was listed on the Bakersfield Register of Historic Places in 2010. 249 At the time, Oleander Avenue extended northward from California Avenue, but these homes tended to be smaller dwellings on smaller parcels.

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between 1905 and 1912.250 It is this collection of impressive residences that have earned Oleander Avenue the moniker “Avenue of Opulence.”251
The neighborhood became home to some of the city’s most accomplished professionals. The area attracted a number of oilmen, including Hugh A. Blodget [925 Oleander Avenue] and Samuel A. Johnson [809 Oleander Avenue]. Others were involved in banking and finance, such as Arthur C. Crites [1001 Oleander Avenue], a budding executive at the Kern City Bank. Calvin Vance Anderson, a well-known lawyer [920 Oleander Avenue], ultimately became an executive with the Bakersfield Abstract Company, which managed loans and insurance. Mrs. Celia Holtby, the widow of Robert Holtby, presented herself as a “capitalist” who offered loans when the census taker visited [700 Oleander Avenue]) in 1910. Around 1920, George Haberfelde, who had diversified his furniture business with a Ford dealership, purchased the Hugh A. Blodget Residence and expanded it into the palatial residence that exists today. The publisher of The Bakersfield Californian, Alfred Harrell, was living in this neighborhood [1121 Oleander Avenue] by 1900, cementing his position in Bakersfield society. The unique Mission-style residence of Samuel F. Smith [1002 Oleander Avenue] was befitting his position within the community as a physician and surgeon.

New homes continued to be developed along Oleander Avenue through the 1920s—some subdivided on existing parcels and others on new parcels extending southward. In 1921, Henry Brandt, a developer who built many homes in the Oleander/Sunset area, moved into one of his own residences in this neighborhood [729 Oleander Avenue]. The Bakersfield Californian identified Brandt as a man who “built more homes in Bakersfield than any other.”252 He was president of the Kern County Board of Trade, and donated land for school construction in the city. He also had agricultural land holdings outside of the city and was a leader in the Masonic Temple.

250 Oleander Avenue was known as D Street in City Directories from the early 20th century. 251 Morgan Steger, “Avenue of Opulence: The Homes of Oleander,” The Bakersfield Californian, September 12, 2016, Bakersfield.com, https://www.bakersfield.com/entertainment/avenue-of-opulence-the-homes-of-oleander/article_4eaf77ff- 9d18-5b34-97a9-530d81685c25.html (accessed March 27, 2023). 252 “Is Master Builder,” The Bakersfield Californian, April 12, 1924, 3.

Bakersfield: City of Beautiful Homes, 1910. (Hathi Trust Digital Library)

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As previously discussed, tracts were soon being developed to the south, east, and west of the Oleander Avenue homes. One of the few tracts to fully develop homes in a concentrated period of time was the Westpark Tract. Subdivided in 1910 by George Hay, an aggressive sales campaign resulted in a high build-out rate, whereas lots in other nearby tracts often remained unimproved for decades. A sales promotion conducted in concert with The Bakersfield Californian included a free lot in the subdivision.253
In addition to single-family residences, Bakersfield was also home to a large number of apartment buildings. These included furnished lodging houses designed to accommodate transitional populations as the town expanded, as well as more traditional apartment buildings of various sizes. Examples of the latter include the 1911 Smartt Apartments; and the Orville L.

Clark-designed Scofield Apartments (Chester Avenue between Truxtun Avenue and 17th Street). In the Westchester/Riviera neighborhood alone, there was The Georgian Building [2025 18th Street]; the Colonial Apartments [1701-1705 B Street];254 the Manley Apartments [1906 18th Street]; and the McGill Building [1821-1829 B Street].255 The 1920 City Directory listed 75 furnished rooms/boarding/lounging houses.256 They were clustered in downtown Bakersfield and in East Bakersfield’s commercial area. Extant examples of rooming houses from this period include the 1910 Orville L. Clark-designed Decatur Hotel [2027 19th Street]; the Grand Hotel [2018 Chester Avenue]; and the Noriega Hotel [513-531 Sumner Street].

Although the majority of the multi-family residential properties took the form of mid-size apartment houses, a few bungalow courts were built around the city. The El Reposo Court (C and D streets near 23rd Street) was a group of eight cottages built in 1913 and designed by

253 Advertisement, The Bakersfield Californian, December 24, 1910, 3. 254 This property was listed on the Bakersfield Register of Historic Places in 1992. 255 This property was listed on the Bakersfield Register of Historic Places in 1992. 256 While some of these buildings had “hotel” in their names, they were listed in the City Directory as rooming houses, functioning more like residential hotels or apartment houses rather than as temporary lodging.

Bakersfield: City of Beautiful Homes, 1910. (Hathi Trust Digital Library)

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Thomas B. Wiseman in the “Spanish” style, with a central pergola and landscaped walkways.257 The Mission Revival-style St. Elmo Court [1800 Forrest Street] was constructed in 1919.

A multi-family residential court [1300-1316 H Street] in the Craftsman style built around 1915 is a rare extant example of early multi-family residential development located south of the railroad tracks.258
Criteria NRHP: A, B CRHR: 1, 2 BRHP: a, b, e Eligibility Standards
 Dates from the period 1899-1928
 Is an excellent, rare, or unique example of single-family residential development from this early period in Bakersfield
 Is one of the few remaining intact examples of multi-family residential development from this early period in Bakersfield
 May also be associated with a person that played an important role in the history and development of Bakersfield during this period
 May also be associated with an important early ethnic or cultural group in Bakersfield, such as the local Chinese, Japanese, Basque, Italian, Mexican, or African American community
 In East Bakersfield, may also be a rare remnant of Kern City  Retains sufficient integrity to convey its significance from the historic period  A geographically concentrated grouping of intact residential development from the period may be eligible as a historic district
 Properties with regional or national significance, or with exceptionally good integrity from the historic period, may be eligible for listing in the California and/or National Register.

Integrity Threshold
An eligible property under this theme should retain integrity of location, design, materials, feeling and association.

257 “Platz Is Building Bungalows,” Bakersfield Morning Echo, January 26, 1913, 3. 258 California High-Speed Rail Authority, Draft Supplemental EIR/EIS: Fresno to Bakersfield Section, November 2018, page 3.17-60.

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DEPRESSION & RESILIENCE IN BAKERSFIELD, 1929-1940
After the joys and hopes of leaving the poverty of the farm then coming to a new life and finding out that things were no better money wise, in fact they were worse, they had to go on relief. It was devastating. It was bad enough to have to be on relief without being treated like dirt, which is what they did. I was a young teenager then but I was mortified seeing it reflected in my mother’s face—but we had to have the help.259
Elizabeth May Garber Day, arrived from
Nebraska in 1932
With the stock market crash of 1929, the nation ushered in a period of economic turmoil, joblessness, and bread lines. However, with its twin industries of “oil and ag,” Bakersfield fared better than most cities. The wealth and relative stability that came with oil and agriculture meant that the effects of the Great Depression came more slowly. Businesses were hard hit, but no banks within the city failed. Author John Maynard, attributes the worst effects of the Depression to the eventual bankruptcy of Kern County itself.260 Bakersfield was one of the few places where there was work to be had. When farmers and farmworkers in states such as Oklahoma, Kansas, Texas, and Arkansas reeled from a period of severe drought and massive dust storms, thousands of families of “Okies,” as they were called, drove across the United States to California between 1935 and 1942. Those who landed in the San Joaquin Valley were agricultural workers drawn to a place where crops still needed to be planted and harvested. The “Dustbowl Migration” reached its apex in the mid-1930s, comprising one of the largest population shifts in the world.261 Figure 3. Bakersfield Population Growth 1930-1940
Year Population Percentage Growth
1930 26,015 n/a
1940 29,252 12.4%
Source: U.S. Census
The Okies found themselves picking fruit and other crops in the Central Valley for poverty wages. With nowhere to live, the Farm Security Administration (FSA) intervened and built federally funded labor camps. The most famous of these was the Weedpatch Camp in nearby Arvin from 1935. The proud Okies brought their style of folk music along with their tales of hardship, and it is from this tradition that the Bakersfield Sound would emerge. The Okies faced discrimination, as the term became a pejorative stereotype associated with accents and

259 Elizabeth May Garber Day Interview, California Odyssey Oral History Program, California State College, Bakersfield, Interview by Stacey Jagels, May 2, 1981, 23.
260 Maynard, 61.
261 Robert E. Price, The Bakersfield Sound: How a Generation of Displaced Okies Revolutionized American Music (Berkeley, CA:

Heyday, 2018), 6.

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slovenly appearance. A transient relief camp was also established at the Kern County Fairgrounds in the early to mid-1930s.262
Escapism & the Movies
Like millions of Americans, Bakersfield residents found respite from the hard-scrabble reality of the Great Depression through the escapist entertainment of the movies. They flocked to theaters and dance halls—which all prospered during the decade. The romances and musicals that filled the screens in the big, dark caverns of the movie houses were seldom realistic and often set in imaginary worlds or exotic locales. The architecture of the movie theaters of the late 1920s and 1930s strove to extend the fantasy experience from the screen to the sidewalk.

Places such as the Fox Theater [2001 H Street/1700 20th Street]263 and the Nile Theater [1721 19th Street], both by master movie palace architect S. Charles Lee, were just as fanciful as what was playing on the big screen. During this decade, when so much was second-hand, worn down, and just plain exhausted of hope, the theater where moviegoers saw a film was almost as important as the film itself.

New Deal Programs
During the Great Depression, President Franklin D. Roosevelt attempted to jumpstart the national economy and to put Americans back to work with the New Deal. The 1933 Public Works Administration (PWA) focused on the construction of highways and public buildings.

262 Gilbert Gia, “Transient Relief Camp at Kern County Fair Grounds, 1930-1937,” 2020, 6-9, Historic Bakersfield and Kern County, https://www.historicbakersfieldandkerncounty.com/_files/ugd/caae83_ 08021e284a07463e99f2edb75efbf93a.pdf (accessed January 18, 2023).
263 This property was listed on the Bakersfield Register of Historic Places in 1994 and determined eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places in 1997.

Fox Theater, 1946. (Security Pacific National Bank Collection, Los Angeles Public Library)

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The largest of these programs, the Works Progress Administration (WPA), was created in 1935 and designed to fund much-needed infrastructure projects, employing a largely unskilled workforce. Additional New Deal-era programs included the Civic Works Administration (CWA) and the 1935 State Emergency Relief Administration (SERA).264 These programs were the source of commissions for architects and artists alike during an otherwise bleak period for building, resulting in the construction of countless new bridges, schools, and libraries, among other projects.

School buildings were a high priority in California following the devastating impact of the 1933 Long Beach earthquake on the region’s elementary, junior high, and high school building stock.

Many of the older, multi-story structures designed of unreinforced brick were destroyed. As a result, the California Legislature acted quickly. Within a month, they passed the Field Act, which required tougher building standards for new schools and seismic retrofitting for older schools. More than fifty school projects were built in the greater Bakersfield area during the 1930s. Many of these projects were funded in part by Federal PWA/WPA money and labor.

Harvey Auditorium at Bakersfield High School [1241 G Street], designed in 1939 by Charles H.

Biggar, remains an outstanding local example of PWA Moderne-style school architecture.265 While Harvey Auditorium was designed in a pre-war style, construction of the building was not completed until 1948.

For architects, the opportunity to remake California schools challenged conventional notions about form and materials. The era of multi-storied brick buildings with double-loaded corridors of traditional classrooms gave way to the low-rise, low-density campus planning approach, where individual classrooms were directly accessible from outside. Additionally, the use of reinforced concrete construction and minimalist exterior decoration provided for greater safety for students.

A notable exception to this was the design of East Bakersfield High School [2200 Quincy Street]. A PWA project, the multi-story Spanish Colonial Revival-style building with PWA Moderne details, bucked avant-garde architectural trends for California schools after the 1933

264 “Projects in Pomona,” The Living New Deal, https://livingnewdeal.org/us/ca/pomona-ca/ (accessed March 2022). 265 This property was determined eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places in 2012.

Harvey Auditorium, rendering by Charles H. Biggar, and photograph as built. (Kern County Museum)

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Long Beach earthquake. Completed in 1938, government funding for such projects was often easier to obtain for projects of more traditional architectural styles.

National Housing Act of 1934 & the FHA
Another arm of Roosevelt’s strategy to combat the Great Depression was to stabilize and expand the housing market. To that end, Congress passed the National Housing Act of 1934, which established the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) to insure home mortgage loans.

This legislation incentivized financial institutions to issue more loans under more favorable terms for average working Americans. Prior to the establishment of the FHA, home loans were only accessible to the wealthy, as buyers could only borrow 50 percent of the cost of the home with a five-year repayment term that often terminated with a large balloon payment. With FHA loan guarantees, mortgage loans were made available for as little as 10 percent down with a loan life of 25 years.

As noted in Key Postwar Housing Tracts Within the Greater Bakersfield Area, 1945-1973, housing construction in Bakersfield in the late 1930s was aided by the FHA’s small house program, which established standards for the design and development of small houses, and the affordable FHA-backed mortgages.266
Redlining, Immigrant Communities & Communities of Color Federal programs also played a significant role in systemic racism. Two New Deal housing institutions, the Home Owners Loan Corporation (HOLC) and the FHA, founded in 1933 and 1934 respectively, were both created to encourage homeownership and to protect homeowners at risk of foreclosure during the Great Depression. In practice, however, they only provided protection for White property owners. Through an overt practice of denying mortgages based upon race and ethnicity, the FHA played a significant role in the legalization and institutionalization of racism and segregation.

The FHA insured bank mortgages that covered 80 percent of purchase prices. To be eligible, the FHA conducted an appraisal of the property in order to select properties that had a low risk of default. The guidelines included a “Whites only” requirement. The FHA underwriting manual for its appraisers also recommended against “an infiltration of inharmonious racial or nationality groups,” and discouraged loans in older, urban neighborhoods.267 The 1936 FHA underwriting manual recommended that “deeds to properties for which it issued mortgage insurance should include an explicit prohibition of resale to Black citizens.”268 To fulfill their missions of refinancing mortgages and granting low-interest loans to those who had lost their homes, the agencies began rating neighborhoods as “security risks.” What emerged was a racial ranking of neighborhoods that relegated African American, Mexican, Japanese, and Chinese neighborhoods to the bottom. Although other factors such as class, the presence of industry, density, housing stock, and tax blight were also considered, racial

266 JRP Historical Consulting, “Key Postwar Housing Tracts Within the Greater Bakersfield Area, 1945-1973,” 4. 267 Rothstein, 67.
268 Rothstein, 84.

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composition was a key factor in ranking, or coloring, those neighborhoods red (hence the term “redlining”). These areas were barred from receiving federal assistance, effectively segregated, and plunged into a vicious circle of decline.

A large number of African Americans also migrated to Bakersfield during the 1930s from the American South, due to the availability of agricultural work, and in particular, cotton harvesting. The living conditions that they found there, however, were likely not much better than those they left behind in the rural South. Dirt-floor sheds and lean-tos were common.

People lived in tents and discarded streetcars and boxcars.269 Largely barred from living within the city limits, many African Americans settled southeast of the city, adjacent to cotton fields in what became known as the Sunset-Mayflower (a.k.a., Lakeview-Mayflower) district.270 The area was located east of Union Cemetery, generally bounded by California Avenue to the north, East Brundage Lane to the south, the Sunset Western Railroad tracks to the east, and S. King Street to the west. Within this area were two residential tracts: the Sunset Tract and the Mayflower Addition. Because these tracts were outside the city limits, there were no city services such as sewer connection, trash collection, police, or fire protection. For shelter, residents constructed shacks and other vernacular structures that they could afford on their poverty wages. Although Bakersfield was not among the California cities for which redlining maps were produced, the Sunset-Mayflower area would have met FHA criteria for redlining.

Basques continued to immigrate to Bakersfield during this period, albeit at slower rates than earlier in the 20th century. Frank Maitia came to Bakersfield in 1930 and herded sheep until he raised enough money to buy the French House. He renamed it the Basque Café and it quickly

269 Johnie Mae Parker Oral History, California State College, Bakersfield, 1971. 5. 270 This area was alternately known as the Cottonwood Area because of Cottonwood Road (present-day Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Boulevard), or as Carver’s Belt.

Sunset Tract prior to its razing for public housing, 1940-41. (Housing Authority of the County of Kern) as shown in Donato Cruz “‘America’s Newest City’: 1950s Bakersfield and The Making of the Modern Suburban Segregated Landscape.”

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became a landmark within the Basque community, with Frank and his family living upstairs.

Maitia also acted as a de facto employment agent for the ranchers. He wired Basque associates in the old country with the number of hands needed, and then arranged lodging for them at the Noriega or Amestoy hotels. Maitia also organized handball matches within the community.

Another important community figure during the Depression was Graciana (Grace) Elizalde, who continued to manage the Noriega Hotel. Well known for her kindness and compassion, she helped hundreds of community members during this difficult decade.271 Bakersfield’s two Chinatowns continued to operate simultaneously during the Great Depression. A surprising number of businesses were established by members of the Chinese community during the 1930s. One prominent family was the Choy family, who lived in China Alley in old Chinatown. Windsor Quon Choy and Annie Lee Choy had three children: Wallace, Leland, and Anna May. The Choys operated Canton Café (20th and L streets) during the 1930s.

K.C. Choy and Earl Wong opened the Mandarin Cafe nightclub [1322 20th Street] in the 1930s in a space previously known as the Lido Cafe. Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy used to play the Mandarin Café’s lounge.272
Lincoln Market [1930 L Street] was owned by the Earl Q. Wong family. The family is remembered for extending credit to the Latino workers who lost their jobs during the Depression. The Chinese benevolent association also handed out rice to members of the Chinese community who could not afford it.273 Some of the prosperity within the Chinese community was the result of the operation of illegal gambling operations. Often, these establishments looked like cigar stores from the street, but had gambling in the back room. In oral histories with community members, it was said that the police would allow such establishments in the alley between 20th and 21st streets, known as China Alley.274 Many Chinese from East Tehachapi moved to East Bakersfield during the Depression. Gan Pon opened a Chinese laundry [717 Baker Street] and there was a Chinese Kitchen restaurant near the train station.

The Latino presence in East Bakersfield continued during the 1930s. Early Latino business owners included Trinidad and Santos Gamez (often misspelled Gomez), who immigrated from Mexico in 1915. By 1930, Santos was a servant in a private home and Trinidad was the proprietor of a grocery store. Ten years later, he operated a retail gas station in town. Mrs.

Santos Gamez started making homemade tortillas for wholesale sale. That home-based business eventually became Mexicali Restaurant.275
Mexican American social organizations from this period included the Comision Honorifica Mexicana-Americana and the Mexican Aéreo Legion Club. Members included Alfonso H.

Gonzales, Salvadore Rodriguez, and Alfred Sanchez. During the 1930s, Lincoln School teacher Alfredo Chavez (1908-1991) was an important figure within the local Mexican American community. Chavez was an advocate for Mexican cultural activities, music, and the arts. During

271 Echeverria, Home Away From Home, 109.
272 Boyd and Ming, 94.
273 Boyd and Ming, 190.
274 Boyd and Ming, 124. This property was listed on the Bakersfield Register of Historic Places in 1992. 275 Mexicali was originally located at the corner of Baker and Eureka streets in 1941. By 1957, it had moved to 1401 California Avenue.

In 1957, the Gamez family purchased the Towne House Café on 18th Street; this is the present-day location of Mexicali Restaurant.

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the late 1930s, he hosted a local radio program called “Mexican Memories” on the FM station KPMC.276
The Italian American Foundation became very active in the city during the 1930s. The group held a multiplicity of events throughout the year including picnics, dances, lectures, and they fielded a baseball team. The Foundation had no purpose-built meeting place and so held their functions and meetings in various locations, such as St. Joseph’s Hall, the Woman’s Club, the Eagles Hall, and private homes. The Foundation continued well into the 1950s.

According to the 1939 New World Year Book, a directory of Japanese Americans and their businesses, the Japanese community in Bakersfield was centered in the area bordered by 23rd Street and 19th Street, between O Street and L Street. A small cluster of Japanese also lived around 25th and N streets. Two of the cultural institutions in the community were the Japanese Buddhist Church and School [2207 N Street] and the Japanese Mission/Japanese Methodist Episcopal Church [1016 22nd Street].

As of 1939, this Japanese enclave contained four markets, a drug store, hardware store, barber, and a nursery. These enterprises were mostly concentrated south of 20th Street between L and M streets. As was common for the period, many Japanese merchants lived behind or above the shop, or in local rooming houses. In addition, the 1939 New World Year Book lists approximately 20 Japanese living in rural Bakersfield, likely as farmers, truck farmers, or farm hands on larger agricultural properties.

Labor Strikes
Despite the Depression, working conditions for many people (in and around Bakersfield) were oppressive. There were a number of labor strikes in the early 1930s and more in the later half of the decade. These agricultural strikes were led by the workers of color. When Pedro Subia, a Mexican striker, was murdered, his funeral was held at the old Bakersfield City Hall. Workers came from all the labor camps around Bakersfield in his honor.

Filipinos working in agricultural jobs around the San Joaquin Valley also participated in these strikes. The 1930s census reveals a few dozen Filipinos living and working in Bakersfield proper.

Unlike other cultural groups who lived in enclaves, the Filipinos of Bakersfield appear to have been more dispersed, often renting rooms downtown and in East Bakersfield. The majority of Filipinos living in the city were employed in hospitality jobs related to hotels, hospitals, or restaurants. Early religious and cultural organizations appear to have been centered in nearby Delano. Filipino institutions in Bakersfield seem to have been very rare.

Infrastructure improvements continued to help Bakersfield feed California during the Great Depression. In 1933, the state opened a new three-lane highway that eschewed the Tejon Pass summit of the Ridge Route for the canyon and gorges of Piru Creek. It became known as the “Ridge Route Alternative,” or U.S. Route 99 (Highway 99), and shaved nine miles and 45 minutes off the travel time. The new road was also at a much lower elevation than the Ridge

276 “Chavez to Continue Large Fiesta Here,” The Bakersfield Californian, September 2, 1939, 9.

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Route and thus was less susceptible to snowfall. The original Ridge Route was effectively abandoned during the winter months.

Bakersfield’s experience through the Great Depression was unusual. Unlike most cities, where construction was effectively halted, Bakersfield had enough economic activity to sustain upgrades in commercial development and enough PWA/WPA funding to upgrade infrastructure and develop other civic/institutional projects. A review of Bakersfield’s built environment during the 1930s tells a powerful story about the people and the place.

The Great Depression was a difficult period for architects generally, including in Bakersfield.

AIA membership files from those practicing in the city at the time include correspondence regarding non-payment of dues because of lack of work. Despite a definite slowdown, the City of Bakersfield managed to build more civic/institutional, commercial, industrial, and residential projects than many other cities of similar size during this period.

Bakersfield architecture from this decade reveals the influences of national and international architectural movements, along with some quintessentially regional ideas. A generation of Kern County public schools bore the identifying architectural language of these movements. Often under the umbrella of optimistic New Deal programs, these new styles evoked confidence in institutions and infrastructure with a modern twist. Downtown Bakersfield went upscale, transformed by escapist movie palaces and the modernization of retail storefronts. Residential development continued apace as Bakersfield’s financial strength was reflected in the new homes commissioned by its professional class, many of whom invested in avant-garde designs, including romantic adobe structures made modern through their plan, materials, and construction techniques.

THEMES
THEME: Depression-Era Civic/Institutional Development
Despite economic struggles, improvements to Bakersfield did not completely halt in the years between the Great Depression and World War II. Some civic/institutional work continued during the early years of the Depression as well. In 1931, Edwin Joseph Symmes designed the Meadows Field Airport Hangar. (Online Archive of California) Horace Mann School, c. 1930s. (Kern County Museum)

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First Church of Christ, Scientist [2201 18th Street] in a hybrid Beaux Arts/Spanish Colonial Revival style. Population growth in East Bakersfield fueled the establishment of new chapters of familiar organizations such as the Masonic Temple designed by Orville L. Clark and opened in 1939.

Bakersfield architects definitely benefited from the PWA and WPA programs. The Kern County Airport Hangar at Meadows Field (near Skyway Drive) was the largest single-span hangar in California at the time of its construction. Some 50 WPA men worked on the reinforced concrete project that opened around 1937.277
A number of WPA/PWA projects in Bakersfield were schools. In 1938, Greeley Elementary School [6601 Enos Lane] was designed and constructed by Franklin & Kump. The same year, East Bakersfield High School [2200 Quincy Street] was designed by Charles H. Biggar and constructed by the PWA. Around the same time, Biggar also designed the PWA Moderne-style Horace Mann School [2710-2718 Niles Street].

Another highly visible project from this period was Charles H. Biggar’s design for Harvey Auditorium at Kern County High School. Biggar designed the auditorium in 1939 in the PWA Moderne-style. During World War II, construction stopped due to a lack of materials. The building was eventually completed in 1948 and dedicated to the memory of T.N. Harvey, President of the Kern County Union High School District, who died in July of 1948. In 1940, demand for increased capacity at the high school was such that the school board planned to erect seven temporary classrooms.278
Two firehouse projects were funded by the WPA during this period. The Bakersfield Central Fire Station, a.k.a. Fire Station No. 1 [2101 H Street], designed by Charles H. Biggar in the PWA Moderne style, was constructed in 1939.279 The East Bakersfield Fire Station, a.k.a. Fire Station No. 2, [716 E. 21st Street], designed by Charles H. Biggar, was completed the following year; it

277 “Kern County Airport Hangar,” The Living New Deal, https://livingnewdeal.org/projects/kern-county-airport-hangar-bakersfield- ca/ (accessed June 16, 2022).
278 “Board Approves Plans for Seven New Classrooms,” The Bakersfield Californian, June 11, 1940, 9. 279 This property was determined eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places in 2012.

Fire Station No. 1, 1945. (Kern County Museum)
Fire Station No. 2 under construction, 1939-40. (Kern County Museum)

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replaced a two-story brick firehouse built around 1913.280 This period also saw the completion of the Bakersfield First Baptist Church [1200 Truxtun Avenue] designed by Charles H. Biggar in a combination of the Romanesque and Mission Revival styles.281 Among the WPA projects was the construction of a cluster of buildings at O Street and Golden State Avenue known as the Division of Forestry Service Office. There was a sizable adobe office building and some shops and storage buildings built in 1942.282 The PWA also funded buildings for the Kern County Fair (Chester Avenue, two blocks north of 34th Street). There was even a separate WPA project to manufacture adobe blocks for public works projects. Ingredients for adobe blocks were inexpensive and the process was labor intensive, so it fit perfectly with efforts to employ more people during the Depression.

Adobe construction experienced something of a renaissance in Bakersfield during this period, chiefly through the efforts of architect Clarence C. Cullimore, who advocated that adobe was a suitable building material in Bakersfield due to its thermal properties.283 During this decade, Cullimore would begin experimenting with adobe construction in his residential projects on and around Oleander Avenue. He developed new technologies for strengthening its ability to withstand earthquakes. After World War II, he submitted a master’s thesis at USC on this topic and was ultimately elevated to Fellowship in the American Institute of Architects (FAIA), not for his architectural designs or role in education, but for his advances in modern adobe technology.

280 This property was determined eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places in 2016. 281 This property was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1979. 282 California High Speed Rail Authority, Draft Supplemental EIR/EIS: Fresno to Bakersfield Section, November 2017, page 3.17-29. 283 Another adobe building built with federal WPA funds during this period was the Hart Park Ranger House by W. Francis Parsons in 1939, also known as the “Peacock House.” Hart Park itself was a WPA project. Between 1932 and 1938, up to 200 WPA workmen were there building rock work, a swimming pool, roads, curbs and a large boat lake. At least one and possibly three adobe restrooms were also constructed, as was a workshop. This project is outside the city limits of Bakersfield.

Father Garcés Statue postcard, no date. (eBay)

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One of Bakersfield’s most visible works of the WPA program is the statue of Father Garcés.284 Garcés was the first known white man to reach this region in 1776 while traveling in search of a new route between Sonora, Mexico and Monterey, California. The sculpture, designed by artist John Palo Kangas, stands 22 feet tall and is carved from Indiana limestone set on a Carnelean granite base. Dedicated on May 7, 1939, it was originally a prominent feature along Highway 99.

However in 1955, it was moved 55 feet to accommodate the construction of a new overpass. It now sits at the southern edge of Garcés Memorial Circle at the intersection of Chester Avenue, 30th Street, and SR 204/Golden State Avenue.285 It is California Historical Landmark No. 277.

Criteria NRHP: A, B CRHR: 1, 2 BRHP: a, b, e Eligibility Standards
 Dates from the period 1929-1940
 Is an excellent, rare, or unique example of civic/institutional development from the Depression era in Bakersfield
 May be an example of a project associated with a New Deal program, such as the PWA, WPA, CWA, or SERA
 May also be associated with a person that played an important role in the history and development of Bakersfield during this period
 May also be associated with an important ethnic or cultural group in Bakersfield during this period, such as the local Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, Basque, Italian, Mexican, or African American community
 Retains sufficient integrity to convey its significance from the historic period  Properties with regional or national significance, or with exceptionally good integrity from the historic period, may be eligible for listing in the California and/or National Register.

Integrity Threshold
An eligible property under this theme should retain integrity of location, design, materials, feeling and association.

THEME: Depression-Era Commercial Development
While the Depression was a difficult time financially for Bakersfield businesses, there was some commercial building activity downtown during the early 1930s. The Spanish Colonial Revival- style Fox Theater [2001 H Street/1700 20th Street] by S. Charles Lee, opened on Christmas day in 1930. In 1931, architect Edward F. Sibbert, Jr. designed the new Art Deco-style S.H.

Kress Building [1401 19th Street].286 The C.E. Houchin Building [2601 F Street] was designed

284 This property was determined eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places in 1996. 285 “Garces Circle Statue,” The Living New Deal, https://livingnewdeal.org/projects/garces-circle-statue-bakersfield-ca/ (accessed June 16, 2022).
286 This property was determined eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.

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by local architect Edwin J. Symmes around 1934. At about the same time, Symmes designed the Sholar & Sholar Grocery (18th and Eye streets) for the Mattson Brothers, which was the first real supermarket in downtown Bakersfield. By 1930, Bakersfield was also home to four Italian grocery stores: Paccini & Maloni’s Grocery [1306 19th Street], City Grocery (also on 19th Street), and two Fannucchi stores.287
The Bakersfield Californian documents a number of commercial façade modernizations during the period as well. Despite the economic difficulties, many downtown merchants took the opportunity to upgrade and remodel their older storefronts in the popular styles of the period.

As Henry B. DeLacy, President of the Bakersfield Chamber of Commerce, wrote in January of 1939:

Nineteen thirty eight has given Bakersfield a most aggressive transformation in its main business streets—Chester Avenue and 19th Street—in new buildings, modernized and attractive exteriors and store fronts. The face of many of the old structures have been lifted and modern treatment applied, and new buildings are replacing the old antiquated structures—all of which gives Bakersfield the appearance it deserves—that of a modern, progressive and prosperous city.288 Another modern addition to the downtown area was the 1930 Bank of America building [1931 Chester Avenue] by architects Swasey & Hayne. The PWA Moderne-style building dominated this important intersection. Around 1938, Charles H. Biggar designed a Sears, Roebuck & Co. department store for Bakersfield [1317 19th Street]. In 1940, original main façade of the 1908 Kern County Hall of Records [1655 Chester Avenue] was modernized by local architect Frank Wynkoop. The Fish Estate Building of 1938 [1501-1515 19th Street/1831 Chester Avenue] designed by Charles H. Biggar and constructed by noted local builder Henry Eissler, replaced the original Fish Building on the same site.

287 Gilbert Gia, “Life on Kentucky Street, 1930,” 2009, 2, Historic Bakersfield and Kern County, https://www. historicbakersfieldandkerncounty.com/_files/ugd/caae83_fcf9076ba35b420d976826778b615927.pdf (accessed January 18, 2023). 288 “Chamber of Commerce Achieves Much in Year Just Past,” The Bakersfield Californian, January 2, 1939, 18.

Bank of America rendering by Swasey & Hayne, and photograph upon completion in 1930. (Kern County Museum)

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When local businessman Hugh Sill was ready to build a commercial office building in downtown Bakersfield for his successful agriculture business, he turned to the architects of his Bakersfield home, Franklin & Kump. Kump’s modern design sensibilities were fully flourishing, as demonstrated by the 1939 Streamline Moderne-style Sill Building [1500-1516 18th Street/1801 Chester Avenue] demonstrated. Its three horizontal bands of brick seamlessly unite the west and south facades. The Sill Building was widely published in architectural trade magazines at the time. More recently, revered architectural historian David Gebhard favorably compared the Sill Building to the Johnson Wax Company Building by Frank Lloyd Wright.289 The cantilevered floor plates are key to the open plan of the offices.

Criteria NRHP: A, B CRHR: 1, 2 BRHP: a, b, e Eligibility Standards
 Dates from the period 1929-1940
 Is an excellent, rare, or unique example of commercial development from the Depression era in Bakersfield
 May be a rare remaining example of auto-related commercial development from the period, particularly along Union Avenue
 May also be associated with a person that played an important role in the history and development of Bakersfield during this period

289 “Bakersfield Built: The 1930s,” California State University, Bakersfield, Bakersfield Art Museum, and Society of Architectural Historians, Southern California Chapter, 2014, 18.

Sill Building, 1940. (Sian Winship Private Collection)
Sill Building, no date. (University of California, Berkeley)

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 May also be associated with an important ethnic or cultural group in Bakersfield during this period, such as the local Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, Basque, Italian, Mexican, or African American community
 Retains sufficient integrity to convey its significance from the historic period  A geographically concentrated grouping of intact commercial development from the period may be eligible as a historic district
 Properties with regional or national significance, or with exceptionally good integrity from the historic period, may be eligible for listing in the California and/or National Register.

Integrity Threshold
An eligible property under this theme should retain integrity of location, design, materials, feeling and association. Modernization of retail storefronts may be acceptable if they remain intact from this period.

THEME: Depression-Era Industrial Development
Industrial development in Bakersfield was often tied to the petroleum or agriculture industry and involved products or by-products of these businesses. One writer in 1939 commented on the “smokestacks over Bakersfield today,” as evidence of the city’s strong industrial economy.290 The writer goes on to say that in 1930, there were 87 industrial plants in the city, and that by 1938 the number had increased to 200, employing some 3,500 people.291 Not all industrial development was related to oil or agriculture. In 1939, Bakersfield became the new home of a 7-Up Bottling Co. plant [230 E. 18th Street]. Designed by F.W. De Foy (1887- 1954), the Streamline Moderne-style plant featured a central tower with a sign featuring the 7- Up logo.

290 “Preamble,” The Bakersfield Californian, December 9, 1939, 2. 291 “Preamble,” 2.
7-Up Bottling Co. Plant, no date. (Pinterest)

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Another relatively rare example of an industrial building from the period is the Republic Supply Co. (a.k.a., Golden Empire Gleaners), a pipe and supply business serving the petroleum industry.

The Republic Supply Company warehouse [1326 30th Street] was built in 1937 and expanded in 1946.292 Republic first entered the Bakersfield market in 1928, with their purchase of the Associated Supply Co. Many of the light industrial buildings constructed during the period were not designed by architects but rather by contractors. James F. Moore, a local general contractor, was a specialist in industrial buildings and storefronts. Guy Hall, another Bakersfield contractor, operated his business from a light industrial building.

Criteria NRHP: A, B CRHR: 1, 2 BRHP: a, b, e Eligibility Standards
 Dates from the period 1929-1940
 Is an excellent, rare, or unique example of industrial development from the Depression era in Bakersfield
 May be associated with an important industry in Bakersfield from the period, such as agriculture, or oil and gas
 May be a substantial feature of a larger municipal or regional infrastructural system, such as water, power, or transportation (automobile)
 May also be associated with a person that played an important role in the history and development of Bakersfield during this period
 May also be associated with an important ethnic or cultural group in Bakersfield during this period, such as the local Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, Basque, Italian, Mexican, or African American community
 Retains sufficient integrity to convey its significance from the historic period  Properties with regional or national significance, or with exceptionally good integrity from the historic period, may be eligible for listing in the California and/or National Register.

Integrity Threshold
An eligible property under this theme should retain integrity of location, design, materials, feeling and association.

THEME: Depression-Era Residential Development
Although the issuance of building permits overall dipped to a historic low, a surprising number of single-family residences were built in Bakersfield during this period. These Period Revival- style homes were typically designed for professionals, such as doctors, dentists, and oil or agriculture executives. Many of these homes can be found in the Oleander/Sunset and

292 This property was determined eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places in 2016.

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Westchester/Riviera neighborhoods of the city, with more modest houses built in La Cresta Heights and the Alta Vista Tract in the bluffs northeast of the city.293 The go-to architect for many of these houses was local practitioner Clarence C. Cullimore, Sr., FAIA. Cullimore’s own residence and studio [101 Oleander Avenue] was completed in 1930, designed in the Spanish Colonial-inspired California Ranch style. Cullimore made an extensive study of the adobes of California, traveling, sketching, and drawing existing examples. He used the adobes as inspiration for both the design and construction of his residential projects during this period, although he was equally as facile working in other styles. Examples include the E.C.

Zimmer Residence [527 Oleander Avenue] from 1937, said to have been the inspired by a whaling cottage; the adobe Alfred Ames Residence [2929 21st Street] from 1932; the adobe Chase Residence [2123 1st Street] in 1935; the George Gilmore Residence [2115 1st Street] from 1937; the Neoclassical-style Dr. McKee Residence [3031 21st Street] from 1937; and the Spanish Colonial Revival-style Johnson Residence [629 Holtby Road] from 1935. Cullimore’s work, especially his use of modern adobe construction, was widely published in California Arts + Architecture, and Architect and Engineer.

293 Alta Vista and La Cresta Heights were annexed into the City of Bakersfield during the 1940s.

City of Bakersfield proposed annexation map, May 15, 1946. (The Bakersfield Californian)

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The Sill Residence [3109 20th Street], designed for Hugh Sill in 1937, is a rare residential project by Ernest Kump, Jr. (1911-1999), son of architect Ernest Kump, Sr. The younger Kump was born in Bakersfield and studied architecture at Kern County High School under Cullimore.

Charles Franklin hired Kump, Jr. in 1937 and they established an architectural partnership.

The homes along Oleander Avenue continued to attract the wealthiest residents of the city.

During the 1930s, Oscar Rudnick (1890-1950) moved his family to 315 Oleander Avenue. He came to Bakersfield as a Russian Jewish immigrant in 1918 and built a large meat packing business. All of Rudnick’s sons worked in the family business and they were the topic of a Life magazine article in 1951. His daughter, Elynor H. Rudnick (1923-1996), later became a pilot and her airstrip became the Bakersfield airport294
It wasn’t just local architects, however, that found work in Bakersfield during the 1930s. Frank and Kay Davis visited Richard J. Neutra’s small exhibit on the International Style at Bullock’s Wilshire in Los Angeles, mounted as a follow up to Neutra’s participation in the seminal Museum of Modern Art show in 1932. After their visit, the Davises sought out Neutra to build them a modern house in Bakersfield. Frank Davis was the area distributor for Norwalk Gasoline. The Davis Residence [2914 21st Street] was completed in 1937 and featured all the trademarks of the International Style—alternating bands of stucco and horizontal groupings of identical commercial steel casement and fixed windows.295 In 1947, Frank Davis returned to Neutra to have him design a service station, Norwalk Service Station [800 Oak Street].

The west end of the city saw substantial multi-family residential development during the late 1930s. Several residential courts were constructed on D Street between 24th Street and 22nd Street during this period, including Swanson Court [2100-2110 23rd Street]; Finlayson Court

294 For more information about Elynor H. Rudnick, see the section on World War II below. 295 Minor additions to the rear of the house were made by local architect Frank Ghezzi during his ownership of the property.

Davis Residence as photographed by Julius Shulman, no date. (Getty Research Institute)

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[2300-2320 D Street]; and Spreyor Court [2210-2216 D Street].296 Also nearby was Ye Olde English Village Apartments [1823 Myrtle Street].

Criteria NRHP: A, B CRHR: 1, 2 BRHP: a, b, e Eligibility Standards
 Dates from the period 1929-1940
 Is an excellent, rare, or unique example of single-family or multi-family residential development from the Depression era in Bakersfield
 May be a rare remaining example of worker housing in Bakersfield from the period  May also be associated with a person that played an important role in the history and development of Bakersfield during this period
 May also be associated with an important ethnic or cultural group in Bakersfield during this period, such as the local Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, Basque, Italian, Mexican, or African American community
 Retains sufficient integrity to convey its significance from the historic period  A geographically concentrated grouping of intact residential development from the period may be eligible as a historic district
 Properties with regional or national significance, or with exceptionally good integrity from the historic period, may be eligible for listing in the California and/or National Register.

Integrity Threshold
An eligible property under this theme should retain integrity of location, design, materials, feeling and association.

296 “Purchase Ground for Third Six Unit Court in West Bakersfield,” The Bakersfield Californian, January 30, 1937, 5.

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BAKERSFIELD DURING WORLD WAR II, 1941-1945
Declaring that a state of war exists between the imperial government of Japan and the government and people of the United States and making provisions to prosecute same.

U.S. Congress Declaration of War,
December 8, 1941
Like many communities, Kern County was touched by the war effort. In 1941, Minter Field in nearby Shafter was constructed as a flight-training center for the U.S. Army, ultimately graduating more than 11,000 flyers.297 During this period, the City of Bakersfield also developed its share of war-related industries, from manufacturing ammunitions boxes to the production of K-rations for military use. The 19th Street USO [419 19th Street] provided social activities and entertainment for the servicemen working at the Lamont POW Camp and other servicemen from nearby Muroc Air Force Base.

In June of 1943, the Kern County Dehydrating Company opened in Bakersfield. It was the largest plant of its kind on the Pacific coast, processing more than 50,000 tons of Kern County vegetables per year, including potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, rutabagas, and cabbage.298 Using the old Bakersfield Packing Company building [1016 E. Brundage Lane] as a base for expansion, the company actively recruited women not already employed in the defense industry, employing more than 500 workers at its peak.

In early 1943, George Haberfelde negotiated a lease for his Bakersfield Ice Arena [423 Golden State Avenue] with Burbank-based Vega Aircraft. The Vega plant produced sub-assembly parts for B-17 bombers. Lockheed also occupied a 23,000-square-foot warehouse building [426 California Avenue].299 By late 1943, when Lockheed and Vega merged, the company was operating additional sub-assembly plants in Oildale and Taft. Hiring for the Bakersfield Vega plant was managed by the U.S. Employment Service office [1300 17th Street].

Japanese American Incarceration
Within hours of the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 by the Empire of Japan, prominent Japanese American businessmen, clergy, school teachers, and others declared by the U.S. government to be enemy aliens were rounded up in FBI sweeps. On February 18, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 that authorized the Secretary of War and any military commander designated by him “to prescribe military areas…from which any or all persons may be excluded.”300 Although the order did not specify the exclusion of Japanese Americans, the intention was clear.301

297 Maynard, 70.
298 “Big Plant Sets April Opening,” The Bakersfield Californian, February 16, 1943, 7. 299 “Bakersfield to Get Its First Industry of 1963,” The Bakersfield Californian, January 16, 1963, 1. 300 Brian Nilya, “Executive Order 9066,” in Densho Encyclopedia, https://densho.org/?gclid=Cj0KCQjwqoibBhDUARIsAH2Op WgRDP85UMzp10sX4vmBTueR8Da-h-Z2cRmoI66ZMQbH8T9r7Js9QkaAgs 5EALw_wcB# (accessed January 9, 2017). 301 City of Los Angeles, Office of Historic Resources, Japanese Americans in Los Angeles, 1869-1970, August 2018, 50.

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As in many cities, some Bakersfield residents fell victim to mass hysteria associated with the Japanese. In January of 1942, Kern County officials began investigating Japanese who had placed land titles in the names of their Japanese American children who were not barred from owning land. A month later, the newspapers were atwitter with concerns about a growing Japanese population in Bakersfield who had relocated there in an effort to move away from coastal areas.

In May of 1942, many of Bakersfield’s Japanese American residents were evacuated to Parker, Arizona. Members of the local Japanese Citizens League pledged their loyalty to the city and the country and vowed to return in an open letter published in The Bakersfield Californian.

George Ogata, Raymond Tatsuno, Nellie Mitai, Marion Uyetani, and Edith Takahashi all signed the letter.302
The Chinese community also suffered from anti-Japanese sentiment. In oral histories presented in the book The Chinese of Kern County, 1857-1960, community members remembered making and wearing badges and car signs that identified them as Chinese to avoid personal and property violence against them. Despite discrimination, at least one Chinese entrepreneur opened a new business during this period; the Far East Café [1816 18th Street] opened in 1942.303
Lamont Prisoner of War Branch Camp
During World War II, with 15 million Americans having been called into military service, agricultural labor was scarce. The labor shortage was particularly acute for Kern County farmers whose harvesting was hand-labor intensive. The U.S. Army came up with an unusual solution; it brought German prisoners of war (POWs) from England to America to fill the labor gap.

Thousands of German POWs were brought to America and housed in camps in the South, Southwest, and California. The nearest POW camp to Bakersfield was Camp Cooke (on the current site Vandenberg Air Force Base). With the long commute, the Army established a series of “branch camps,” including 16 for Camp Cooke, so that the POWs could be closer to their work. Two branch camps were established in Kern County: one in Shafter, housing 650 German prisoners, and another approximately 17 miles from Bakersfield to serve the Arvin- Greenfield-Panama region.

The seventh branch camp for Camp Cooke, the Lamont Branch Camp, was established in December of 1944 at the five-acre site of a federal labor camp on Di Giorgio Road, behind Ribier Market. Over 40 wooden barracks were constructed to house the prisoners. Other buildings included mess halls, a chapel, laundry, and shower facilities for up to 1,000 men. The acreage was enclosed by barbed wire with four guard towers at the corners of the rectangular lot. The facility was commanded by Captain C.W. Chappell. The prisoners harvested whatever seasonal crop was available: potatoes, cotton, tomatoes, grapes, or sugar beets. Farmers were responsible for training the workers, while guards from Lamont supervised. In June of 1945 the

302 “Japs Send Message,” The Bakersfield Californian, May 23, 1942, 1, 2. 303 Jeff Nachtigal, “Saving a Landmark,” The Bakersfield Californian, June 20, 2007, A3.

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camp held 945 prisoners; by September 1945, there were some 600 prisoners, many from the German expeditionary force known as the Afrika Korps.304 Local farmers formed associations that employed a coordinator who routed the labor on a daily basis. The farmers paid current farm labor wages to the government, and the government, in turn, gave each laborer 80 cents in camp currency.

The prisoners were credited with saving the cotton crop of 1945 and local farmers requested additional prisoner help in fall of that same year. Later that year, the German prisoners were returned to Camp Cooke at Lamont and were replaced with Japanese POWs and a few Korean prisoners. At this time, Lamont Camp staff was succeeded by individuals experienced in dealing with Japanese prisoners, including Major Paul Johnson, the commanding officer. The Lamont Camp was also headquarters for two other branch camps in California.

In October 1945, Lamont was turned over to the base POW Camp at the Pomona Ordinance Depot in Pomona, California. Camp Lamont was officially closed on March 23, 1946. In January of 1954, 47 buildings from the Lamont POW Camp were put up for sale to nearby farmers as “suitable for storage or other farm needs.”305 Many were presumably relocated to sites in and around Bakersfield.

The War Effort: Labor & Materials Shortages
With men called into the service, Southern California women were often employed to fill open positions in the defense plants traditionally held by men. These “Rosie the Riveters” were less commonplace in Bakersfield. An article in The Bakersfield Californian from 1941, describing the employment of women in places like Los Angeles and Long Beach, suggested this line of employment was not suitable for the city’s women.306 However, the reality of labor shortages began to set in and the Bakersfield employers such as the Santa Fe Railroad, taxi companies,

304 Jeffrey E. Geiger, German Prisoners of War at Camp Cooke (Mechanicsburg, PA; Sunbury Press, Inc. 2018), 194. 305 Classified advertisement, “47 Buildings,” The Bakersfield Californian, January 8, 1954, 35. 306 “Girl Cab Drivers, Messengers Appear,” The Bakersfield Californian, July 18, 1941, 9.

Barracks at the Lamont Camp, August 31, 1945. (The Bakersfield Californian)

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banks, and the local post office began hiring women. By 1942, Kern County Union High School established a mechanical arts class especially for women.307 Running counter to this trend, Bakersfield police hired their first policewoman in 1941. Mary Holman Dodge (1912-2006) was born in Bakersfield, daughter of a local blacksmith, and graduated from Bakersfield Junior College in 1933. The local League of Women Voters pressured the police force to hire a woman officer. Dodge worked traffic and juvenile details and was later promoted to Lieutenant.308
Another important piece of women’s history occurred during World War II, when Elynor Rudnick (1923-1996), daughter of ranching pioneer Oscar Rudnick, returned to Bakersfield bitten by the aviation bug. During the War, she worked in airplane manufacturing plants and trained to become a pilot. On her father’s farm property near present-day Union Avenue and Watts Drive, she built an oil-dirt landing strip and a private airport. From here, she operated a successful crop-dusting business. In 1948, Elynor was recruited to train pilots at the Bakersfield Airpark for the Haganah Air Service—an early iteration of the Israeli Air Force. From March to June 1948, she trained thirteen pilots who became the Israeli Air Force essential players in the establishment of Israel. The city’s Jewish community rallied around her efforts providing uniforms and meals as support. Elynor’s Bakersfield Air Park was purchased by the City of Bakersfield in 1985.309
One of the challenges facing the Bakersfield police department during Dodge’s early tenure was the Zoot Suit movement. The wearing of baggy Zoot Suits became popular among young Mexican American and African American men and popularized by entertainers like Cab Calloway. Servicemen and many other people viewed the profligate use of fabric in making the suits was anti-American and a waste of wartime resources. This resulted in a number of violent clashes with an underpinning of racism. In June of 1943, Los Angeles experienced a series of incidents that became known as the “Zoot Suit Riots.” On June 11th, 200 zoot-suiters participated in several disturbances at the Kentucky Street carnival in East Bakersfield.310 No arrests were made.

Like many cities, building in Bakersfield practically ceased during World War II, as Americans focused on the war effort and labor and materials shortages were the norm. Only two building permits were issued in Kern County in 1941, no permits in 1942, three permits in 1943, and 37 permits in 1944.311 While the war effort brought economic stability to the region, it did not bring a significant increase in population. In 1940, the population of the greater Bakersfield area was estimated at 74,000. By the close of the war, it had increased less than ten percent.312 However, by the end of 1944, the City of Bakersfield reported the beginning of a local building

307 “School Shop Course for Girls Lauded,” The Bakersfield Californian, December 16, 1942, 9. 308 Mary Holmand Dodge Interview by Betty Parker, October 23, 1977, California State College, Bakersfield. 309 “Powerful Israeli Air Force Has Roots Here,” The Bakersfield Californian, June 7, 2013, D1-2. 310 “Police Quell Near-Riot by 200 Zoot Suit Enthusiasts,” The Bakersfield Californian, June 12, 1943, 1. 311 “October Building Hits Five-Year Record High,” The Bakersfield Californian, November 7, 1945, 9. 312 JRP Historical Consulting, 8.

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boom, with more than 60 residential permits issued in December alone, compared with just 80 permits during the preceding 11 months.313
During this period, African Americans continued to be restricted to living primarily in the Sunset/Mayflower area. Those who could afford a mortgage were unable to obtain bank loans and typically bought “on contract.” Buying on contract was a predatory loan practice, in which predominantly white owners (often real estate agents) “sold” a home on a rent-to-own basis and title was never officially transferred.314 One such broker who operated in the Sunset/Mayflower neighborhood was Claude Blodgett (1878-1972). He sold real estate in the city from 1918 until the early 1970s. He was a member of the Bakersfield Board of Realtors and developed Tract 1286/Mayflower Annex adjacent to the Mayflower area.315 In 1944, Elmer Karpe, a white real estate agent, developed new homes in the Mayflower area with a new twist on restrictive covenants: homes were not to be sold to white buyers, only African Americans.316 They were located in Block 10 of the Mayflower Addition bordered by Graham Street to the north, Texas Street to the south, Nixon Street to the east, and Augusta Street to the west. They numbered some 48 parcels in total.317 Johnie Mae Parker, an author and activist, credited Karpe with causing “white flight” in the Mayflower neighborhood as a result of the development covenant.318 De facto segregation during this period extended beyond residential exclusion. Users of Central Park were almost exclusively African American and were the only ones to use the pool there. Black moviegoers were also relegated to the balconies of the Fox and Californian theaters.319
It was also during this period that five men met at a Basque restaurant in Bakersfield and formed the Kern County Basque Club. Established in 1944, the club sponsored cultural events in the community.320 Early leaders of the club included John Ansolabehere, Frank Maitia, Sr., Felix Etcheverry, Raymond Castanchoa, and Inocencio Jaurena.

THEMES
THEME: Wartime Civic/Institutional Development
Soon after Pearl Harbor, Kern County Union High School established classes designed to prepare students for war work. During the 1930s, the high school and Bakersfield Junior College had embraced aviation, offering classes in related mechanics and spawning a young student aviators club. By March of 1941, 187 former students of these two institutions were

313 JRP Historical Consulting, 9.
314 Donato Cruz, “‘America’s Newest City’: 1950s Bakersfield and the Making of the Modern Suburban Segregated Landscape,” Master of Art History, California State University, Bakersfield, 2020, 50-51. 315 Cruz, 50-51.
316 Elmer F. and Florence J. Karpe, “Block Restrictions: Mayflower Block 10.” City Hall Records (14018133) July 25, 1944, 21-22, quoted in Cruz, 17.
317 “Only Two Weeks Old,” The Bakersfield Californian, March 23, 1940, no page. 318 Johnie Mae Parker, How Long? Not Long! The Battle to End Poverty in Bakersfield (Bakersfield, CA: Johnie Mae Parker, 1987), 2, quoted in Cruz, 17.
319 Gia, Race, Sports and Black Unity, 162-163, quoted in Cruz, 17. 320 Mary Grace Paquette, Basques to Bakersfield (Bakersfield, CA: Kern County Historical Society, 1982), 93.

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employed in aircraft factories throughout California.321 It is likely that this vocational training program was an influential factor in Lockheed/Vega’s decision to open the plant in Bakersfield.

Regardless, the educators had powerful alliances with the manufacturers. By 1944, Vultee was providing an actual dive-bomber, the Vultee Vengeance, for the Advanced Aviation Mechanics class to work on. These classes took place at a hangar at the Kern County Airport leased by the school district. However, not all aviation mechanics classes were located off campus; an army liaison plane, a Taylor Craft L-2A, was housed in the Mechanical Arts Building (14th and F streets) where boys learned repairs and maintenance.

Criteria NRHP: A, B CRHR: 1, 2 BRHP: a, b, e Eligibility Standards
 Dates from the period 1941-1945
 Is an excellent, rare, or unique example of civic/institutional development from the wartime period in Bakersfield
 May also be associated with a person that played an important role in the history and development of Bakersfield during this period
 May also be associated with an important ethnic or cultural group in Bakersfield during this period, such as the local Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, Basque, Italian, Mexican, or African American community
 Retains sufficient integrity to convey its significance from the historic period  Properties with regional or national significance, or with exceptionally good integrity from the historic period, may be eligible for listing in the California and/or National Register.

Integrity Threshold
An eligible property under this theme should retain integrity of location, design, materials, feeling and association.

THEME: Wartime Commercial Development
Currently, there is little evidence that there was significant commercial development in the city during the World War II period. A review of The Bakersfield Californian suggests that the city’s prewar commercial development was sufficient to sustain the community during a period characterized by shortages and rationing. In other smaller communities, such as nearby Tehachapi, some commercial development did occur.

Criteria NRHP: A, B CRHR: 1, 2 BRHP: a, b, e

321 “Airplane Work is Lauded By Boys From KCUHS,” The Bakersfield Californian, March 18, 1941, 8.

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Eligibility Standards
 Dates from the period 1941-1945
 Is an excellent, rare, or unique example of commercial development from the wartime period in Bakersfield
 May be a rare remaining example of auto-related commercial development from the period, particularly along Union Avenue
 May also be associated with a person that played an important role in the history and development of Bakersfield during this period
 May also be associated with an important ethnic or cultural group in Bakersfield during this period, such as the local Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, Basque, Italian, Mexican, or African American community
 Retains sufficient integrity to convey its significance from the historic period  Properties with regional or national significance, or with exceptionally good integrity from the historic period, may be eligible for listing in the California and/or National Register.

Integrity Threshold
An eligible property under this theme should retain integrity of location, design, materials, feeling and association. Modernization of retail storefronts may be acceptable if they remain intact from this period.

THEME: Wartime Industrial Development
In addition to the location of major defense companies like Lockheed/Vega, the Kern County Chamber of Commerce organized an industrial council. In 1941, a plan by San Jose-based Harrison B. Judd attempted to organize and pool small industrial shops’ skills and facilities for defense production. Judd conducted a survey, the purpose of which was to determine how small manufacturing facilities could be combined to offer competitive bids for defense contracts. It is currently unknown which, if any Bakersfield industrial organizations participated or how successful this plan may have been.

Criteria NRHP: A, B CRHR: 1, 2 BRHP: a, b, e Eligibility Standards
 Dates from the period 1941-1945
 Is an excellent, rare, or unique example of industrial development from the wartime period in Bakersfield
 May be associated with an important industry in Bakersfield from the period, particularly defense-related and other wartime industries

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 May be a substantial feature of a larger municipal or regional infrastructural system, such as water, power, or transportation (automobile)
 May also be associated with a person that played an important role in the history and development of Bakersfield during this period
 May also be associated with an important ethnic or cultural group in Bakersfield during this period, such as the local Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, Basque, Italian, Mexican, or African American community
 Retains sufficient integrity to convey its significance from the historic period  A geographically concentrated grouping of intact industrial development from the period may be eligible as a historic district
 Properties with regional or national significance, or with exceptionally good integrity from the historic period, may be eligible for listing in the California and/or National Register.

Integrity Threshold
An eligible property under this theme should retain integrity of location, design, materials, feeling and association.

THEME: Wartime Residential Development
As with many cities, residential development in Bakersfield ground to a virtual standstill during World War II. Existing housing stock was sufficient to support the small increases in population described above. What was not sufficient, however, was housing for war workers who came to Bakersfield and Kern County during the period.

Adelante Vista under construction, c. 1942. (Housing Authority of the County of Kern) as shown in Donato Cruz, “‘America’s Newest City:’ 1950s Bakersfield and the Making of the Modern Suburban Segregated Landscape.”

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The Housing Authority of the County of Kern was founded to supply temporary housing to people who relocated to the area for temporary employment in the late 1930s.322 During the 1940s, construction focused on war worker housing. Projects included Santa Fe Homes [2617 B Street], which provided 50 housing units. Another, the Rio Vista Homes [517 Roberts Lane/McArthur Drive and Wainwright Drive], provided 60 units. Adelante Vista [1405 E.

California Avenue] provided 50 units and housed primarily African Americans.

Criteria NRHP: A, B CRHR: 1, 2 BRHP: a, b, e Eligibility Standards
 Dates from the period 1941-1945
 Is an excellent, rare, or unique example of single-family or multi-family residential development from the wartime period in Bakersfield
 May be an intact example of war worker housing in Bakersfield  May also be associated with a person that played an important role in the history and development of Bakersfield during this period
 May also be associated with an important ethnic or cultural group in Bakersfield during this period, such as the local Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, Basque, Italian, Mexican, or African American community
 Retains sufficient integrity to convey its significance from the historic period  Properties with regional or national significance, or with exceptionally good integrity from the historic period, may be eligible for listing in the California and/or National Register.

Integrity Threshold
An eligible property under this theme should retain integrity of location, design, materials, feeling and association.

322 Cruz, 69.

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POSTWAR PROSPERITY & EXPANSION, 1946-1952
As Bakersfield music began to evolve in the 1950s, so did the life of the established Okie. A strong economy…and the freewheeling honky-tonk narrative so common in West Coast country music—a reflection of a more confident and strongly defined Okie culture—was something postwar America was ready to embrace. The result was one of those rare confluences of people, place, and time, a melding of talent, opportunity and purpose that built Bakersfield into a city transformed by music.323
Robert E. Price, The Bakersfield Sound
The end of World War II signaled a period of long-awaited peace, prosperity, and optimism for the United States. In many ways, California was the symbolic and tangible benefactor of these ideals. Returning GIs flocked to the sunny state to start families and partake in the economic boom. However, no matter where they went they were met with a serious housing shortage.

The same was true in Bakersfield.

To help ease this crisis, the federal government established the 1944 Servicemen’s Readjustment Act, known as the “G.I. Bill.” The G.I. Bill provided residential mortgages to returning servicemen, administered by the Veterans Administration (VA), whose requirements closely paralleled the guidelines of the FHA program. The net result was that veterans could combine the two mortgage vehicles, thus eliminating the need for any down-payment. Also, in mid-1946, Congress passed the Veterans Emergency Housing Act (VEHA) that expedited the availability of housing for veterans by providing private industry subsidies for construction materials as a way of addressing materials shortages.

As a third strategy for kick-starting housing production, the FHA provided incentives for large- scale builders of residential subdivisions in the form of governmental credit and financial subsidies that made the construction of homes, not just the subdivision of land, more profitable. Thus, a new class of “merchant builders” was born that transformed California’s vacant land into suburban housing tracts for the everyman. Closer to home, in 1943 Kern County established the Postwar Planning Council to address the housing shortage and plan for growth on a local basis. However, its efficacy was likely limited as the Council was disbanded by the end of 1945.

California Way of Life
Peace, prosperity, and optimism fueled California’s architectural design even before the war ended. Architecture and design magazines, as well as popular media and newspapers, fueled consumer demand for the “California way of life.” Reliant upon the state’s temperate climate, architects evolved the ideas of modern design from before the war into a full-blown movement of Mid-Century Modernism. Inspired by Southern California’s aerospace industry, architects

323 Price, 27.

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incorporated new methods and materials into their projects, resulting in one of the most experimental periods of avant-garde architectural design.

Many of these projects received widespread acclaim in the national trade and popular media, thus reinforcing the promise and appeal of California living. One of the leading architectural trade magazines of the period, Arts + Architecture, sponsored the highly influential Case Study House Program to encourage experiments in American residential architecture. Founded by magazine editor John Entenza, the Program lasted from 1945 until 1966 and produced 36 residential designs and 26 built projects. Southern California’s most innovative and avant-garde architects were invited to design and construct a house that would be open for display to the public prior to being sold. Participating architects included Richard J. Neutra, Raphael Soriano, Craig Ellwood, Rodney Walker, J.R. Davidson, Jones and Emmons, and Charles and Ray Eames.

The designs were experienced in person by thousands of visitors, and by millions more through the art photography of Julius Shulman, transforming a number of these houses into popular icons of Modern Movement.

While the Case Study House Program was perhaps the most innovative of these programs, newspapers, magazines and construction products sponsored hundreds of smaller but similar showcase home projects. It was against this backdrop that veterans and their wives viewed the tract developments that sprang up in the former fields and citrus groves throughout California.

While the FHA and VA programs often restricted the use of some modern design elements— such as flat roofs—the large subdivisions of California Ranch homes often incorporated large expanses of glass, open plans, and other modern elements into their more traditional designs.

Still other architects turned to prefabrication ideas to solve the housing crisis. Cliff May and Chris Choate’s Ranch House Supply Corporation was one of the few architect-owned companies that was successful. By 1954, it was demonstrated that the houses could be erected by two carpenters and two laborers in one day.324
In 1949, Kern County reported that most of the 34 new subdivisions recorded with the County that year were in and around Bakersfield. Thus, the value of Bakersfield’s agricultural land was now clearly established: the new bumper crop would be houses.

Bakersfield Architects & the USC School
In addition to providing low/no cost home mortgage loans to veterans, the G.I. Bill also offered former servicemen the opportunity to continue their education. By providing generous tuition relief for college study, the G.I. Bill enabled hundreds of thousands of veterans to earn university degrees. Among them were scores of Kern County Union High School graduates who had studied architecture with Clarence Cullimore, Sr. An entire generation of former Cullimore students used the G.I. Bill to fund or continue with their architectural education.

Many of them turned to the USC School of Architecture, where they could now apply G.I. Bill funds to their tuition.

324 Katie Papineau, “The Carefree Californian: Cliff May Homes 1952-1958,” in Carefree California: Cliff May and the Romance of the Ranch House (NY, Rizzoli, 2012), 187.

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Even prior to World War II, USC had transformed its architecture curriculum from the traditional Beaux Arts style of education to one that embraced modern design and contemporary problem-solving. The Beaux Arts system was derived from the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris which involved copying Classical orders of columns, designing in Classical styles informed by the Greeks and Romans, and creating studio designs based on elaborate or fanciful projects, such as for the wealthy nobility. Prior to the war, USC Dean Arthur C. Weatherhead was one of the first to reform college curriculum, teach modern design, and anticipate real- world problems, such as low-income housing or the postwar house. With the arrival of Dean Arthur Gallion, the program abandoned any vestiges of the Beaux Arts and set about delivering a practical curriculum that would train the next generation of modern architects.

It was into this environment that a steady pipeline of talented Cullimore students marched.

Many of them excelled. They included Allan Choy, William Paynter, Loren Durr, Clifford Harding, Eugene Hougham, and Clarence Cullimore, Jr.325 At USC, they were trained in the ways of post-and-beam construction. In the summers and after graduation, they inevitably returned to Bakersfield where they were employed and mentored by local architects in practice, as the postwar housing shortage and building boom in Bakersfield meant there was plenty of work for local firms.

By late 1952, there would be even more work for local architects. Two major earthquakes hit the city, laying waste to its downtown, the majority of which had been built during the early boom years and thus was constructed of unreinforced masonry or hollow-clay tile. Many buildings that did not immediately fall down in the first tremor were so structurally compromised that they collapsed during the second one, or during one of a series of large aftershocks. All told, these events rendered hundreds of buildings throughout Bakersfield uninhabitable.

The Bakersfield Sound: A National Identity for the City Bakersfield is known to millions of Americans as the birthplace of country music’s “Bakersfield Sound.” As a result, the city’s nickname was “Nashville West.” Enabled by the Dust Bowl migration of Okies during the 1930s, the development of the Fender Telecaster guitar, and the continued hard-scrabble life of migrant workers and their descendants, the city produced a wave of distinctive country music that was twangier, sharper, and rawer than was being produced by the commercial treadmill of Nashville in the 1950s.326 The Sound was fostered both by Bakersfield natives, and some transplants, who found local inspiration and audiences for their music.

One of the most visible proponents of the Bakersfield Sound was Buck Owens (1929-2006).

Owens moved to Bakersfield in 1951, formed a band called the Buckaroos, and began performing in the city’s dozens of honky-tonks. Between 1963 and 1967, Owens had 19 No. 1 hit songs on the Billboard Country Chart. He also was a studio musician in Los Angeles, and he parlayed appearances on local Bakersfield television shows into appearing on the nationally

325 Clarence “Cully” Cullimore, Jr., had a successful career in Sacramento with the state architect’s office. He was chiefly known for helping to develop California’s State Historic Building Code. 326 Price, 14.

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syndicated show Hee Haw, and ultimately into his own Buck Owen’s Ranch Show. Early residences for Owens included 206 Harding Avenue and 204 Jones Street; during the late 1960s and mid-1970s he lived at 309 Panorama Drive.

Another Bakersfield Sound legend was Merle Haggard (1937-2016). Born in the nearby town of Oildale, Haggard had 38 No. 1 songs between 1966 and 1987. His hard edges were in part the result of a stint in San Quentin Prison after breaking into Fred & Gene’s Café [3317 State Road] in 1957. Like Owens, Haggard also performed in Bakersfield’s many honky-tonks. In fact, Haggard and his band, the Strangers, recorded with local label Talley Records before securing a contract with Capitol Records. The small house Haggard grew up in, later known as “Hag’s boxcar,” was originally situated about 250 feet from the Southern Pacific Railroad tracks; it now sits at the Kern County Museum. Haggard credited the house with being the influence for many of his classic songs.327 During the 1970s, Haggard lived at 18200 Highway 178.

Bakersfield enjoyed a lively club scene during the 1950s. The Blackboard [3603 Chester Avenue] was the most famous club, welcoming the many entertainers associated with the Bakersfield Sound. Opened by Joe Limi and Frank Zabaleta in 1949, The Blackboard featured a mirrored bar, jukebox, wooden dance floor, and shuffleboard table. Frequent performers included Tommy Collins, Fuzzy Owen, Lewis Talley, Billy Mize, Bonnie Owens, Jean Shepard, Wanda Jackson, Roy Nichols, and Red Simpson. The Blackboard closed in the late 1970s or early 1980s.

The Lucky Spot [2303 Edison Highway] was another one of the clubs where Merle Haggard entertained early in his career and “where the Bakersfield sound was forged.”328 The Clover Club [2611 Edison Highway], operated by Thurman Billings, was another one of the clubs along Edison Highway. Tex’s Barrel House [1524 Golden State Highway] took its name from a building at oil refineries that store refined oil awaiting transport. The Rainbow Gardens [2301 S.

Union Avenue], situated along the Highway 99 Tourist Corridor (see below) attracted out-of- town talent including Bob Wills and Lefty Frizzell, as well as locals like Ferlin Husky. Another important club was Trout’s [805 N. Chester Avenue].

Another important contributing factor to the popularity of the Bakersfield Sound and its associated singers, songwriters, and musicians was local television and radio stations. In the late 1940s, Herbert “Cousin Herb” Lester Henson started a live daily musical program on Bakersfield-based station KERO-TV known as Cousin Herb’s Trading Post. Another rival program was The Jimmy Thomason Show. Local radio station KUZZ Studios [406 Chester Avenue] broadcast country music, and specifically the Bakersfield Sound, beginning in 1960.

The radio station’s call letters, KIKK, were changed to KUZZ to play on the popularity of “Kuzzin Herb.”
A number of local record labels were created to foster the Bakersfield Sound. They included Mar-Vel, Grande, Kord, Global, Pike, Rose, Stereoscope, Super Sonic, Three-Star, Hillcrest, Bakersfield, and Talley Records. Talley Records Studio was originally established at 601 E. 18th Street by Lewis Talley and Charles Fuzzy Owen in 1954. Around 1955, Talley Records was

327 Price, 228.
328 Price, 231.

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located at 911 Baker Street. In 1957, Talley built a new recording studio his backyard at 419 Hazel Street.329 The Bakersfield Civic Auditorium [1001 Truxtun Avenue] was also an important site for the Bakersfield Sound. In 1963, Capitol Records recorded the Country Music Hootenanny live album, featuring Collins, Owens, Haggard, and many other local musicians.

Although Owens and Haggard are the most well-known musicians associated with the Bakersfield Sound, there were many others that played important roles in the movement. They include singer/songwriter Tommy Collins, singer Bonnie Owens, musician Red Simpson, entertainer Bill Woods, and musician Ferlin Husky, all of whom were Bakersfield residents.

Tommy Collins lived at 2600 21st Street.

Early Civic Unity Activism
Poverty in the neighborhoods around Bakersfield was linked to the substandard living conditions experienced by many farmworkers. The Kern County farmworker population of the late 1940s was multi-racial and included African American migrants from Texas, Arkansas, and Oklahoma, as well as whites, Mexicans, and Mexican Americans.330 During the immediate postwar years, the Kern Council for Civic Unity (KCCU) was formed to address civil rights in Bakersfield and beyond. The KCCU drew significantly on the larger efforts of the California Federation for Civic Unity (CFCU). In January 1950, CFCU leader Rabbi Sanford Rosen of Temple Beth El [2906 Loma Linda Drive] highlighted the difficulty of organizing the KCCU.

Another driving force against discrimination and segregation was the Greater Bakersfield Ministerial Association. Their key issue was to ban the display of discriminatory signage in restaurants and businesses. Led by Rev. Lynn Wood of the First Methodist Church, Rev. John Whiteneck, Jr. of the First Congregational Church, and the local NAACP chapter secretary Clara Howard, the association lobbied the City Council to pass Ordinance 860 on February 14, 1950. They lobbied for a similar practice with the Kern County Board of Supervisors. In addition to the Greater Bakersfield Ministerial Association, the NAACP was instrumental in instituting the ban. President H.H. Collins and Clara Howard lead the fight for that organization. Another important civil rights organization formed in Bakersfield during the late 1940s was the Mexican-American Community Service Organization (CSO).331 Expanded public housing was another key issue that mobilized urban civil rights groups in Bakersfield. In March 1953, a heated political battle emerged regarding the construction of the Oro Vista Housing Project. A local referendum—Measure 4, which sought to rezone areas for public housing—was defeated. While this did not affect the partnership between the Kern County Housing Authority and the City of Bakersfield, it did, however, delay the project.

329 Louie Talley also operated coffee shops around town, including the Louis Talley Café (2111 Edison Highway). These addresses are from the Price book on the Bakersfield Sound. No corroboration was found in local newspapers. 330 Oliver A. Rosales, “Civil Rights ‘Beyond the Fields,’” in Civil Rights and Beyond, ed. Brian D. Behnken (Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 2016), 44.
331 Although some sources credit Cesar Chavez with founding the Bakersfield chapter of the CSO, the Californian indicates the CSO was active in Bakersfield proper in 1955—before Chavez would have been associated with the organization.

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Sunset-Mayflower and the Lakewood Avenue Music Scene
During the late 1940s, the impoverished conditions of the Sunset-Mayflower district outside the city raised concerns in Bakersfield. Slum clearance efforts were reinstated after the war. On February 22, 1945, the Sunset-Mayflower Progressive Club was formed by the area’s African American residents, with Ben Fields as the founding President. The club’s purpose was to advocate for physical improvements to the area—such as sidewalks, streetlights, sewers, garbage pick-up, and other infrastructure. The Club also worked for annexation into the City of Bakersfield.332
By the mid-1940s, the district’s population was estimated at 3,500 residents, the majority of which were living in substandard housing conditions.333 Some families adaptively reused abandoned railroad cars for shelter. It was estimated that there were approximately 1,700 dwellings in the area, with 1,300 of them deemed substandard.334 Newspaper accounts suggested the boundaries of the area generally ran from E. California Avenue on the north, Brundage Lane on the south, the railroad tracks on the east, and Union Avenue on the west. In some accounts, the area included adjacent property belonging to the California Cotton Cooperative Association.335 In early 1951, annexation efforts were successful and Sunset- Mayflower became part of the city proper. The impact of the annexation can be seen by comparing the city’s 1950 and 1960 African Americans populations: 1,495 in 1950 and approximately 7,500 in 1966.336
That same year, Franklin H. Williams reported on the living conditions at Sunset-Mayflower for the NAACP magazine, The Crisis. Williams stated, “In all of my experience as an NAACP worker throughout the deep South, I have never seen conditions as dreadful and unsanitary, and depressing as those under which thousands of Negro migrant workers have to live on the outskirts of Bakersfield.”337 Williams indicated that there was no sanitation and no lighting in the area populated by approximately 10,000 Black residents.

A study of the 1950 U.S. Census for the Sunset-Mayflower neighborhood reveals that the majority of African American men were employed as farm laborers. Black women who worked were engaged primarily as domestic servants. However, the census reveals that many of those living in the area were unemployed.

Discussion of how to resolve the substandard housing conditions in Sunset-Mayflower were a hot topic of the mid-1950s. Some advocated for low-income housing projects such as the five- acre, 50-unit Adelante Vista project [1405 E. California Avenue], built in 1941 by the Kern County Housing Authority, and Rio Vista (517 Roberts Lane/McArthur Drive/Wainwright Drive) in 1942. Rio Vista was designed by Charles H. Biggar and Ernest L. McCoy. In 1953, the first 70 units of the Oro Vista Housing Project [1104 S. Robertson Street] opened its doors.

332 “Residents of Sunset-Mayflower Area Push Annexation Action,” The Bakersfield Californian, March 8, 1949, 20. 333 “City Planners Approve Two Annexation Proposals,” The Bakersfield Californian, March 10, 1949, 19. 334 “Rapid Rehab Work Said Remarkable,” The Bakersfield Californian, December 31, 1953, 40. 335 “Annexation Problems, Rezoning Bids Up Before City Planners,” The Bakersfield Californian, April 6, 1949, 21. 336 “Negro Youths Battle Police in Bakersfield,” Madera Tribune, May 1966, 2 337 Franklin H. Williams, “The Bakersfield Community,” The Crisis, vol. 58, no 4. (April 1951), 231-232, quoted in Cruz, 89.

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Concerns that application requirements were too high for area residents to meet, community advocates expressed outrage.

Another approach to quickly remediating the substandard housing in the area were plans to bring in surplus dwellings from the emergency houses built by the Public Housing Administration during World War II. Two different developers attempted this approach. The first attempt resulted in just three of the houses being established by Texas-based Bishop Brothers. The second attempt was met with resistance by the City’s planning department and local contractors because the homes did not meet Bakersfield’s building code. Although two sample houses were erected at E. Brundage Lane and Bliss Street in August 1954, they were rejected by Kern County Officials and ordered to be dismantled.

As previously discussed, the Bakersfield Sound dominated the city. However, a lesser known, but no less important set of venues within the Black community were the bars and music clubs that lined Lakewood Avenue (present-day S. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard) between East California Avenue and E. Brundage Lane. These clubs were part of the commercial district that served the Sunset-Mayflower district populated by African Americans.

Lakeview Avenue was the center of the Black community’s nightlife. The clubs attracted big- name African American performers from the Chitlin’ Circuit. The clubs included Mom’s Place [515 S. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard]; Delwood Café [619 S. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Boulevard]; Pastime Club [621 S. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard]; Ruby’s Place [625 S. Dr.

Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard]; the Blue Note Café [508 S. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Boulevard]; and the Cotton Club [624 S. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard]. Performers at these clubs included Little Richard, Fats Domino, B.B. King, Bobby Blue Bland, Etta James, the Platters, Johnny “Guitar” Watson, Nat King Cole, Wilson Pickett, Ike Turner, and others. By the early 1970s, the Lakeview clubs began to disappear. The Delwood Café was destroyed by fire.

The Lakewood area was also home to other Black-owned businesses including barbershops, liquor stores, service stations, and grocery stores, including Jerry’s Grocery [502 S. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard]. However, the period after the war proved to be one that limited the demand for Black farm labor. The U.S. government implemented the Bracero program, which allowed valley farmers to hire seasonal guest labor from Mexico. At the same time, mechanized cotton harvesters and chemical defoliants limited the role of humans in cotton harvesting. In 1958, mechanical cotton harvesters picked less than 40 percent of the cotton in the San Joaquin Valley. By the mid-1960s, almost no cotton was picked by hand, impacting the fortunes of the local African American community.338
Highway 99 Entertainment & Tourist Corridor
By 1952, a three-mile stretch of Union Avenue was home to 23 motels, 29 restaurants, and 44 gas stations or automotive repair shops. Many of these businesses had neon signs to attract

338 Michael Eissinger, “The Transplantation of African American and Cotton Culture to California’s Rural San Joaquin Valley During the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries,” presented at the 29th Annual Conference of the California Council for the Promotion of History, Monterey, California, October 22-24, 2009, 13.

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passing motorists that gave the area a “Vegas-like” feel. Some called it “The Broadway of Bakersfield.”339 The Highway 99 Tourist Corridor had its roots in early automobile culture.

During the 1920s, the automobile supplanted the railroad as the preferred means of vacation transportation. In the 1920s, the automobile was the leading consumer product in the country and by 1925 there was one automobile for every six Americans.340 The automobile and the freedom it represented touched the American spirit of individualism and exploration. The new “motor-tourist”—upper and middle-class alike— was lured by the promise of adventure and unencumbered by the routes and schedules of the railroad.

Beginning in the 1930s, a stretch of present-day Union Avenue between Ming and California avenues began developing as an entertainment and tourist corridor. At the time, Highway 99, the chief inland route between Northern and Southern California, ran along Union Avenue in Bakersfield, bringing a steady stream of tourists to the city.341 In 1930, Oscar and C.L. Tomerlin built the Bakersfield Inn [1100 Union Avenue], a lavish hotel in the style of a Spanish Villa. Over time, the Inn grew from 26 rooms to approximately 325 rooms—spanning both sides of Union Avenue and connected by the pedestrian bridge that was the first “Bakersfield” sign. The original sign was 130 feet long and weighed 30 tons.342 The Highway 99 Entertainment and Tourist Corridor was at its pinnacle by mid-century. Other motels along Union Avenue included the mid-1950s El Adobe Motel [251 S. Union Avenue], which later became the Hacienda Motel, a sister operation to the Hacienda Hotel in Las Vegas

339 Price, 55-56.
340 “Transportation—General 1923-28: Automobiles and the Highways,” Calvin Coolidge Papers, American Memory Collection, Library of Congress.
341 In 1963, Highway 99 was officially rerouted two miles west of Union Avenue as a freeway, bypassing the corridor. 342 Price, 55-56.

Bakersfield Inn postcard, c. 1952. (Online Archive of California)

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and Hacienda Motels in Fresno and Indio.343 By 1968, the Hacienda was joined by the Desert Star Motel [516 S. Union Avenue]; the El Don Motel [800 S. Union Avenue]; the Star-Liter Motel [900 S. Union Avenue]; the Sunland Motel [1000 S. Union Avenue]; the Eden Roc Inn Motel and Coffee Shop [1010 S. Union Avenue]; the Fairgrounds Motel [1102 S. Union Avenue]; the Sunset Motel [1108 S. Union Avenue]; Motelodge [1219 S. Union Avenue]; the Palms Motel & Cocktail Lounge [1338 S. Union Avenue]; the Ritz-El Motel, Coffee Shop and Service Station [1501 S. Union Avenue]; Hi-Way Motel [1635 S. Union Avenue]; the Fryer’s Motel [110 Truxtun Avenue/1641 Union Avenue]; and the Globe Motel [1701 S. Union Avenue].

Among the Union Avenue nightclubs was the Rainbow Gardens (mentioned above). Many of these clubs attracted entertainers and acts from Los Angeles or Las Vegas, and Bakersfield developed a reputation as a good place to try out new material or polish a set before going out on the road. Union Avenue was also home to what was considered the finest restaurant in the city: Maison Jaussaud French Restaurant and Nite Club [1001 S. Union Avenue]. It was built in 1949 by Dermide Jaussaud and was in continuous operation until it was sold in the mid-1980s.

The restaurant was also famous for having hosted the Shah of Iran for lunch during the mid- 1970s.344
Other hot spots along Union Avenue included the Saddle and Sirloin [101 S. Union Avenue], and the Crystal Inn near S. Union and Planz Road. These classic fine-dining restaurants served traditional American food and entertainment by a piano player or small combo. Union Avenue’s

343 For more on the El Adobe, read Gilbert Gia’s “El Adobe and Crystal Inn Nightclubs, 1936, 1958 (v.6),” 2014, Historic Bakersfield and Kern County, https://www.historicbakersfieldandkerncounty.com/_files/ugd/caae83_a805a9506fca4b198f5ebc689392a11a. pdf (accessed January 23, 1023).
344 “Wednesday Bako Bits: a trip down memory lane with Maison Jaussaud, Saddle and Sirloin and that time when the Shah of Iran stopped by for some food and libation,” Bakersfield Observed, April 24, 2017.

Fryer’s Motel postcard, no date. (Card Cow)

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association with vacationers traveling by automobile also meant that it was a popular area for drive-in restaurants.

In 2010, a Historic Resource Evaluation Report for the Relinquishment of State Route 204, four roadway bridges were identified as possessing historic value illustrating the evolution of road and bridge engineering and construction: the Union Avenue Underpass Bridge (Bridge No. 50- 0004), the Kern River Canal Bridge (Bridge No. 50-0033), the Stine Canal Bridge (Bridge No. 50- 0208), and the Calloway Canal Bridge (Bridge No. 50-0209).345 East Bakersfield
The Basque community benefited from postwar prosperity as well. Leo Narducci and Lino Tessandori built a market [1322 Kentucky Street] in 1948. In 1950, they sold it to Gino and Tony Ceccarelli and it became known as Gino and Tony’s. By now, all of Robinson Street was filled with Italian families with homes that had large gardens and numerous animals. New social organizations were formed in Bakersfield’s Latino community, including Acción Católica Mexicana, a young men’s group, and the Juventud Católica Feminina Mexicana (JCFM), for young women.346 The Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic parish was also quite active in the community in organizing social and sporting activities. As was the case in many California communities, Bakersfield’s Japanese community dispersed after their incarceration. By the 1960 Census, just 144 Japanese lived in Bakersfield.

345 All four of these bridges were determined eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Place as contributing elements of State Route 204. Chris Brewer, California Department of Transportation, District 6, Historic Resource Evaluation Report for the Relinquishment of State Route 204, August 2010, 10, 16. 346 The Bakersfield Californian documents the “Juventud Católica Feminina Mexicana” in its pages; the organization was often referred to as “J.C.F.M.”
Maison Jaussaud restaurant sign, no date. (Bakersfield Observed)

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Like so many southern and central California cities, Bakersfield was poised to propel itself into a period of postwar growth. Still fueled by the dual industries of oil and agriculture, and now poised to annex in new tracts of land on its periphery, Bakersfield was positioned to advance its status as the “Queen of the San Joaquin”. However, Mother Nature had other plans, as a powerful earthquake would soon rock the city, changing the trajectory of its postwar growth in a unique way—one that would distinguish Bakersfield from many other California communities.

THEMES
THEME: Postwar Civic/Institutional Development
Bakersfield’s postwar population growth and expansion were bound to lead to the need for new civic and institutional buildings. During these early postwar years, however, the city continued to be served by the buildings that had served the community for decades. While plans for expansion of existing structures and new ones to serve the rapidly growing eastern end of the city were likely on the boards, it took the earthquake of 1952 for city and county leaders to re- envision what the civic center of downtown required. In the meantime, small projects proceeded as restrictions on building materials eased.

By January of 1941, the need for secondary education for returning Bakersfield servicemen was acute. Plans were to expand the two-year Bakersfield Junior College program on the campus of Bakersfield High School to a four-year program. Initially, the intention was to build a new high school on a 37-acre site at 4th and P streets and absorb the existing high school for use by the college.347 By August 1946, enrollment in the Junior College was 1,100 students—the largest in the institution’s history.348
Plans for expanding East Bakersfield High School were also in play by 1947. By 1948, East Bakersfield High School enrollment reached 1,200 pupils while Bakersfield High School enrollment topped 3,800 students.349 By 1949, the school district acknowledged its anticipation of continued growth of the junior college, and began to rethink options for how best to utilize the its various school facilities and school funds to serve an ever-growing student population with increasingly varied education needs.

Around 1951, two of Bakersfield’s Black physicians built a medical clinic [234 Baker Street]. Dr.

Ernest W. Williams, Jr., M.D. had been a front-line surgeon during World War II. In 1947, he came to Bakersfield to build a practice. In 1949, he advertised in a Bay Area professional journal for a partner in medicine. Dr. Homer Myles answered the call, and for many years was the only African American dentist between Los Angeles and San Francisco.350 Criteria NRHP: A, B CRHR: 1, 2 BRHP: a, b, e

347 “School Growth Program Told,” The Bakersfield Californian, January 1, 1946, 8. 348 “Returning Veterans Swell Student Registration at High School, College” The Bakersfield Californian, August 22, 1946, 8. 349 “Rush Back to School Greatest in History,” The Bakersfield Californian, September 7, 1948, 15. 350 Gia, Race, Sports and Black Unity, 197.

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Eligibility Standards
 Dates from the period 1946-1952
 Is an excellent, rare, or unique example of civic/institutional development from the postwar period in Bakersfield
 May be associated with the burgeoning local music scene and the development of the Bakersfield Sound
 May also be associated with a person that played an important role in the history and development of Bakersfield during this period
 May also be associated with an important ethnic or cultural group in Bakersfield during this period, such as the local Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, Basque, Italian, Mexican, or African American community
 Retains sufficient integrity to convey its significance from the historic period  Properties with regional or national significance, or with exceptionally good integrity from the historic period, may be eligible for listing in the California and/or National Register.

Integrity Threshold
An eligible property under this theme should retain integrity of location, design, materials, feeling and association.

THEME: Postwar Commercial Development
The modernization of storefronts and façades downtown continued during the early postwar period. Also during this period, downtown got two new dedicated department store buildings.

J.C. Penney [1504-10 19th Street/1901 Chester Avenue] built a 4-story building at the northwest corner of 19th St and Chester Ave in 1947, designed in the Streamline Moderne by Harold S. Johnson. A new F.W. Woolworth Co. department store building [1400 19th Street], was constructed in 1950, also designed in the Streamline Moderne style.351 This was the third commercial building at the northwest corner of 19th and K streets to contain a Woolworth’s store. In East Bakersfield, the Tejon Theater [1200 Baker Street] opened on June 17, 1947. In addition to the movie theater, there were four attached storefronts designed by Charles H.

Biggar, C.B. Alford, and William J. Thomas two years prior.352 In addition to building new commercial buildings, some merchants expanded and upgraded their existing stores. After World War II, Bennie Shapiro (retired from being a merchant, now living in Los Angeles) turned Bakersfield developer. In 1945, he engaged Charles H. Biggar to design a commercial store [1122 19th Street]. The new Shaprio’s Department Store opened in

351 This property was listed on the Bakersfield Register of Historic Places in 2022. 352 “Opening Tuesday for Tejon Theater,” The Bakersfield Californian, June 16, 1947, 12.

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April of 1948. In 1950, Shapiro also built restaurant space for the Clock Café [1717 Chester Avenue].353
The large new postwar residential subdivisions required supportive commercial development that typically took the form of suburban shopping centers. A prime example of this was the Westchester Village Shopping Center (F Street between 30th Street and Golden State Frontage Avenue). Houchin Development Company developed the large shopping center with a department store, drug store, furniture stores, ladies’ apparel, men’s and boys’ stores, restaurants, a service station, and other suburban shops.

On April 14, 1951, Hillcrest Shopping Center opened its doors with 16 businesses. Developed by Col. Howard Nichols, it served the nearby Hillcrest residential development. With its slogan, “Parking is always a pleasure,” it embodied the move toward suburban shopping destinations in the postwar period.354 By 1955, Hillcrest had doubled the number of businesses serving the community and now included men’s and women’s clothing stores, hardware store, radio and appliance store, Tot-to-Teen shop, supermarket, jewelry store, Laundromat and malt shop.355 Criteria NRHP: A, B CRHR: 1, 2 BRHP: a, b, e Eligibility Standards
 Dates from the period 1946-1952

353 “Veteran Restaurateur Reveals Opening of New Establishment,” The Bakersfield Californian, March 4, 1950, 3. 354 “Hillcrest Center Celebrating Its Fourth Birthday,” The Bakersfield Californian, March 29, 1955, 20. 355 “Hillcrest Center.”
19th Avenue looking west from K Street with F.W. Woolworth’s at right, c. 1950. (Kern County Museum)

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 Is an excellent, rare, or unique example of commercial development from the postwar period in Bakersfield
 May be a rare remaining example of auto-related commercial development from the period, particularly along Union Avenue
 May be associated with the burgeoning local music scene and the development of the Bakersfield Sound
 May also be associated with a person that played an important role in the history and development of Bakersfield during this period
 May also be associated with an important ethnic or cultural group in Bakersfield during this period, such as the local Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, Basque, Italian, Mexican, or African American community
 Retains sufficient integrity to convey its significance from the historic period  A geographically concentrated grouping of intact commercial development from the period may be eligible as a historic district
 Properties with regional or national significance, or with exceptionally good integrity from the historic period, may be eligible for listing in the California and/or National Register.

Integrity Threshold
An eligible property under this theme should retain integrity of location, design, materials, feeling and association. Modernization of retail storefronts may be acceptable if they remain intact from this period.

THEME: Postwar Industrial Development
During the period after World War II, Kern County leaders and members of the Bakersfield Chamber of Commerce developed a campaign to lure more industrial development to Bakersfield. California’s growing population suggested that demand for industrially-produced products would increase. Companies were beginning to recognize that the west would be an important new market in the late 20th century.

Despite Bakersfield’s proximity to the railroad, city fathers quickly identified that it would be difficult to find industrial development sites in the city with all of the modern facilities that businesses would require. One area that was identified for new industrial development was the Mt. Vernon area, just east of the California Cotton-Cooperative plant. Over time, the district has grown to be bounded by Virginia Avenue to the north, just south of present-day Highway 58 to the south, Oswell Street to the east, and present-day Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Boulevard to the west.

Among the industrial facilities located in this general area, the Kurth Battery Company was an example of the approximately 100 Kern County industries that employed 20 persons or less.356

356 “Kern Produces More Than Spuds, Battery Firm Says,” The Bakersfield Californian, May 11, 1950, 22.

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Until the Chamber of Commerce developed a coordinated and cohesive campaign to attract industrial development, the manufacturing facilities in the city were mostly small and light industrial. The real estate pages of The Bakersfield Californian also offered suggestions for locations for industrial facilities including along the Fruitvale and Rosedale highways.

Criteria NRHP: A, B CRHR: 1, 2 BRHP: a, b, e Eligibility Standards
 Dates from the period 1946-1952
 Is an excellent, rare, or unique example of industrial development from the postwar period in Bakersfield
 May be associated with an important industry in Bakersfield from the period, such as agriculture, or oil and gas
 May be a substantial feature of a larger municipal or regional infrastructural system, such as water, power, or transportation (automobile)
 May also be associated with a person that played an important role in the history and development of Bakersfield during this period
 May also be associated with an important ethnic or cultural group in Bakersfield during this period, such as the local Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, Basque, Italian, Mexican, or African American community
 Retains sufficient integrity to convey its significance from the historic period  A geographically concentrated grouping of intact industrial development from the period may be eligible as a historic district
 Properties with regional or national significance, or with exceptionally good integrity from the historic period, may be eligible for listing in the California and/or National Register.

Integrity Threshold
An eligible property under this theme should retain integrity of location, design, materials, feeling and association.

THEME: Postwar Residential Development
To address the housing shortage in the Bakersfield area, developers turned to agricultural land outside the city center, and even beyond city limits. This pattern in turn led to a series of annexation movements. In addition to the lack of available land within the city’s existing boundaries, building outside Bakersfield proper allowed developers to avoid compliance with city ordinances regulating new construction. According to Postwar Housing Tracts Within the Greater Bakersfield Area, 1945-1973, “the development pattern of postwar subdivisions in the

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greater Bakersfield area shows concentric rings around the pre-war Bakersfield city limits for each decade of the postwar period.”357
Among the many young couples that came to Bakersfield during the postwar period were George and Barbara Bush. In 1949, George Bush was employed as an oilfield salesman by Dresser Industries. He and wife Barbara rented a house at 2101 Monterey Street; they stayed just three months. While the Bush’s residency in Bakersfield was short-lived, many others were coming to stay, work, and raise families. Thus was the intense need for houses that were quick to build and affordable to the average working American. By the mid-1950s, new residential development in the greater Bakersfield area was primarily concentrated northeast and southeast of the city center.

Figure 4. Tract Housing Developments 1945-1952
Development Subdivider Architect Date
Subdivided
Date Built
Out
Westchester Houchin & Bradford (C.

Elmer Houchin and
George L. Bradford)
Possibly Wilson Call;
worked with Gannon
Construction Co.
1945 1948-c. 1964
Gannon Gardens
No. 1 and No. 2
Ralph Smith Company
(Ralph L. Smith)
Attributed to Wilson
Call
1949-1950 1950
Hillcrest Howard Nichols 1948-1958 1948-c. 1955
Washington Park James Leslie Dandy Possibly Wilson Call 1949 1950-c. 1951 Rancho Vista Roland Curran and
Hugh Curran
Hugh Curran/
Mobilhome
1950 1950-c. 1956
Planz Park Rex Whittemore Harold J. Bissner, AIA;
E.R. Kufus
1950-1953 1953-c. 1959
Kavalier Court
Homes
Kavalier Development
Corporation
Robert Eddy c. 1952 c. 1952
Crestline Homes MVM Construction
(Floyd Ming)
Cliff May/Chris Choate 1952 c. 1953
Source: Key Postwar Housing Tracts Within the Greater Bakersfield Area, 1945-1973, supplemented by original research in The Bakersfield Californian.

One of the earliest suburban residential tracts developed in Bakersfield was Westchester, bordered by the Southern Pacific Railroad to the north, 24th and H streets to the south and east, and the Stine Canal to the west. Developed by Houchin & Bradford (a partnership between C. Elmer Houchin and George L. Bradford), the plans included 750 houses and an adjacent retail/commercial center. The developers’ plans were subject to serious delays due to shortages of building materials in the postwar period. During the delay, the two partners dissolved their initial partnership and formed the Westchester Development Corporation, which was the subdivider of record. Comprised of irregularly-shaped tracts with curvilinear street patterns, Westchester became developed with two- and three-bedroom Ranch-style homes that met the FHA and VA loan requirements. Gannon Construction Company were the

357JRP Historical Consulting, 17.

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builders.358 Westchester had restrictive covenants, and as a result became one of the more desirable postwar tracts. In 1949, the Houchin Development Corporation was formed for 60 additional acres that would become the commercial center.359 Westchester also offered options for more customized homes. Houchin recruited high-end Los Angeles-based builder Lewis Stoner to construct 24 such houses that could compete in quality with nearby custom homes.360 Another builder, Ken Mynatt, offered “custom” homes in Westchester, marketed as “Farmaire” homes, which were scattered around the development.

There were also several of the “rustic farm-type homes” erected, including at 2529 Alder Street and 2480 Beech Street.361 Mynatt also built Farmaire homes in other tracts. By 1950, more than 500 homes had been constructed.362
Additional early residential tracts were Gannon Gardens No. 1 and Gannon Gardens No. 2.

Ralph L. Smith, Jr. subdivided the land and partnered with local contractors Joseph and William Gannon, of Gannon Construction Co., to build the homes. Gannon Gardens No. 1 was a 20-acre, 83-lot tract fronted on Brundage Lane just east of Oak Street, and bounded to the north by Bank Street. Gannon Gardens No. 2. consisted of 189 lots on Oak Lane bordered by Palm Street to the north, Real Road to the west, and included several lots south of Bank Street along Western, Wetherley, and Oakdale drives. Both Gannon Gardens tracts were designed with alleys and vehicular access at the rear of the lots. The houses themselves, attributed to architect Wilson Call, were designed in the Minimal Traditional style, with simple rectangular footprints and pitched side-gabled roofs.363
The Hillcrest development was subdivided at the end of the 1940s and included 530 residential lots. The area was developed by Harold Nichols, who appears to have applied a different approach from most tract developers during the period. Rather than building a series of replicated designs, Nichols built a series of individual showcase homes, to bring the public to the neighborhood and inspire the desire for the newest in home design. In Fall of 1948, Nichols built a model home [1728 Locust Ravine]. The following year, Nichols held a contest between three model homes built by local contractors: the “Hillburn” (by Johnson & Johnson, [2708 Hillburn Road], the “Windsor” [1601 Crestmont Drive], and the Ranch-style “Crestview” by Willard K. Michael [1628 Country Club Drive]. In 1949, Nichols constructed his own home in Hillcrest [1737 Crestmont Drive], designed by his nephew, architect Edwin Shomate.

In 1950, Nichols built a Modern-style home [3205 Monterey Street] for U.S. Marine Sergeant Edward Szmurlo, which he promoted heavily as part of his sales strategy for Hillcrest. This was likely one of his “ModernArt” homes, which were available with a 2-bedroom or 3-bedroom plan. Two other models were erected at 3233 Monterey Street and 3213 Monterey Street.

358 It is unclear if Wilson Call’s designs for the Gannon Construction Company were used here. 359 JRP Historical Consulting, 40.
360 JRP Historical Consulting, 42.
361 Classified advertisement, The Bakersfield Californian, October 5, 1951, 36; Classified advertisement, The Bakersfield Californian, August 13, 1951, 26.
362 JRP Historical Consulting, 32.
363 The Wilson Call collection housed at CSUB has not been catalogued. However, a Wilson Call project list indicates that Call “designed 1,400 houses for Gannon Construction between 1949 and 1952,” suggesting that Gannon Gardens may have been among them.

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The Washington Park tract was a development by the longtime Bakersfield developer and realtor J.L. Dandy. Prior to World War II, Dandy constructed hundreds of custom and tract “Dandy Homes” in Los Angeles, Fresno, Redlands, and Bakersfield. The Washington Park development (Tract 1492) was unique in Bakersfield because Dandy purchased the land from the original owners/subdividers in 1949 and removed the restrictive covenants so that Blacks and Latinos could purchase homes there.364 Washington Park is believed to be one of the first postwar housing subdivisions in the metropolitan area where buyers of color were welcomed.

Rancho Vista is also unique among Bakersfield tract home developments. It was developed by Roland Curran, and was composed primarily of prefabricated houses built by his brother Hugh Curran’s Mobilhome Corporation. Hugh’s military background in prefabricated buildings inspired the idea of building a complete house in a factory setting and then trucking it to the lot.365 Houses could be completed in 10-12 days. Roland, responsible for the marketing of the subdivision, also offered lots for sale to those who wanted to build their own homes. The Mobilhome houses could be financed through the G.I. Bill, and as a result, in 1949 veterans could purchase a three-bedroom home for as little as $43 per month.366 Rancho Vista consisted of 148 lots fronting on the south side of Stockdale Highway (just east of Stine Canal), bounded by Stine Road, Quarter Avenue, and McDonald Way, and including portions of Curran, Griffiths, Jones, and Marsha streets, and Peckham Avenue.367
One of the larger residential developments from this period was Planz Ranch. Developed by Rex Whittemore in 1950 on the former Planz Ranch property, this subdivision anticipated some 680 homes, with 16 lots fronting on S. Chester Avenue reserved for commercial development.

As president of the Fremont Development Corporation, Whittemore offered Ranch-style homes in 34 different designs. Most of these homes were designed by Pasadena-based architect Harold J. Bissner, AIA. They included two- and three-bedroom options in a variety of square footages and plans. In March of 1954, however, the subdivision’s final phase of 300 houses were under construction at the southeast and northeast corners of Planz Park. This phase of development had eight housing types, with designs by E.R. Kufus of Hawthorne, California. Kavalier Court was a small development of 22 luxury homes designed by Robert Eddy, AIA in the Modern Ranch style. The development was unusual for its exceptionally broad lots, measuring between 60 and 90 feet wide, and for the fact that no two home designs were exactly the same.

Crestline Homes was a series of two- and three-bedroom homes developed and built by Lloyd Ming’s company, MVM Construction in 1953. The partners were Ming and Leo C. Veale.

Located at the northwest intersection of Mount Vernon Avenue and Bernard Street, the homes were designed by notable architects Cliff May and Chris Choate as part of their postwar tract home business, Ranch House Supply Corporation. The intent was to build a total of 74 homes.368 Three different models were available and constructed for public inspection by early

364 JRP Historical Consulting, 29.
365 “Assembly-Line Houses Hit the Road,” Popular Science, June 1949, 113-118. 366 JRP Historical Consulting, 52.
367 The Rancho Vista Tract was determined eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Place in 2013. 368 Cliff May Papers, Architecture and Design Collection, Art, Design & Architecture Museum, University of California, Santa Barbara.

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June 1955, including at 1900 Bernard Street and 1908 Bernard Street.369 The Modern Ranch- style homes featured board-and-batten siding and floor-to-ceiling windows. They were advertised at a price range of $9,950 to $10,950 with FHA Terms available.370 According to correspondence in the Cliff May Archive at the University of California, Santa Barbara, Ranch House Supply Corporation was informed in 1953 that their designs would not qualify for FHA guaranteed loans. This may have negatively impacted MVM’s building of the homes. It is unclear how many of these Cliff May homes were ultimately constructed. However, based on photos, at least five of the homes were built, and Veale built one for himself [1912 Bernard Street].

Tract homes were not the only type of single-family homes constructed in Bakersfield after the war. Many custom homes were designed by local and out-of-town architects alike. Robert Eddy developed quite a portfolio of Mid-Century Modern and Modern Ranch-style residential projects during the early 1950s. They included the 1950 John H. Maurer Residence [2308 Pine Street], the 1951 John Brock Residence [2300 Pine Street], and the 1952 John A. Bidart Residence [137 Panorama Drive]. All of these designs reflected Eddy’s post-and-beam educational training. Former Cullimore student Eugene Kinn Choy also designed several residential projects through his Bakersfield connections, including the Ralph Smith Residence [275 Panorama Drive]. Among the out-of-town architects working on residences in the city was Raphael A. Nicolias of Beverly Hills. Nicolias designed the Ralph Bohne Residence [910 Park Drive/now 920 Park Drive] in 1950, which was unusual for its brick construction.

After the war, many builders created showcase homes to show the public the benefits of new technologies, new materials, or new ideas in design. In the late 1940s, Roy H. Anderson began experimenting with poured pumice and steel. He completed his first experimental house in 1949 [127 Spruce Street], and a second one in 1950 [206 Spruce Street]. The houses were marketed as inexpensive to construct, providing good insulation and acoustics, and fireproof.

They were known as “Anderson Monolithic Structures.”371 While private developers were subdividing new residential tracts on the perimeter of the city, the Kern County Housing Authority was expanding the city’s stock of public housing units, constructing the first phase of the Oro Vista Housing Project.

Criteria NRHP: A, B CRHR: 1, 2 BRHP: a, b, e Eligibility Standards
 Dates from the period 1946-1952
 Is an excellent, rare, or unique example of single-family or multi-family residential development from the postwar period in Bakersfield
 May be an intact example of public housing in Bakersfield from the period  May be associated with the burgeoning local music scene and the development of the

369 Letter from Leo Veale to Chris Choate and Cliff May, May 29, 1955, Cliff May Papers. 370 Classified advertisement, “See Crestline Homes Designed By Cliff May,” The Bakersfield Californian, July 25, 1953, 23. 371 “Inventor Anderson Pours House of Pumice, Concrete and Steel,” The Bakersfield Californian, March 19, 1949, 9.

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Bakersfield Sound
 May also be associated with a person that played an important role in the history and development of Bakersfield during this period
 May also be associated with an important ethnic or cultural group in Bakersfield during this period, such as the local Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, Basque, Italian, Mexican, or African American community
 Retains sufficient integrity to convey its significance from the historic period  A geographically concentrated grouping of intact residential development from the period may be eligible as a historic district
 Properties with regional or national significance, or with exceptionally good integrity from the historic period, may be eligible for listing in the California and/or National Register.

Integrity Threshold
An eligible property under this theme should retain integrity of location, design, materials, feeling and association.

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DISASTER, REBUILDING & EXPANSION, 1953-1974
A modern city requires a modern government…the community enjoys low insurance rates as a result of the outstanding police and fire protection provided and sanitation, sewage, public works, parks recreation and hundreds of services rendered by the city for the benefit of its citizens are likewise of the high caliber required to earn the distinction of “The Newest City in America.”372 Greater Bakersfield Chamber of
Commerce, 1956
I can think of no other city the size of Bakersfield in the United States that has as many fine examples of contemporary, well-planned architecture.373 William G. Belch, President, AIA,
Southern California
On July 21, 1952, a 7.5-magnitude earthquake struck in Tehachapi, some 40 miles southeast of Bakersfield. It did little damage in the city. However, on August 22, 1952 at 3:42 p.m., a magnitude 5.8 earthquake hit, with its epicenter in the City of Bakersfield. Fifteen people were killed and hundreds injured. Over the next month, powerful aftershocks measuring 5.0 or greater followed. Many buildings that survived but were damaged the initial quake fell prey to the subsequent temblors.

372 “Bakersfield, the Newest City in America,” Bakersfield Greater Chamber of Commerce, 1956, Earthquake Vertical File, Jack Maguire Local History Room, Beale Memorial Library, quoted in Cruz, 161. 373 “Bakersfield Architects Win Praise,” The Bakersfield Californian, July 21, 1955, 22.

Earthquake damage at 19th Street and Chester Avenue, 1952. (Kern County Museum)

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The earthquake resulted in $8,650,000 in damage.374 Some 400 commercial and civic/ institutional buildings were damaged, with 90 immediately reduced to rubble. The city’s schools were hit particularly hard as 193 classrooms were deemed no longer safe.375 No estimate was ever made of the damage to residences and apartment buildings, but it was extensive. Homes not bolted to their foundations were particularly vulnerable.376 The unsupported masonry crowns along the tops of office buildings came crashing down. According to Bakersfield historian John Arthur Maynard, “…the earth released the equivalent of two thousand atomic bombs.”377 All four faces of the Beale Memorial Clock Tower fell to the ground.

City fathers used the disaster as a catalyst for removing “eyesore” buildings and making over the tenderloin district.378 New public buildings were funded through local property taxes and a series of bond measures. Investment in the city reportedly topped $64,000,000.379 The sheer amount of destruction from the Bakersfield earthquake offered an opportunity to think about a uniform architectural style for the city. In September of 1952, a group of Los Angeles architects visited the city and raised the question. City Manager C. Leland Gunn met the comparison with Santa Barbara, which had imposed a Spanish Colonial Revival-style mandate after the earthquake there in 1925, by advocating for “good contemporary modern architecture.”380 Gunn argued for Modernist styles on several bases: that it provided good return on investment; that Bakersfield was a city of the present and future not of the past; and that modern architecture had been used in Bakersfield to wide acclaim.

By this time, a cadre of architecture students trained by Clarence Cullimore, Sr. had completed their college educations and returned to Bakersfield. After working in established local firms, the earthquake presented the opportunity to establish their own practices. Among them were Wright, Metcalf & Parsons, Alford & Thomas, and Eddy & Paynter.

Additionally, the population of Bakersfield increased substantially during the 1950s. The Bakersfield Californian estimated that the population increased by some 15,000 in the Bakersfield metropolitan area between 1952 and 1954 alone,381 a level of growth that helps explain the ensuing changes in the built environment in the city. Moreover, Bakersfield was a young city. By the 1960s, the city’s median age was 27, compared with 32.1 for the state as a whole during this period.382
In 1954, oil and agriculture were still alive and well in Kern County. There were 295 cotton farms which were producing a reported 390,000 bales of cotton annually.383 That same year, the

374 “Second Quake Anniversary Recalls Day of Death, Rebuilding Program,” The Bakersfield Californian, August 23, 1954, 26. 375 “How Bakersfield is Handling Its Triple-Earthquake Crisis,” American City, October 1952, 123, Earthquake Vertical File, Jack Maguire Local History Room, Beale Memorial Library, quoted in Cruz, 132. 376 Cruz, 132.
377 Maynard, 79.
378 “Second Quake Anniversary,” 26.
379 Cruz, 145.
380 “13 Architects Call for Stricter City Building Code Rulings, New Fees,” The Bakersfield Californian, September 19, 1952, 19. 381 “Second Quake Anniversary,” 26.
382 Maynard, 83.
383 “Bakersfield Part II: The Beacon, 1957,” 22, quoted in Cruz, 160.

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local oil industry produced 94 million barrels of crude—one third of California’s total production.384
Figure 5. Bakersfield Population Growth 1950-1970
Year Population Percentage Growth
1950 34,784 N/A
1960 56,848 63.4%
1970 69,515 22.3%
Source: U.S. Census
The Earthquake & the Dispersal of the Chinese Community The population of Bakersfield’s two Chinatowns had been dwindling since the 1920s. However, the earthquake was the final blow to these districts, as nearly all of the buildings were damaged or destroyed. Only the Ying On Association, Bin Kong Tong, and Let Sing Gong Temple were rebuilt (18th and R streets).385 The wreckage of the two Chinatowns, combined with greater levels of Americanization and English language fluency among its residents, resulted in the geographic dispersal of the local Chinese community throughout Bakersfield. Furthermore, there was no money within the community to rebuild.386 By the 1960 Census, there were only 455 Chinese living in Bakersfield.

It was also during this period that the community saw many new professionals among its ranks, including the city’s first Chinese American dentist, Leland Chow, who moved to Bakersfield in 1953; and the first Chinese American police officer, Galen Chow. Loraine Lee Choy and Laura Lee Leong were the first Asian American school teachers in Kern County, despite the longtime presence of a Chinese Students Club at Bakersfield High School.

Bakersfield College
After World War II, enrollment at Bakersfield College sky-rocketed, due in large part to the G.I.

Bill. In 1953, Alford & Thomas remodeled its building at California Avenue and F Street; however, it was soon recognized that the institution needed a campus of its own. Plans for moving Bakersfield College from the Kern County Union High School campus to its own site on the Panorama bluffs were already in motion when the earthquake hit. Planning and design of the new campus began in early 1952 by Wright, Metcalf & Parsons. By 1954, administrators approved the architect’s designs for the buildings.387 Classes were first held on the new Panorama campus in 1956.

Wright, Metcalf & Parsons’ design for the campus was a grid of campus buildings flanked by athletic facilities to the southeast. Mid-Century Modern in style, structures included the Administration Building, Science and Engineering Building, Science Building, Homemaking

384 “Bakersfield Part II,” quoted in Cruz, 160.
385 Boyd and Ming, 211.
386 Boyd and Ming, 218.
387 Cruz, 140.

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Building, Amphitheater, Trades and Industry Building, and Campus Center. Campus buildings extensively used architectural concrete as a cost-effective material, with each building having a low, horizontal profile. In 1974, J. Warren Wright of Wright, Metcalf & Parsons, designed an addition to the Bakersfield College Physical Education Building and Humanities Building.

California State College, Bakersfield
Back in 1959, the Greater Bakersfield Chamber of Commerce commissioned a study to advise on the need for an institution of higher learning beyond Bakersfield College.388 Yet, it wasn’t until 1965 that a California State Senate bill established California State College, Bakersfield (CSCB) [9001 Stockdale Highway].389 In August of 1965, the architectural firm of Victor Gruen & Associates as selected to design the campus.390 In the master-planning phase, Gruen narrowed down the potential sites to three locations; ultimately, Stockdale was selected for the new college campus. Located on the west side of the city, land for the campus was donated by Tenneco. Campus construction began in 1969. CSCB opened in the fall of 1970 with 900 students and 70 faculty members.391 The school offered five major areas of study: business and public administration, behavioral sciences, education, humanities, and natural science and mathematics.

Gruen & Associates designed the campus to have two unique features: the Academic Village and a “mall-type” development.392 The Academic Village was composed of 16 three-story residential buildings with 45 students per building—with an emphasis on integrating studies

388 Cruz, 168-9.
389 “State College Decision Time Nears,” The Bakersfield Californian, November 26, 1965, 9. 390 “History of California State University, Bakersfield,” California State University, Bakersfield, https://csub.libguides.com/ c.php?g=1052694&p=7643887 (accessed October 3, 2022 and January 19, 2023). 391 “Continued Success as Cal State Forecast,” The Bakersfield Californian, January 21, 1975, 32. 392 “History of California State University, Bakersfield.” California State College, Bakersfield, c. 1970. (CSUB)

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and campus life. The reference to “mall type” development for the academic facilities refers to Gruen’s deep roots in shopping mall planning. Victor Gruen himself had been a pioneer in shopping mall design in the mid-1950s and was responsible for the design of the first indoor, air-conditioned, shopping mall in America. His “mall-like” design for the college campus focused on attaching the initial buildings in a T-shaped configuration, rather than dispersing them as free-standing buildings across the land. The buildings were Late Modern in their architectural style.

By 1974, California State College, Bakersfield was one of the fastest-growing campuses in the state college system, with more than $10 million worth of projects under construction or on the drawing board.393 Included in the project list were a Student Health Center and $1.5 million addition to the library, both designed by the Bakersfield firm of Biggar, Frapwell, Ghezzi & Cartnal; a physical education building by Black & O’Dowd; Science Building II by Pakin Architects; a Cafeteria by Cody, Sheedy, Cody of Palm Springs; and a Fine Arts Building by Arendt, Moser & Grant.394 California State College, Bakersfield was later renamed California State University, Bakersfield.395
The Cold War
The 1950s and early 1960s were a period of “Cold War” between the United States and the Soviet Union. The nuclear arms race between the U.S. and U.S.S.R. motivated some to build bomb shelters for their protection. Bakersfield appears to have had an above-average number of home bomb shelters, possibly inspired by the Kern County’s Civil Defense Office, which began distributing literature and construction plans in 1960. The office even constructed a sample “Family Fallout Shelter” on the grounds of the Kern County Museum in June of 1960.

The construction of shelters—both above-ground and subterranean—appears to have peaked in 1961, although the exact number built is unknown.396
Civil Rights: In the Fields & Beyond
After the annexation of the Sunset-Mayflower area in 1953, Louisiana-born Henry H. Collins (1906-1972) became the first African American elected to the Bakersfield City Council, representing Ward 1. Collins appears to have come to Kern County after World War II. He was pastor at St. Paul’s Methodist Episcopal Mission [1092 Ralston Street, now 1216 Ralston Street]. While a member of City Council, Collins and his wife also lived on the church property in the Sunset-Mayflower neighborhood. In 1953, Collins was also president of the local chapter of the NAACP and was elected as a delegate to the statewide rally in 1955. He was re-elected to the City Council in 1957.

Historian Oliver A. Rosales describes that “while African American and Mexican American coalitions had begun around farmworkers’ rights and housing, the municipal anti-discrimination

393 “CSB Building, Plans Involve Eight Projects Worth $10 Million,” The Bakersfield Californian, December 24, 1974, 11-12. 394 Based on materials from the UCSB Smith and Williams Papers collection, it appears that Smith & Williams were engaged by the institution as well, although the precise nature of their contribution is unknown. 395 In 1988, California State College, Bakersfield was granted university status and incorporated into the CSU system as California State University, Bakersfield.
396 JRP Historical Consulting, 36.

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and fair employment movement in Bakersfield aroused the most important cross-ethnic activism of the period.”397 The NAACP and the Community Service Organization continued to advocate for civil rights issues after the earthquake. Although these organizations did not have purpose-built meeting spaces, both organizations frequently used the Veterans Hall [999 E.

California Avenue].

In 1957, Bakersfield attempted to model its Fair Employment Practices (FEP) ordinance on what other cities were doing. Mayor Frank Sullivan and City Councilman Henry Collins visited Oakland. After much heated discussion, a fair employment ordinance was enacted in Bakersfield in September of 1957. Housing discrimination and segregation continued to be problems into the 1960s. In August of, 1960, an African American family moved into the Hillcrest area of northeastern Bakersfield and was harassed by phone.

The struggle over fair housing re-engaged the civic unity movement in the early 1960s, once again led by Bakersfield’s progressive religious community. Like many cities, Bakersfield established an Intergroup Relations Board (IRB) in July of 1963 to advise the City Council and all matters promoting harmonious racial relations within the city limits. Reverend Julius Brooks, pastor of the Cain AME Church, was appointed chairman of the IRB.

In 1963, the Rumford Fair Housing Act was passed in California, mandating fair housing and the elimination of racial covenants and deed restrictions. One year later, Proposition 14 passed, overturning the Rumford Act. As in many other municipalities, civil rights and fair housing activists banded together to fight Proposition 14. When they lost the election, those activists remobilized in other groups. In this case, it was the Kern Council for Civic Unity (KCCU).

Founding KCCU members included Duane Belcher, a Bakersfield College faculty member; Art Shaw, the local NAACP chair; and Mel Brow, a War on Poverty activist and teacher. The organization’s concerns extended beyond fair housing to include education, employment, and fostering cross-race communications. In March 1965, the KCCU organized a protest in which several thousand people marched from the Cain AME Church to the Kern Civic Center in downtown Bakersfield. In 1966, the White Citizens Council was established in opposition. On January 18, 1966, they held a meeting in downtown Bakersfield at the El Tejon Hotel to publicize the group’s activities and distribute racist tracts. The White Citizens Council and the IRB and KCCU continued to butt heads throughout the mid-1960s.

On September 8, 1965, the Delano Grape Strike began when members of the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee demanded wages equal to the federal minimum wage. The following week, the National Farmworkers Association joined the strike, led by labor activists Cesar Chavez (1927-1993), Dolores Huerta (1930-), and Richard Chavez. The two groups would eventually merge, forming the United Farm Workers of America. The strike and boycott lasted five years.

In 1966, Black sanitation workers led by local Black radio host, James Mason, staged a strike demanding a 10 percent pay increase, overtime pay, and an end to racist policies. The strikers

397 Rosales, 48.

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prevented scabs from removing the public trash and after three days the City agreed to negotiated terms.398
The large Mexican American population in Bakersfield and Kern County resulted in a strong foothold for the Chicano Civil Rights Movement. Unlike previous, multi-racial coalitions, the Chicano Civil Rights movement encouraged Mexican Americans to embrace ethnic separatism and be proud of their Chicano heritage. The “Godfather of the Bakersfield Chicano Movement” was Raymond Gonzales (c. 1938-2018).399 Gonzales advocated for the Movement and was one of the first Chicano professors at Bakersfield College. He was an education advisor to Gov.

Jerry Brown. In 1972, he campaigned successfully to become Kern County’s first Latino Assemblyman. The movement was inspired in some ways by the Black Panthers movement among African Americans.

The number of Chinese in Bakersfield had been decreasing for many years. When the land on which the old Chinese Cemetery became valuable for postwar residential development, arrangements were made to relocate the remains to make way for the land’s redevelopment. In June of 1958, a monument was erected by the Bakersfield Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association at the east end of E. 6th Street at S. Tulare Street, adjacent to Union Cemetery.

The modern pagoda-like structure was designed by architect Alan Choy.400 Kern City: California’s First Retirement Community
Arizona building contractor Del E. Webb, of Del Webb Corporation, was a pioneer developer of senior “retirement communities.” His first venture, Sun City, opened in January 1961 just outside of Phoenix, Arizona. Shortly after Sun City opened, Webb turned to Bakersfield, where he developed a partnership with the Kern County Land Co. (later subsumed by Tenneco Incorporated) to design and develop a nearly identical community in the Central Valley, making it the first retirement community in California.401 The community was called “Kern City” (not to be confused with the term for East Bakersfield at the turn of the 20th century). Kern City was described as a “total planning” concept, a self-contained city for “active adults” of pre- retirement age with shared interests. At 600 acres, Kern City offered affordable home ownership with county club amenities and the conveniences of city living.402 On October 7th and 8th, 1961, Kern City opened to a throng of interest, with 55,000 people touring the community.403 The initial phase of development included 750 homes and apartments (primarily single-family residences). Sales were restricted to singles or couples over 50 years of age. Phase I also included an independent sewer system; a nine-hole golf course;

398 Alfred De Venado, “Black Power in Bakersfield: Sanitation Workers Strike,” The Movement 2, no. 11 (December 1966), 3; Dominique La Vigne, “Hidden History: the Man Who Led the 1966 Bakersfield Sanitation Workers’ Strike,” February 20, 2023, 23 ABC Bakersfield, https://www.turnto23.com/news/black-history-month/hidden-history-the-man-who-led-the-1966-bakersfield- sanitation-workers-strike (accessed April 28, 2023).
399 “Raymond Gonzales,” South Kern Sol, October 6, 2018, https://southkernsol.org/2018/10/06/raymond-gonzales-the-godfather- of-bakersfield-chicano-movement-remembered-as-a-community-hero/ (accessed November 1, 2022). 400 Gilbert Gia, “What Happened to Bakersfield’s Old Chinese Cemetery?,” 2009, 10, https://hcommons.org/deposits/item/hc:48643/ (accessed January 18, 2023).
401 JRP Historical Consulting, 66.
402 “Huge City to Rise in South For Retirants,” Los Angeles Times, December 17, 1961, I1. 403 “Huge City to Rise.”

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town hall with 700-person auditorium, kitchen facilities and club rooms; arts and craft center; pool and bath house; and shuffleboard, lawn bowling, and croquet areas.

The master plan for the community was drawn by Los Angeles-based Quinton Engineering and the local firm of Rickett, Reaves & Ward. The main entrance to Kern City was via Sundale Avenue, and the main communal buildings were located off this road. Single-family residences were located throughout the development with apartments situated along Sundale Avenue.

The residences were designed by local architects Eddy & Paynter, AIA. In 1963, the nine-hole golf course, designed by renowned golf course architect Arthur Jack Snyder, was enlarged to 18 holes.

Kern City was an instant success. Stockdale Development Corporation reported $1.2 million in sales just weeks after opening. A nationwide advertising campaign was launched in Life magazine and Reader’s Digest.404 Sales brochures featured 18 different “minimum care” Ranch- style models with subtypes such as Rustic and Storybook. Premiums were charged for garages and carports (one- or two-car), air conditioning, and fairway adjacent lots.405 By 1964, 448 homes had been built.406
In mid-1967, Kern City announced a change to its program: it would now allow custom homes to be built. By 1973, Kern City had 875 homes and approximately 1,200 residents. However, the community never reached the projections of 4,000 residents. Undeveloped portions of Kern

404 JRP Historical Consulting, 69.
405 JRP Historical Consulting, 71.
406 Jim M. Milligan, “California…Home of City Builders,” Mueller Record, December 1964, 14, quoted in JRP Historical Consulting, 71.

Advertisement for Kern City, October 6, 1961. (Los Angeles Times)

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City were ultimately sold off or developed as traditional residential tracts were not part of the retirement community.407
Freeway Construction
Although California State Route 178 (SR 178) was created as a result of a bond measure dating to 1919, the route would not be constructed to freeway standards until 1968, extending from downtown Bakersfield, through East Bakersfield to Haley Street. Over the years, there were various proposals to extend the freeway westward, including one through the Westchester neighborhood in 1973. These efforts were ultimately quashed by the community. The construction of the SR 178 fueled development in East Bakersfield during the late 1960s and early 1970s as suburban development in these areas could efficiently be linked to the downtown area. South of Brundage Lane, California State Route 58 (SR 58)—also known as the Mojave Freeway—has evolved into a freeway just within the last several decades.

One of the most important freeway construction efforts was the completion of Interstate 5 (I- 5), the state of California’s main north/south route. Paving of the Grapevine as a freeway was completed in 1970. As Interstate 5 connected to US 99 just north of the Grapevine, the completion of this freeway further eroded Bakersfield’s relative isolation and contributed to its continued population growth in the late 1960s and early 1970s.408 Downtown Redevelopment & Urban Renewal
By the 1970s, the suburbanization of the City of Bakersfield had left its downtown economically depressed and thus a target for redevelopment. One example of this trend was the move of Sears Roebuck to the Valley Plaza, leaving its downtown department store building abandoned. This hollowing out of downtowns that resulted from the suburbanization of the postwar years led many cities to embrace the tools of urban renewal in order to remake their central business districts. While most municipal urban renewal programs involved federal funding, it appears that Bakersfield’s business model was to broker agreements directly with developers. During the late 1960s and early 1970s, the Bakersfield Redevelopment Agency was formed and initially defined a redevelopment area bounded by E, M, 16th and 18th streets.409 One of the largest and most important projects of the Bakersfield Redevelopment Agency was the Bank of America block [1430-1440 Truxtun Avenue], completed in 1974. The ten-story office tower set on a Brutalist-style base, was designed by San Francisco-based Associated Architects and remains one of the tallest buildings in downtown. The Redevelopment Agency was also involved in the development agreement with Arcon, Inc. for the parking structure next door. Later that same year, a new Imperial Savings and Loan building [1400 Truxtun Avenue], by Jack Anderson of Associated Architects, opened just down the block.

407 JRP Historical Consulting, 74.
408 Steven Mayer, “Bakersfield, A Highway Ran Through the Middle of It,” The Bakersfield Californian, June 11, 2018. https://www.bakersfield.com/news/bakersfield-a-highway-ran-right-through-the-middle-of-it/article_29346100-6dd0-11e8- b9c2-a33f0a6ce895.html (accessed March 27, 2023).
409 “Action Delayed When Downtown Plan Questioned,” The Bakersfield Californian, November 11, 1974, 9.

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Another project within the redevelopment area was the consolidation of the Bakersfield-based American National Bank into the former Sears Building (19th and K streets), a project was designed by Eddy, Paynter, Renfro & Associates. American National Bank was the former Bakersfield National Bank, established in 1964. By 1974, the renamed bank employed more than 400 people and had 20 branches.410
Redevelopment continued with the conversion of the old Fedway building into a downtown campus for Bakersfield College. Known as the Bakersfield College Downtown Center [2100 Chester Avenue], the architect David Cartnal designed the $2 million remodel and re- landscaping. The Late Modern-style facility offered training in journalism, business, home economics, and independent study courses.

Also during this period, the City of Bakersfield commissioned local architect Robert Stuhr to design a new police station [1601 Truxtun Avenue]. Plans for the Mid-Century Modern facility began in 1969, but negotiations with some private landowners delayed the project. The project was delayed once again by cost overruns and the City’s decision midway through the design process to move the entrance from Eye Street to Truxtun Avenue. The Redevelopment Agency also planned a covered regional shopping center in the downtown area bordered by Chester Avenue, 22nd, N and 17th streets; however, that project never came to fruition.

The earthquake proved a transformational event for the built environment of Bakersfield. As a result, much of the city got a Mid-Century Modern makeover, primarily at the hands of a cadre of home-grown and locally-trained architects who built thriving practices as they rebuilt the city. However, the earthquake was also a factor in creating the large inventory of unimproved

410 “ANB to Move Its Offices to Old Sears Building,” The Bakersfield Californian, October 22, 1974, 9.

Bank of America office tower under construction, 1973. (Online Archive of California)

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parcels that continue to dot the downtown area today. As the city grew outward in all directions, Col. Baker’s 18th-century western town was effectively transformed into a sprawling postwar suburban city, but with one of the great concentrations of Mid-Century Modern architecture in the Central Valley.

THEMES
THEME: Post-Quake Civic/Institutional Development
One of the most important and visible post-earthquake projects was the design of a new City Hall. The 80-year-old city hall, long considered obsolete, was reduced to rubble in the earthquake. A new Mid-Century Modern city hall [1501 Truxtun Avenue] was designed by Robert N. Eddy in 1954. The city also got a new Civic Auditorium [1001 Truxtun Avenue] during this period. Design development of the civic auditorium began in late 1958. An architectural model shown in The Bakersfield Californian revealed an early design that included two circular volumes. Project designer Frank Ghezzi, then a young architect in the office of Wright, Metcalf & Parsons, was inspired by the idea of people talking in a circle.411 The Civic Auditorium was completed in 1961.

Prior to the earthquake there was already talk of the need for expansion of various county facilities, including the 1914 Kern County Jail. After the quake, Kern County committed to building an expansive administrative complex on the superblock bounded by Truxtun Avenue on the north, the railroad tracks on the south, L Street on the east, and Chester Avenue on the

411 “Bakersfield Built: The 1960s,” California State University, Bakersfield, Bakersfield Art Museum, and Society of Architectural Historians, Southern California Chapter, 2019, 6.

Bakersfield Civic Auditorium, 1970. (Kern County Museum)

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west. The existing complex was developed in phases and designed by various architects during the late 1950s and early 1960s.

This county administrative center was initiated with the construction of the Kern County Free Library (Beale Memorial Library) in 1957 [1315 Truxtun Avenue], designed by architect Whitney Biggar, son of Charles H. Biggar.412 The Mid-Century Modern-style Kern County Sheriff’s Office and Jail Facility [1415 Truxtun Avenue] was added around 1960, designed by Wright, Metcalf & Parsons. Around 1956, the seven-story County of Kern Superior Court building [1415 Truxtun Avenue] was constructed, designed by Ernest L. McCoy, and featuring a series of lobby mosaics created by Mike Milo, Jr. (1926-1999).413 While each of these component buildings was designed and constructed separately, they function together as the Kern County Administrative Center, the heart of county activities in Bakersfield. Due to the complex’s overall scale and prominent location, it comprises one of the most visually iconic examples of Mid-Century Modern civic/institutional architecture in the city.414 Kern County General Hospital [1830 Flower Street/1700 Mount Vernon Avenue] sustained significant damage in the earthquake. The original hospital was built in the early 1900s, with additions throughout the decades. The unreinforced concrete masonry structure was almost a total loss and was ultimately demolished. The commission for the new building was given to the local firm of Alford & Thomas, collaborating with Los Angeles-based architects Walker, Kalionzes & Klingerman, who specialized in hospital design. The project was budgeted at $3,500,000.415 Like Kern General, Mercy Hospital [2215 Truxtun Avenue], originally built in 1913, was also badly damaged by the earthquake and patients had to be immediately evacuated. The structure was ultimately demolished and replaced by a four-story modern

412 This building now contains the County of Kern Public Defender [1315 Truxtun Avenue] and County of Kern Jury Services [1661 L Street].
413 Stephen Montgomery, email to the author, January 6, 2024. 414 The Kern County Administrative Center was determined eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places in 2012. 415 “New Hospital Plans Win Board Approval,” The Bakersfield Californian, December 2, 1953, 42.

Kern County Free Library and County of Kern Superior Court Building, c. 1965. (Kern County Museum) Kern County Sheriff’s Office and Jail Facility, no date. (Wayne Thom Collection, USC Special Collections)

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building by Lewis Herlbut, an associate architect in the office of Frank F. Georgeson of San Francisco.

The combination of Bakersfield’s postwar population boom, sprawling suburbanization, and damage done by the earthquake, fueled many new public school projects during this period.

Many of the new residential subdivisions promoted the proximity of new school facilities as selling points for their tract homes. The Bakersfield Californian listed dozens of school expansion or addition projects between 1953 and 1960.

The school districts appear to have hired local architects almost exclusively, with much of the work going to Ernest L. McCoy; Wright, Metcalf & Parsons; Stuhr & Hicks; and Alford & Thomas. New Mid-Century Modern schools constructed during this period include Washington Junior High School [1101 Noble Avenue]; McKinley School [601 4th Street]; Highland Elementary School [2900 Barnett Street]; John C. Fremont Elementary School [607 Texas Street]; and Williams School [1201 Williams Street]. Significant additions were also made to Jefferson School [816 Lincoln Street], with numerous additions made at other existing schools.

Like so many buildings, Kern County Union High School was damaged by the earthquake. In 1954, new boys’ and girls’ physical education facility was designed by C. Barton Alford and W.J.

Thomas.416 In 1955, a new Mid-Century Modern-style administration building for the Kern County Union High School and Junior College District was designed by Eddy & Paynter [2000 24th Street]. Additionally, two new high schools were built in Bakersfield during the 1950s:

North High School [300 Galaxy Avenue] by Alford & Thomas, and South High School [1101 Planz Road] by Ernest McCoy. Additionally, in 1961 Clifford Harding designed the post-and-

416 “Kern High School Bids Will Be Opened Friday,” The Bakersfield Californian, August 7, 1955, 15.

West High School campus plan, September 19, 1964. (The Bakersfield Californian)

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beam School Employees Federal Credit Union building [4530 Ming Avenue]417 in the Mid- Century Modern style.

The pace of school construction slowed somewhat during the 1960s. Architect Whitney Biggar joined the roster of architects being awarded projects by the school district. One of the most important school projects was Biggar’s West High School [2900 Royal Scots Way] in 1965.

Nicknamed “Hexagon High” by The Bakersfield Californian, the project used Biggar’s preferred geometrical shape for classrooms buildings and for the campus plan overall. The school was featured in the book California School Buildings 1960-1965, published by the Bureau of School Buildings as one of the 25 finest school designs of the early 1960s. The campus plan is composed of a cluster of small buildings with broad eaves and sheltered walkways, set amid a series of outdoors spaces, permitting breezes to flow freely among the buildings. For the hexagonal classroom buildings, interior walls were purposefully non-load bearing and could be moved or eliminated for maximum classroom flexibility.

During this period, many religious congregations took the opportunity to build new sanctuaries.

St. Paul’s Episcopal Church was rebuilt after the earthquake. In 1954, Ernest L. McCoy designed the new First Christian Church [1660 S Street] in the Mid-Century Modern-style, featuring glue-laminated arches. That same year, Whitney Biggar designed the new First Congregational Church [5 Real Road]. The design featured concrete blocks set in a distinctive pattern and small star-like glass windows. The earthquake also destroyed the St. Francis Church, and a replacement structure was designed for the same location in 1953 by the Los Angeles architectural firm of Chaix and Johnson. Additional examples of churches built during the 1950s include St. John’s Lutheran Church [1030 4th Street] by O.J. Bruer, and First Presbyterian Church [1705 17th Street] by Allison & Rible.

417 Research produced conflicting information about the location of this building; some sources give the address as 400 Oak Street.

First Congregational Church as photographed by Julius Shulman, 1955. (Getty Research Institute) First Christian Church, no date. (Kern County Museum)

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In 1953, the Cain African Methodist Church [630 California Avenue] selected Ernest McCoy to design a new sanctuary to seat 250 worshippers, with a choir loft for 50 more. The building had folding doors along the side to enclose three rooms to be used for Sunday School classes. In 1957, Congregation B’nai Jacob built a new synagogue [600 17th Street], designed in the Mid- Century Modern style by Wilson Call. The new Late Modern-style St. Philip the Apostle Catholic Church [7100 Stockdale Highway], designed by architect Robert Stuhr, opened in 1974. The church was constructed of concrete block with glue-laminated beams, and an exposed beam and plank ceiling. The same year, a new social hall for Christ the King Church (Linda Vista and Bedford Way) was opened, designed by local architect Cliff Harding.

Criteria NRHP: A, B CRHR: 1, 2 BRHP: a, b, e Eligibility Standards
 Dates from the period 1953-1974
 Is an excellent, rare, or unique example of civic/institutional development from the post-earthquake period in Bakersfield
 May be a rare remaining example of a type that survived the earthquake  May be associated with the burgeoning local music scene and the development of the Bakersfield Sound
 May be associated with the civil rights, workers’ rights, or other social activist movements in Bakersfield during this period
 May also be associated with a person that played an important role in the history and development of Bakersfield during this period
 May also be associated with an important ethnic or cultural group in Bakersfield during this period, such as the local Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, Basque, Italian, Mexican, or African American community
 Retains sufficient integrity to convey its significance from the historic period  Properties with regional or national significance, or with exceptionally good integrity from the historic period, may be eligible for listing in the California and/or National Register.

Integrity Threshold
An eligible property under this theme should retain integrity of location, design, materials, feeling and association.

THEME: Post-Quake Commercial Development
After the earthquake, many of Bakersfield’s downtown office buildings, such as the Haberfelde Building, were deemed unsafe and remained unoccupied for an extended period of time. This loss of office space, combined with an increasingly suburban customer base, caused many professionals to build and occupy small, single-story office buildings, or “professional buildings.”

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The City of Bakersfield is home to an impressive population of well-designed Mid-Century Modern professional buildings, originally occupied by doctors, dentists, lawyers, and architects.

Small medical offices include the Boydstone Medical Building [1805 28th Street] by Robert N.

Eddy; the Dr. Wong Medical Office Building [2615 H Street] by Goss & Choy; the Clerou-Fox Medical Building [2128 Truxtun Avenue] by Wright, Metcalf & Parsons; and the Coker Cawley Medical Center [1921 18th Street] also by Wright, Metcalf & Parsons. A substantial subset of these professional buildings are actually the architects’ own offices. Examples include the Ernest L. McCoy Office [2809-2811 H Street]; the Wright, Metcalf & Parsons Office [2323 E Street]; the Robert N. Eddy Office [2901 H Street]; the Robert Stuhr Office [3121 California Avenue]; the Frapwell & Ghezzi Office [1717 28th Street]; the Goss & Choy Office [920 Chester Avenue]; the C. Barton Alford Office [1234 Chester Avenue]; and the Whitney Biggar Office [31 S. Real Road].

With continued suburban residential tract growth around Bakersfield, many new shopping centers sprang up to serve these populations. Neighborhood shopping centers were typically smaller in scale and were occupied by neighborhood-serving retailers, such as grocery stores, hardware stores, stationers, or pharmacies. By contrast, regional shopping centers were destinations that spanned entire superblocks and typically included one or more department stores as anchors tenant, as well as entertainment or recreational options such as an arcade or ice skating rink, and a food court.

The Kern City Shopping Center was a neighborhood shopping center developed in the 1950s by Eddy & Paynter. This sprawling Ranch-style shopping center was designed to accommodate vehicular traffic and included an expansive surface parking lot. Originally, this shopping center featured a grocery store, drug store, laundromat, barbershop, gas station, restaurants, and a five-and-dime variety store. When foot traffic started to diminish, the shopping center closed in 1973. That same year, Stockdale Development opened a new shopping center, Stockdale Village, at California Avenue and Stockdale Highway. Expansion of the shopping center commenced almost immediately after its opening. Eddy, Paynter, Renfro & Associates were charged with the original design and all expansions.

Clerou-Fox Medical Building, no date. (Wayne Thom Collection, USC Special Collections)

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Also developed during this period was the University Square Shopping Center (across from Bakersfield College, c. 1962) designed by Novikoff Engineers and Arthur Hasselback, of the Bevery Hills firm Milton Meyer Co. In 1955, Pasadena-based architects Smith & Williams designed Halls Shopping Fair (Brundage Lane and Wible Road), a commercial market that used billboard signage to appeal to passing motorists.

By the 1960s, increased suburbanization in cities across the United States had given rise to a new phenomenon: the suburban regional shopping center. Envisioned as a utopian alternative to downtown commercial centers, the architect Victor Gruen, FAIA designed the first shopping malls outside of Detroit and Minneapolis in the mid-1950s, as well as one of the earliest enclosed air-conditioned malls in Southern California, South Coast Plaza. By 1967, Bakersfield had a sufficient suburban population to support its own regional shopping center, Valley Plaza Shopping Center [Ming Avenue and the 99 Freeway]. In fact, the design and construction of Valley Plaza took place concurrently with Gruen’s design for South Coast Plaza.

Valley Plaza Shopping Center was developed by Farber-Gladstone Development Co. and designed by Eddy & Paynter. The one-story enclosed mall was anchored by a Sears, Roebuck & Co. (Stiles Clements Associates, 1965), and Broadway department store (Charles Luckman Associates, 1966). Prior to the mall’s opening, there was a ground-breaking for a Brock’s department store (Eddy & Paynter, Chaix & Johnson, 1965-67),418 along with an additional 900 square feet of mall space. Other facilities were also developed as part of the shopping center, adjacent to but detached from the mall complex, including a grocery store and a movie theater.419 Valley Plaza opened on February 17, 1967, preceded the opening of South Coast Plaza by a few weeks.420

418 Brock’s downtown store had been remodeled in 1953, after the earthquake by Robert Eddy and C. M. Deasy who were partnered at that point.
419 “Six Students Spotlighted at Center,” The Bakersfield Californian, January 26, 1966, 13. 420 South Coast Plaza opened March 15, 1967.

Halls Shopping Fair. (Gibbs, Outside In: The Architecture of Smith and Williams)

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This period also saw changes to the commercial development associated with Bakersfield’s various ethnic enclaves. By the 1950s, Bakersfield’s Basque Town was evolving, as there was less migration and younger generations were becoming more integrated into the larger community. In 1954, J.B. and Mayie Maitia opened the Wool Growers café on Sumner Street near the Pyrenees and Noriega’s.421 However, by the 1970s Basque restaurants were appearing beyond the city’s historic Basque enclave and outside the confines of Basque Town. Chalet Basque was founded in 1969 by J.B. and Marie Curuchague. In 1977, the Maitias moved Wool Growers to a new location [620 E. 19th Street]; this building was formerly the home of another Basque restaurant, Villa de Basque. Most of the boarding houses no longer served communal meals, but instead moved to a more traditional restaurant business model with individual table service.422 As author Jeronima Echeverria notes, by the 1970s, the only continuity was Grace Elizalde, who remained manager of the Noriega Hotel until her death in 1974.423 In Chinatown, Bill Lee’s Bamboo Chopsticks restaurant [1203 18th Street/1717 M Street] was enlarged and remodeled in the Mid-Century Modern style by Robert Eddy. Lee was a Bakersfield resident in the 1920s, and a restaurateur in Chinatown dating back to 1939. In 1964, the Italian Heritage Society and the Dante Society merged to form one organization dedicated to promoting the culture of Italy and fostering understanding. Additionally, by the mid-1960s, the newly created Damron Guide listed Lena’s Café [3711 Edison Highway] as a local bar welcoming to the LGBTQ community.

Criteria NRHP: A, B CRHR: 1, 2 BRHP: a, b, e Eligibility Standards
 Dates from the period 1953-1974
 Is an excellent, rare, or unique example of commercial development from the post- earthquake period in Bakersfield
 May be a rare remaining example of a type that survived the earthquake  May be associated with the burgeoning local music scene and the development of the Bakersfield Sound
 May be associated with the civil rights, workers’ rights, or other social activist movements in Bakersfield during this period
 May also be associated with a person that played an important role in the history and development of Bakersfield during this period
 May also be associated with an important ethnic or cultural group in Bakersfield during this period, such as the local Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, Basque, Italian, Mexican, or African American community
 Retains sufficient integrity to convey its significance from the historic period

421 Twenty years later they moved to a new location at 620 E. 19th Street; it is still run by the Maitia family. 422 The one holdout was Noriega’s until it closed c. 2022. 423 Echeverria, Home Away From Home, 109.

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 A geographically concentrated grouping of intact commercial development from the period may be eligible as a historic district
 Properties with regional or national significance, or with exceptionally good integrity from the historic period, may be eligible for listing in the California and/or National Register.

Integrity Threshold
An eligible property under this theme should retain integrity of location, design, materials, feeling and association. Modernization of retail storefronts may be acceptable if they remain intact from this period.

THEME: Post-Quake Industrial Development
After the earthquake, Kecrn County and the City of Bakersfield continued their respective campaigns to lure industrial development to the region. In 1953, the Bakersfield Chamber of Commerce produced a brochure entitled “Greater Bakersfield Invites You.” The brochure touted the area’s large labor pool, availability of raw materials, low-cost transportation, and the presence of other manufacturers and distributors. The brochure once again focused on the 110- acre industrial tract developed by Clifton Carpenter, Joe Gannon, and attorney S.B. Gill— bounded by Virginia Avenue on the north, Brundage Lane on the south, Mt. Vernon Avenue on the east, and Washington Street on the west. Industrial sites were available for as little as $3,000 per acre, with access to railroad spurs, sewer system, and water and gas lines.424 Among the industrial enterprises attracted to the area was Brea Chemical Co. [225 Industrial Street], a subdivision of the Union Oil Company. Industries related to the oil and agriculture industries continued to thrive in the postwar period. In 1955, The Republic Supply Company [3600 Rosedale Highway] moved to a new plant in a location more convenient for its

424 “Industrial Brochure Published By Chamber,” The Bakersfield Californian, August 6, 1953, 17.

California Cotton Plant, c. 1959. (Getty Research Institute)

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customers. The company first came to the Bakersfield area in 1928 and purchased the Associated Supply Co. The new plant was designed by Los Angeles architect George Vernon Russell, on five acres to maximize efficiency of customer service. The plant contained warehousing facilities, administrative offices, and living quarters for staff who provided 24-hour service to customers. The California Cotton Plant [1900 E. Brundage Lane] was built around 1957, designed in the Mid-Century Modern style by Whitney Biggar.

As part of the campaign to attract industry, Bakersfield’s educators rallied to ensure a trained and equipped workforce. Vocational and technical education and apprentice programs were developed by the Kern County High School and Junior College District; Bakersfield High School; and Bakersfield College.

Efforts to industrialize Bakersfield continued during the 1960s. In 1961, the initial 900-acre phase of the Stockdale Industrial District was developed by the Del E. Webb Corporation and the Kern County Land Co.425 By 1965, Kern County Land Co. bought out Webb’s interest and continued with plans to develop the 6,000-acre industrial, residential, and commercial community in Stockdale. One of the early occupants of the Stockdale Industrial District was the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. In 1962, Furniture City Upholstery Company of Grand Rapids, Michigan opened a new facility [5000 District Boulevard]. In 1962, General Electric leased a new 40,000-square-foot building on three acres to warehouse the most quintessential product of the 1950s: television sets.

Criteria NRHP: A, B CRHR: 1, 2 BRHP: a, b, e Eligibility Standards
 Dates from the period 1953-1974
 Is an excellent, rare, or unique example of industrial development from the post- earthquake period in Bakersfield
 May be associated with an important industry in Bakersfield from the period, such as agriculture, or oil and gas
 May be a substantial feature of a larger municipal or regional infrastructural system, such as water, power, or transportation (automobile)
 May also be associated with a person that played an important role in the history and development of Bakersfield during this period
 May also be associated with an important ethnic or cultural group in Bakersfield during this period, such as the local Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, Basque, Italian, Mexican, or African American community
 Retains sufficient integrity to convey its significance from the historic period  A geographically concentrated grouping of intact industrial development from the period may be eligible as a historic district

425 “Furniture Firm Opens New Stockdale Plant,” The Bakersfield Californian, November 14, 1962, 47.

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 Properties with regional or national significance, or with exceptionally good integrity from the historic period, may be eligible for listing in the California and/or National Register.

Integrity Threshold
An eligible property under this theme should retain integrity of location, design, materials, feeling and association.

THEME: Post-Quake Residential Development
The postwar residential tract development that began in the years prior to the earthquake continued in the years following. Many of the larger developments continued to open new phases and/or build on still unimproved parcels. New tract subdivisions, freeway construction, and on-going commercial development all helped to fuel additional residential development during the 1960s. Between 1960 and 1961, the Bakersfield Building Department issued more than 1,600 permits, more than half of which were residential.426 Figure 6. Tract Housing Developments 1953-1974
Development Subdivider Architect Date
Subdivided
Date Built
Out
College Heights Ralph L. Smith, Jr. 1954-55 1955
Stockdale Manor Dunsmoor Construction Co. Smith & Williams 1954-55 1955-c. 1957 Benton Park Randall Presley Some by James
Ticer
1955-1957 1955-c. 1957
Westfair Park Fairway Development and
Land Company (Forrest A.

Cassady)
1960-1964 1960-1966
Kern City Stockdale Corporation (Del
Webb Corporation and KCL)
Eddy & Paynter 1961-1978 1962-c. 1978
Lou Mar Village Dandy Homes, Inc. Wilson Call
(attributed)
1961 1961-1964
Stockdale Estates Stockdale Development N/A 1961-1972 1962-c. 1968 Westhaven Stockdale Development N/A 1963-1966 1965-c. 1970 Oldham’s Park
West
N/A N/A 1968-1969 1968-1972
Wattenbarger
Tract
Wattenbarger-Stahl
Development Co.

N/A 1972-1974 1972-1975
Quailwood Stockdale Development N/A 1973-1978 1974-c. 1985 Source: JRP Historical Consulting, Key Postwar Housing Tracts Within the Greater Bakersfield Area with additional research by the author.

426 JRP Historical Consulting, 20.

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College Heights was the largest residential subdivision in Bakersfield history. Named for the adjacent Bakersfield College, it consisted of ten separate tracts and more than 1,600 residential lots. Early newspaper accounts described it as a mammoth development that was the size of a small town. Ralph L. Smith’s plans for the development called for an area of multi-family residences closer to the college and shopping centers along the perimeter. The earliest homes in the development were located west of Haley Street. The 640-acre College Heights Tract was officially annexed to the City of Bakersfield in September 1953.

The sheer size of the College Heights development required that several builders be engaged to erect the houses. Thus, it appears that developer Ralph L. Smith, Jr. partnered with a series of local contractors to build out the College Heights tract. Contractors included Gannon Construction, Ken Mynatt, James R. Hewitt, Orrvill Harris, Roy Watenbarger, and Randall Presley.427 The southern half of the subdivision was built out with modest Minimal Traditional, Ranch, and Contemporary-style two- and three-bedroom residences. While association with specific architects has not been confirmed, it is likely that these contractors used or modified existing plans they had used previously.

Builder Randall Presley was responsible for the more expensive homes in the subdivision. As the houses sold, the development pushed northward towards Panorama Drive, where lots and residences were larger. In June of 1955, Presley opened 33 custom homes. The model home [1201 Shattuck Avenue] was a Ranch-style residence with a dovecote. The northernmost portion of the development came to be known as Upper College Heights. Constructed between 1955 and 1956, these homes tended to be more than 2,000 square feet and three- to five- bedrooms.428 By 1957, College Heights was mostly built out, making it the largest subdivision of Ranch homes in Bakersfield.

Stockdale Manor, a 262-parcel subdivision, featured homes designed by Pasadena-based architects Smith & Williams. These three- and four-bedroom homes were Mid-Century Modern and Modern Ranch in style and featured expressive post-and-beam construction. The homes featured walls of glass sliding doors, open-beam ceilings, air conditioning, and fully- equipped kitchens.

Developed by Randall Presley, Benton Park was another mid-1950s subdivision. Although it is unknown who designed the early homes for Benton Park, a 1962 ad in The Bakersfield Californian indicates that James E. Ticer, Jr., an architect formerly associated with Eddy & Paynter, was now designing plans for Benton Park. Buyers could select from a number of pre- designed plans, or Ticer would create a custom design.429 Westfair Park was a small residential tract developed by Forrest A. Cassady, President of Fairway Development & Land Co. The development featured Ranch-style homes in various subtypes, including Rustic, Storybook, Asiatic, etc. Other contractors also built in the subdivision, notably the J. L. Dandy Company, which purchased 40 lots in the subdivision by

427 JRP Historical Consulting, 32.
428 JRP Historical Consulting, 62.
429 “Announcement,” The Bakersfield Californian, September 8, 1962, 5.

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1960. By 1961, Dandy was offering Ranch and Contemporary-style homes in Westfair Park. Al Shutz Construction Co. built several homes in the southern portion of the development.

Another builder, J.F. Smith Corp., constructed two-story homes in Westfair. Marketed by Ralph Smith to growing families, they had four bedrooms and were designed predominantly in the Ranch style.430
Lou Mar Village was developed by Dandy Homes, Inc.431 Stockdale Estates took a cue from Kern City and developed Stockdale Country Club Estates where recreation facilities— swimming pool, tennis courts, community center—were reserved for community residents. The developers even engaged the same master planner of Kern City. Stockdale Development would later develop West Park, Westhaven, Sagepoint, Westwood Estates, and Quailwood— transforming the area southwest of downtown Bakersfield.

Quailwood, by Stockdale Development, was meant to provide satellite housing for nearby CSUB. The development was originally designed to include 1,600 single-family residences, four-plexes and apartment buildings, as well as a park, three schools, and a shopping center.

That level of density was never realized due to community objection. The initial development at Quailwood consisted of single-family residences, mostly Ranch-style homes were

430 JRP Historical Consulting, 77.
431 These homes may be by architect Wilson Call; his project list indicates that he did projects for “Dandy Homes.” Advertisement for the Stockdale Manor development, March 26, 1955. (The Bakersfield Californian)

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constructed by Gannon Construction and Stewart & Wattenbarger. Quailwood’s multi-family housing was not built until after 1975.432
During the late 1960s, Bakersfield architect Dave Gardner Cross established a prefabricated home manufacturing company called American Home Industries Corporation. Although details of the transaction are unclear, Cross appears to have purchased the manufacturing plant of Hugh Curran’s Mobilhome Corporation [1400 Q Street].

Cross applied his architectural design skills to a production process that assembled an entire housing unit in a single day—including a built-in kitchen, appliances, and plumbing. The completed house would then be trucked to the site and “plugged in.”433 American Home Industries manufactured both single-family residences and apartment buildings. American Home Industries Corporation produced what was then the country’s largest tract of factory- built dwellings with a 299-home subdivision north of Calexico.434 In June of 1971, a fire consumed the Bakersfield plant. However, the company bounced back, and during the mid- 1970s Curran and Cross developed Tract 3838 on the south side of Auburn Street between Oswell Street and Fairfax Road.435
During the national postwar building boom, many American cities hosted “showcase houses,” model homes designed to feature specific building methods or domestic products. Such showcase house programs were typically supported by a national advertising campaign and sponsored by various home-related companies and organizations. In 1961, the Horizon Homes for Better Living project sponsored 100 showcase homes across the country. Contributing organizations included the National Ready-Mix Concrete Association, the National Concrete Masonry Association, the Portland Cement Association, the National Association of Home Builders, and the American Institute of Architects. One of these Horizon Homes was constructed in Bakersfield.

432 JRP Historical Consulting, 81.
433 “Bakersfield’s Assembly-Line Home Construction Spreads,” The Bakersfield Californian, December 27, 1970, 10. 434 “Nation’s Largest Tract of Factory Built Dwellings Taking Shape Near Calexico,” Los Angeles Times, May 16, 1971, J1. 435 “New Building System Said to Reduce Price of Homes,” Los Angeles Times, February 25, 1979, I33.

Advertisement for Bakersfield’s Horizon Home, September 23, 1961. (The Bakersfield Californian)

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Bakersfield’s Horizon Home showcase house was built by developer Randall Presley in his new Town and Country Estates subdivision. Designed by Eddy & Paynter, the Bakersfield Horizon Home [5712 Pembroke Avenue] featured concrete blocks in a variety of decorative patterns, and an expressive roofline of the decidedly Mid-Century Modern type that distinguished it from its Ranch-style neighbors. The Horizon Homes was open for public inspection in September of 1961.

Ongoing wealth from oil and agriculture continued to propel custom single-family residential construction after the earthquake. One of the most unusual homes was the Philip A. Klipstein Residence [2308 Spruce Street] by Newport Beach-based architect Philmer J. Ellerbroek. Built in 1953, it was a modern Bermuda-inspired home featuring a poured pumice roof and glass window walls.436 Eugene Kinn Choy received several commissions for Bakersfield residences after the earthquake, including the Rose Residence, which was built on speculation. Other Bakersfield architects working in residential design during this period included Whitney Biggar, Eddy & Paynter, David Cross, and Jack Hayslett. Examples of their Mid-Century Modern custom homes include the Lowell and Phyllis Dabbs Residence [5200 Ojai Drive]; the Sudarsky Residence (409 Oleander Avenue); and the George Poloynis Residence [685 Magnolia Avenue].

Around 1961, Wilson Call designed his own family home in the Mid-Century Modern style. The Call Residence [3014 Panorama Drive] overlooked the oilfields where he himself had been born in a shack.437 Similarly, in 1963 Robert Eddy designed his own Mid-Century Modern-style residence [7219 Meadowbrook Lane] under the banner of Eddy & Paynter.

Not all custom homes from this period were Modern in style, as some clients preferred a more traditional or Ranch-style design. The 1954 William H. MacDonald Residence [2211 Beech Street] by Peter Kump is an example of a modified Ranch-style home. In 1960, Beverly Hills architect John P. Pederen designed the Anna Lummis Residence [2420 Myrtle Street] in the Modern Ranch style.

Impressively, two of the greatest masters of American modernism—Richard J. Neutra and Frank Lloyd Wright—both designed residences in Bakersfield during this period. The 1959

436 It is unknown if the pumice construction techniques were in anyway related to the Anderson Monolithic Structures. 437 David Coffey, email to the author, November 3, 2022.

Rose Residence as photographed by Julius Shulman, 1955. (Getty Research Institute) Wilson Call Residence, no date. (Bakersfield Museum of Art)

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Leddy Residence [2501 Dracena Street] was built for Patricia “Pat” Stockton-Leddy, daughter of the pioneering Stockton family, as a wedding gift. Leddy’s family gifted the newlyweds a portion of the large lot on which sat the family’s turn-of-the-century vernacular farmhouse [529 A Street]. Pat Leddy—a former Martha Graham dancer and devotee of the arts—selected Richard Neutra to produce the plans for their new residence, which she and her husband Albert then built themselves.

In 1958, after purchasing a hilltop lot in the Country Club subdivision on the east side of Bakersfield, Mildred Ablin appealed to Frank Lloyd Wright to design a home for her and her family. As former students of the University of Wisconsin in Madison, Wisconsin, Dr. and Mrs.

Ablin were very familiar with Wright’s work. To their surprise, Wright agreed and the Ablin Residence [4260 Country Club Drive] became one of the last projects with Wright’s direct involvement. Wright completed the design just before his death in 1959, but he did not live to see the completed work. Rather, the house was constructed in 1960-61 under the watchful eye of Taliesin Associated Architects, including Taliesin Fellow Thomas Olson, who supervised construction for a year and a half.

The Ablin Residence is fundamentally a hexagonal Usonian house. Its base unit of design is the equilateral (30/60/90) triangle, which is used in plan, section, and detail. The house is an evolved example of Wright’s breaking-the-box plan that clearly delineates the public/private and adult/children spaces in separate wings radiating from the central hearth/kitchen volume.

The house also expresses Wright’s delicate manipulation of compression and expansion of space. Visitors are guided along a low battered wall and overhang on the exterior, leading to an interior explosion of light and space in the main living area, which features a dramatic 16-foot- high and 48-foot-wide expanse of glass looking out to views of the Bakersfield Country Club Golf Course and the mountains beyond.

Postwar residential development in Bakersfield appears to have been primarily centered on the construction of single-family residences, as apartment buildings and other multi-family dwelling types appear in lesser numbers as compared with other Southern California Ablin House exterior and interior, no date. (Esoteric Survey)

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communities during the same period. In August of 1950, for example, building permits for single-family residences numbered 27, while only two apartment buildings were permitted.438 The exception to this trend was public housing. After the earthquake, the effort to develop more public housing units continued. Oro Vista [1104 Robertson Street] was expanded, and by June of 1954, all 184 units were occupied; 90 percent of residents were African American, ten percent were Latino.439
The general lack of multi-family residential development during this period may have been due in part to the required zoning changes in single-family neighborhoods. This made the process of building multi-family housing cumbersome and proposed projects were often met with resistance from nearby homeowners. Conversely, the presence of Bakersfield College and CSUB acted as magnets for multi-family residential development. The area just east of Bakersfield College was rife with apartment buildings, such as Columbus Street north of University Avenue. Coachlite Villas [4401 Columbus Street] and College Townhouse [3932 Christmas Tree Lane] are two examples of Mid-Century Modern-style apartment design.

During the late 1960s and through the mid-1970s, several new real estate trends influenced the development of multi-family properties throughout California. Multi-family residential projects were becoming larger in scale, often spanning entire blocks and incorporating extensive landscaping, community facilities, and other amenities. Then townhouse development appeared on the scene, largely due to the widespread adoption of the condominium financing structure. These trends reflected a movement away from single-family residential ownership as empty nesters elected to downsize and eliminate responsibility for property maintenance.

Panorama Highlands (Church Avenue and Eton Street) was an early “own your own apartment” complex by developer John Deeter. By 1962, Deeter was advertising two- and three-bedroom apartments for individuals who were “tired of yard work, like to travel or play golf.”440 Panorama Gardens [3901 Union Avenue], a Mid-Century Modern multi-family residential complex by local architects Eddy & Paynter was another example of the early apartment ownership trend.

Panorama Gardens featured two- and three-bedroom models with split-level plans. Another example of the type was the Villa Vista Apartment Homes [911 Panorama Drive], featuring a central pool and patio.

The condominium movement was born out of the earlier co-op apartment trend. However, condominiums diverged from co-op apartment arrangements, like Panorama Highlands, in that the residences were not collectively owned. Rather, each unit was owned individually, but common areas were subject to collective ownership. Typically, a homeowners’ association would be established to collect monthly ownership dues from the condo owners to fund maintenance of the property exterior and common areas. A lack of financing for the new ownership concept, however, suppressed initial development of the concept. In 1961, the FHA was only authorized to insure mortgages on condos for 85 percent of the appraised value. It wasn’t until September 1963, when tax appraisal methods for condominiums were settled, that

438 “Building Permits In August Near Million Mark,” The Bakersfield Californian, September 5, 1950, 15. 439 “Oro Vista Housing Units Now Filled, Project Officer Says,” The Bakersfield Californian, June 9, 1954, 34. 440 Classified advertisement, The Bakersfield Californian, December 8, 1962, 33.

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developers began building condominiums in earnest. The condominium craze was relatively subdued in Bakersfield, likely due to an abundance of single-family housing in the city.

In the 1970s, multi-family residential development increasingly emphasized leisure activities.

Boating, golf, and tennis became popular recreational activities and many complexes incorporated these facilities into their offered amenities. Examples in Bakersfield include the Plaza Real condominiums (Sampson Court east of S. Real Road) from the early 1970s; and Pinion Springs Village (Ming Avenue west of New Stine Road), a grouping of four-unit split- level townhomes built in 1972-1974 by the Loews Corporation/J.H. Snyder. By the mid-1970s larger apartment complex projects were being greenlit by the City’s Planning Commission. The 24-unit Westchester Place Apartments [1951 Golden State Highway] demonstrates the movement to larger complexes. Panorama Pointe (southwest corner of Panorama Drive and Columbus Street), a 260-unit apartment complex with three swimming pools, was approved for development in May of 1974.

Oil money was once again responsible for one of the more unusual multi-family residential developments of the period. Oak Park Tower [3200 21st Street] was built in 1970 by a former partner of Armand Hammer.441 The partner’s wife died unexpectedly and the building was sold to J.R. Smeed, head of Dynasonics Corporation. The five-story building designed by Eddy & Paynter was originally constructed as having six, 2,650 square foot apartments and a penthouse for the owner.442 When people failed to occupy the building for residential use, Smeed converted it to an office building and relocated the headquarters of Dynasonics Corp. there.

Locally, the building was known for having a domesticated mountain lion, Marusa, who walked the railing of the penthouse apartment amusing passing motorists. Smeed purchased the

441 David Coffey, email to the author, January 15, 2023. 442 “Oak Park Tower,” The Bakersfield Californian, November 3, 1974, 79.

Panorama Gardens as photographed by Julius Shulman, 1959. (Getty Research Institute)

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mountain lion from a rescue organization; his interest in exotic pets was born out of owning a cheetah while operating a tea plantation in Rhodesia. Prior to her retirement, Marusa appeared in Lincoln Mercury commercials.443
In summary, Bakersfield’s growth and development in the 20th century was largely tied to the economic drivers of oil and agriculture. Its architectural heritage, cultural heritage, and colorful characters make it a unique California community.

Criteria NRHP: A, B CRHR: 1, 2 BRHP: a, b, e Eligibility Standards
 Dates from the period 1953-1974
 Is an excellent, rare, or unique example of single-family or multi-family residential development from the post-earthquake period in Bakersfield  May be an intact example of public housing in Bakersfield from the period  May be associated with the burgeoning local music scene and the development of the Bakersfield Sound
 May be associated with the civil rights, workers’ rights, or other social activist movements in Bakersfield during this period
 May also be associated with a person that played an important role in the history and development of Bakersfield during this period
 May also be associated with an important ethnic or cultural group in Bakersfield during this period, such as the local Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, Basque, Italian, Mexican, or African American community
 Retains sufficient integrity to convey its significance from the historic period  A geographically concentrated grouping of intact residential development from the period may be eligible as a historic district
 Properties with regional or national significance, or with exceptionally good integrity from the historic period, may be eligible for listing in the California and/or National Register.

Integrity Threshold
An eligible property under this theme should retain integrity of location, design, materials, feeling and association.

443 Large Cat Playful, Walks Rail,” The Bakersfield Californian, May 19, 1975, 10.

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BAKERSFIELD TODAY, 1975-PRESENT
Over the last 50 years, the population of Bakersfield has increased exponentially, making it one of the fastest growing cities in California. It continues to be a hub of agricultural and energy production.

Figure 7. Bakersfield Population Growth 1970-2020
Year Population Percentage Growth
1970 69,515 N/A
1980 105,611 51.9%
1990 174,820 65.5%
2000 247,057 41.3%
2010 347,483 40.6%
2020 403,355 16.1%
Source: U.S. Census

Over the years, the city has also become more ethnically diverse. In 2020, the City of Bakersfield was 38.9% White, 7.0 percent Black, 52.7 percent Latino, 7.8 percent Asian; 16.6 percent of residents identified as multi-racial.444
As the population of Bakersfield has continued to evolve, so has its built environment. In 1976, the Downtown Business District and the Chamber of Commerce led a movement to modernize the storefronts downtown. In 1977, the city experienced a historic dust storm, with winds up to 200 miles per hour, which caused millions of dollars’ worth of damage in the city. By the early 1980s, the three-mile stretch of Union Avenue once dotted with dozens of motels, restaurants, and gas stations was no longer a destination for road-tripping tourists. In 1996, Buck Owens opened the Crystal Palace music venue which became an instant Bakersfield landmark. Owens built the Crystal Palace as a proper performance venue, in contrast with the small, smoke-filled bars and honky-tonks he had played in for decades. Owens performed there frequently until his death in 2006.445
Bakersfield’s resilience to economic boom and bust times hit a snag during the recession of 2007. Kern County experienced triple the national rate of foreclosures. By 2010, the county’s unemployment rate had soared to 18.3 percent, an all-time high.446 California’s ongoing drought has also dealt a significant blow to the agricultural economy, which continues to struggle. All of Kern County has battled the effects of Valley Fever, a respiratory condition caused by a fungus in the soil, a condition to which Central Valley agricultural workers and prison inmates are particularly susceptible.

444 United States Census, 2020.
445 Price, 214.
446 “Timeline of 150 Years,” Bakersfield.com, https://www.bakersfield.com/special/150-years/ (accessed October 4, 2022).

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In recent decades, however, Bakersfield has started to rebound. The restoration and refurbishment of the Padre Hotel in 2010 is a prominent example of this economic turnaround.

The city has also seen an upturn in the housing market, which in turn, has boosted the city’s fortunes. The arts and culture scene has begun to thrive again, helping the city to both draw tourists and re-establish a sense of civic pride. In the most recent period, of course, the City of Bakersfield has had to weather the effects of Covid-19 and its impact on the economy and the community overall.

The city’s destiny has always been tied to water: sometimes too much of it, sometimes not enough. Regardless, the residents of Bakersfield have proven to be remarkably resilient. In various ways, the story of this city both reflects and defies the broader patterns of growth and development in the region, leaving a unique imprint on the history of the Central Valley, the state, and the nation.

THEMES
This period is outside the scope of this project. Therefore, no themes have been developed for this context.

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ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN, 1860-1974
This context describes the various architectural styles represented among Bakersfield’s extant built environment. This section is organized according to chronological periods, presented here as themes, from the late 19th century to the mid-1970s. Within each theme, there are a number of specific architectural styles, presented as sub-themes. The architectural styles presented in this context have been determined by a knowledge of broader architectural trends in the region during these various historical periods, along with a more detailed understanding of their representation among extant properties in Bakersfield today, with a particular emphasis on the four geographic areas selected by the City of Bakersfield for the accompanying historic resources survey: Downtown Bakersfield, East Bakersfield, Oleander/Sunset, and Westchester/Riviera.

Each architectural style includes a date range, or period of significance, representing when the style was most prevalent in the local built environment; a brief overview of the style’s origins; applicable local, California and National Register criteria; and a list of the style’s typical physical features, known as character-defining features. These are followed by eligibility standards and integrity thresholds which guide the evaluation of properties that may be eligible for their architectural merit, either as vernacular design or as an example of a particular architectural style. Note that a property constructed outside the period of significance for a particular style could still be significant for its architectural merit provided that it represents an excellent local example of the style, retains sufficient integrity, and otherwise meets the eligibility standards.

Photographs representing examples of each style are also provided. These photographs come from the accompanying historic resources survey and illustrate extant local examples of each style from the four survey areas. As the city conducts future historic resources studies and surveys, additional examples of the styles discussed herein, or additional styles present in Bakersfield, may be identified.

Note that there are two themes presented toward the end of this section that are not based upon architecture style. The first of these is a theme devoted to adobe brick as a method of construction. This theme was developed specifically to acknowledge Bakersfield’s unique population of early-20th century adobe brick residences designed by local architect and architectural educator Clarence C. Cullimore. Secondly, there is a theme devoted to local practitioners. This theme was developed in order to capture properties that may be eligible as the work of a particular designer, such as a master or noted Bakersfield architect, often in addition to but not dependent upon a property’s significance as representative of a particular architectural style.

According to guidance from the National Park Service, in order for a property to be eligible for historic listing or designation for its architectural merit, it must clearly illustrate through “distinctive characteristics” the pattern of features common to a particular class of resources; the individuality or variation of features that occurs within the class; the evolution of that class;

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or the transition between classes of resources.447 “Distinctive characteristics” are the physical features or traits that commonly recur in individual types, periods, or methods of construction.

To be eligible, a property must clearly retain enough of those characteristics to be considered truly representative of a particular type, period, or method of construction. That is, the features of a particular style should be fully integrated into the overall design, not applied superficially or added as an afterthought. A property that reflects a combination of styles or stylistic influences should display the features of one dominant style, with additional influences being subordinate to the dominant style. Furthermore, a property that represents a transition between styles would not be eligible simply because it is the only such example; rather, the transition itself must be considered an important architectural development.

A geographically contiguous grouping of properties representing one or multiple architectural styles and periods of development may be eligible as a historic district, provided the district overall is united historically or aesthetically and retains a strong sense of time and place. Some historic districts are characterized specifically as a concentration of one particular architecture style, such as a Craftsman residential historic district. Other districts may represent a cohesive collection of historically associated styles from the same period, such as a period revival historic district containing examples of Spanish Colonial Revival, American Colonial Revival, and Tudor Revival architecture.

The architectural character of Bakersfield built environment reflects changes in popular tastes over time. The city’s oldest buildings, dating from the late-19th and early-20th centuries, range from high-style residential examples designed in popular Victorian-era styles (Beaux Arts, Renaissance Revival, Queen Anne), to less formal builder-designed structures (Residential Vernacular, Commercial Vernacular). As Bakersfield’s population boomed during the first two decades of the 20th century, whole new residential tracts embraced the Craftsman bungalow movement of the period.

Moving into the 1920s and 1930s, the city saw a proliferation of popular period revival styles (Neoclassical, Tudor Revival, French Revival, Spanish Colonial Revival, American Colonial Revival, etc.). These styles could be seen both in the residential landscape, as well as among the city’s more prominent commercial, civic and institutional properties. Also during this period, Bakersfield began to embrace a number of early modernist styles, particularly in their commercial and institutional buildings (Art Deco, Streamline/PWA Moderne, Late Moderne).

Several of the early modernist residential styles that first appeared in these years persisted into the postwar period as well (International Style, Minimal Traditional, Ranch).

In the post-World War II period, Bakersfield’s architectural landscape evolved dramatically, largely due to three factors: a significant influx of new residents after the war; a population of local architects starting practices in Bakersfield; and widespread rebuilding efforts in the aftermath of the 1952 earthquake. The post-World War II population growth resulted in the expansion of the city boundaries and the need for substantial development to serve the new residents. Many of this new development was designed by graduates of Kern County Union

447 Guidance in this section related to the evaluation of architecturally significant properties from: U.S. Department of the Interior, National Register Bulletin 15: How to Apply the National Register Criteria for Evaluation (Washington D.C.: National Park Service, 1997), 17-20.

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High School who first studied under local architect and educator Clarence C. Cullimore, Sr., then went on to the University of Southern California School of Architecture and other professional programs before returning to Bakersfield. The postwar architectural landscape was also transformed when City officials advocated for modernist architectural styles for the rebuilding of Bakersfield following a series of earthquakes in the summer of 1952 that resulted in the damage or loss of a sizable number of buildings throughout the city. With these three overarching forces at work in the postwar period, Bakersfield experienced an architectural shift away from more historicist designs toward later modernist styles, primarily among its commercial, civic and institutional buildings (Mid-Century Modern, Googie, Late Modern, New Formalism).

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THEME: Late 19th-Century Architecture
Sub-Theme: Beaux Arts (1890-1929)
Beaux Arts (or Beaux Arts Classicism) appeared in Southern California beginning in the late 1890s. It was the dominant type of high-style architecture in the United States in the late-19th and early-20th centuries. This style is based on the principals of the Parisian architecture school L’ École des Beaux Arts, established in late 18th-century France as the successor to the royal academies of painting, sculpture, and architecture. L’ École des Beaux Arts dominated all discussion of architecture during the 19th century, guiding the design and placement of major public buildings throughout Paris. In 1846, Richard Morris Hunt was the first American to attend the École and the American architectural profession would subsequently be dominated by men who had studied there or who had been trained in studios or schools established by those who had. The Beaux Arts style became popular in the United States as a result of its prominence at several expositions, including the Columbian Exposition in Chicago (1893) and the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco (1915). The popularity of the Beaux Arts approach to architecture in the United States at this time was also characteristic of the fact that architecture was becoming increasingly professional and specialized. American architectural schools modeled themselves after the traditional educational methods of their European counterparts, just as Americans used their wealth to construct European style buildings.

With its grandiose treatment of classic architectural forms, the Beaux Arts style was viewed as an ideal expression of both wealth and civic pride. Buildings of the style are both formal and monumental, with abundant and opulent decorative details.448 It thus became the almost universal choice for civic and institutional buildings, as well as some commercial buildings, into the 1920s. In the days before the United States’ federal government instituted income tax, large fortunes were proudly displayed in increasingly ornate and expensive houses, and privately-owned Beaux Arts mansions delivered a message of personal wealth. Homes in the Beaux Arts style were built principally in prosperous urban centers where turn-of-the-20th- century wealth congregated. Most domestic examples were built before 1915, but the style persisted until the economic depression of the 1930s.449 Known examples in Bakersfield date to the teens and 1920s, and represent commercial and institutional commissions designed by prominent architects including Orville L. Clark and Charles H. Biggar.

Criteria NRHP: C CRHR: 3 BRHP: c
Character-Defining Features
 Symmetrical composition, sometimes with projecting pavilions  Tripartite articulation in the manner of the Italian Renaissance palazzo  High-quality exterior cladding such as limestone or marble

448 Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, “Beaux Arts Style 1885-1930,” Pennsylvania Architectural Field Guide, http://www.phmc.state.pa.us/portal/communities/architecture/styles/beaux-arts.html, accessed December 2015. 449 Virginia Savage McAlester, A Field Guide to American Houses (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2014), 478.

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 Monumental entrances accessed by broad flights of steps  Arched or linteled openings
 Glazed terracotta or cast-stone Classical ornament, including columns and pilasters, frequently coupled; prominent cornices with elaborate moldings, dentils, and modillions; and decorative bas-relief panels or friezes
 Vertically proportioned rectangular or round-arched windows, sometimes in tripartite configurations
Eligibility Standards
 Dates from the period of significance; and
 Represents a good or excellent local example of the style; and  Exhibits high quality of design or distinctive features; and/or  Represents a notable work of an important practitioner; and  Retains the essential character-defining features of the style; and  Retains sufficient integrity to convey significance from the historic period.  Properties with regional or national significance, or with exceptional integrity from the historic period, may be eligible for listing in the California and/or National Register.

Integrity Threshold
According to guidance from the NPS, a property significant for its architecture/design must retain those physical features that characterize the type, period, or method of construction that the property represents. Integrity of location and setting are typically less important for properties that are eligible for their architectural merit. An eligible property under this sub- theme therefore should retain integrity of design, materials, workmanship, and feeling. A building that has lost some historic materials or details may still be eligible if it retains the features that illustrate its original style and appearance in terms of the massing, spatial relationships, proportion, pattern of windows and doors, texture of materials, and ornamentation. Due to the rarity of extant examples from the late 19th century, a greater degree of alteration may be acceptable for the earliest examples of the style in the city.

Bakersfield Security Trust Company Bank, 1800 Chester
Avenue (1910).

Kern County Free Library, 1400 Baker Street (1915).

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Sub-Theme: Renaissance Revival (1890-1929)
The Renaissance Revival (or Italian Renaissance Revival) style was based upon the Classically- inspired architecture developed in Italy during the artistic, architectural, and literary movement of the 14th through 16th centuries that was spurred by the rebirth of interest in the ideals and achievements of imperial Rome. Italian Renaissance architecture was familiar to late 19th- century American architects who were trained at the École des Beaux Arts. The style was first interpreted for monumental, elaborately decorated public buildings such as the Boston Public Library (McKim, Mead, and White, 1887) and lavish mansions such as the Breakers (Richard Morris Hunt, 1893), the Vanderbilt “summer cottage” in Newport, Rhode Island. By the early 20th century, a more restrained, literal interpretation of the style developed as a larger number of American architects, as well as their clients, visited Italy and thus gained first-hand knowledge of original examples of Italian Renaissance architecture. This knowledge was further disseminated through extensive photographic documentation. As a result, Italian Renaissance Revival buildings are more literal interpretations than examples of the picturesque Italianate style.

Renaissance Revival buildings are often characterized by formal, usually symmetrical façades with recessed entrances, open loggias, and restrained use of Classical details, including quoins, roofline balustrades, pedimented windows, molded cornices and stringcourses, and rusticated stonework. The style was often used for imposing civic and institutional buildings, and banks.

In Bakersfield, known examples are primarily located downtown and were constructed in the 1890s and 1920s. Extant examples were designed by notable practitioners, including Henry Schultze, Carl Werner, Everett Hinshaw, and Charles H. Biggar.

Criteria NRHP: C CRHR: 3 BRHP: c
Character-Defining Features
 Symmetrical façade; formal composition
 Low-pitched hipped roof with clay barrel or Roman tile; sometimes flat roof with balustrade or parapet
 Boxed eaves with decorative brackets or cornice
 Exterior walls veneered in smooth plaster or masonry
 Arched window and door openings, especially at the first floor  Divided-light wood casement windows, often with pediments (upper-story windows usually smaller and less elaborately detailed)
 Primary entrance framed with Classical columns or pilasters  Decorative cast-stone Classical details, including quoins, entablatures, string courses, pediments, architraves, and cornices

Eligibility Standards
 Dates from the period of significance; and
 Represents a good or excellent local example of the style; and  Exhibits high quality of design or distinctive features; and/or  Represents a notable work of an important practitioner; and

Bakersfield Historic Context Statement 165
Historic Resources Group
 Retains the essential character-defining features of the style; and  Retains sufficient integrity to convey significance from the historic period.  Properties with regional or national significance, or with exceptional integrity from the historic period, may be eligible for listing in the California and/or National Register.

Integrity Threshold
According to guidance from the NPS, a property significant for its architecture/design must retain those physical features that characterize the type, period, or method of construction that the property represents. Integrity of location and setting are typically less important for properties that are eligible for their architectural merit. An eligible property under this sub- theme therefore should retain integrity of design, materials, workmanship, and feeling. A building that has lost some historic materials or details may still be eligible if it retains the features that illustrate its original style and appearance in terms of the massing, spatial relationships, proportion, pattern of windows and doors, texture of materials, and ornamentation. Due to the rarity of extant examples in Bakersfield, a greater degree of alteration may be acceptable for the earliest examples of the style in the city.

Kern County Land Company Building/Tevis Block, 1712 19th Street (1893).

Standard Oil Building/Jastro Building, 1800 19th Street (1917- 1921).

Masonic Temple, 1920 18th Street (1923). The Bakersfield Californian Building, 1707 Eye Street (1926).

Bakersfield Historic Context Statement 166
Historic Resources Group
Sub-Theme: Queen Anne (1890-1905)
The eclectic and elaborate Queen Anne style was one of the most popular styles for domestic architecture in the United States from the 1880s until about 1900, although it continued in California until about 1910. Misnamed after the sovereign of the United Kingdom, the style originated in 19th-century Britain and combines freely adapted elements of English Gothic, Elizabethan, and Classical architecture. Like the Stick/Eastlake style that it quickly replaced, the Queen Anne style was popularized throughout the United States by the rapidly-expanding railroad network that made pre-cut architectural features easily available.

The Queen Anne style is characterized by complex asymmetrical compositions and the use of exterior wall surfaces as a primary decorative element. Queen Anne residences typically incorporate a projecting full-width, partial-width, or wrap-around front porch; steeply-pitched multi-gabled or hipped roofs; intricately patterned shingles and masonry; turned spindle work; and Classical elements executed in wood.

In Bakersfield, there are both elaborate high-style examples as well as more modest single- story Queen Anne cottages. Local examples date from the 1890s into the first decade of the 20th century.

Criteria NRHP: C CRHR: 3 BRHP: c
Character-Defining Features
 Asymmetrical façade composition
 Steeply-pitched roof of irregular shape, usually with a dominate front-facing gable  Wooden exterior wall cladding with decorative patterned shingles or patterned masonry
 Projecting partial-width, full-width or wrap-around front porch, usually one story in height
 Cut-away bay windows
 Wood double-hung sash windows
 Towers topped by turrets, domes or cupolas
 Tall decorative-brick exterior chimneys
 Ornamentation may include decorative brackets, bargeboards and pendants, as well as Eastlake details, such as spindle work

Queen Anne Cottage sub-type
 One-story in height
 Simplified decorative details

Eligibility Standards
 Dates from the period of significance; and
 Represents a good or excellent local example of the style; and  Exhibits high quality of design or distinctive features; and/or  Represents a notable work of an important practitioner; and

Bakersfield Historic Context Statement 167
Historic Resources Group
 Retains the essential character-defining features of the style; and  Retains sufficient integrity to convey significance from the historic period.  Properties with regional or national significance, or with exceptional integrity from the historic period, may be eligible for listing in the California and/or National Register.

Integrity Threshold
According to guidance from the NPS, a property significant for its architecture/design must retain those physical features that characterize the type, period, or method of construction that the property represents. Integrity of location and setting are typically less important for properties that are eligible for their architectural merit. An eligible property under this sub- theme therefore should retain integrity of design, materials, workmanship, and feeling. A building that has lost some historic materials or details may still be eligible if it retains the features that illustrate its original style and appearance in terms of the massing, spatial relationships, proportion, pattern of windows and doors, texture of materials, and ornamentation. Due to the rarity of extant examples in Bakersfield, a greater degree of alteration may be acceptable for the earliest examples of the style in the city.

1920 17th Street (1900). Stark/Spencer Residence, 1321 N Street (1898).

2514 19th Street (1900). 2724 19th Street (1906).

Bakersfield Historic Context Statement 168
Historic Resources Group
Sub-Theme: American Foursquare (1890-1919)
The American Foursquare style was one of the most popular house types in the United States from about 1890 well into the 20th century. Compact and more sparsely ornamented, American Foursquare was an antidote to the ornate Queen Anne style. Because of its more vernacular design, it offered greater simplicity, affordability, and ease of construction compared to other popular styles of the period. As such, it was a popular style for mail-order “kit homes” and thus can be found on small urban and suburban lots throughout the country.

In Bakersfield, examples of the American Foursquare style date to the first decade of the 20th century are relatively rare.

Criteria NRHP: C CRHR: 3 BRHP: c
Character-Defining Features
 Square or rectangular plan
 Compact, two-story massing
 Symmetrical or asymmetrical composition
 Hipped or pyramidal roof, with wide boxed eaves, eave brackets, and dentil molding  Central hipped dormer
 Exterior walls finished in horizontal wood siding
 Projecting one-story porch across primary façade, sometimes extending over driveway as a porte cochère
 Wood-sash double-hung windows

Eligibility Standards
 Dates from the period of significance; and
 Represents a good or excellent local example of the style; and  Exhibits high quality of design or distinctive features; and/or  Represents a notable work of an important practitioner; and  Retains the essential character-defining features of the style; and  Retains sufficient integrity to convey significance from the historic period.  Properties with regional or national significance, or with exceptional integrity from the historic period, may be eligible for listing in the California and/or National Register.

Integrity Threshold
According to guidance from the NPS, a property significant for its architecture/design must retain those physical features that characterize the type, period, or method of construction that the property represents. Integrity of location and setting are typically less important for properties that are eligible for their architectural merit. An eligible property under this sub- theme therefore should retain integrity of design, materials, workmanship, and feeling. A building that has lost some historic materials or details may still be eligible if it retains the features that illustrate its original style and appearance in terms of the massing, spatial relationships, proportion, pattern of windows and doors, texture of materials, and ornamentation. Due to the rarity of extant examples in Bakersfield, a greater degree of alteration may be acceptable for the earliest examples of the style in the city.

Bakersfield Historic Context Statement 169
Historic Resources Group

1924 B Street (1905). 2322 18th Street (1911).

Bakersfield Historic Context Statement 170
Historic Resources Group
Sub-Theme: Mission Revival (1895-1929)
The Mission Revival style is indigenous to California. A counterpart to the American Colonial Revival of the Northeastern states, it drew upon California’s own colonial past. The style grew out of the romanticized image of old California fostered by Helen Hunt Jackson’s popular 1884 novel Ramona. Also influential were the efforts of writer Charles Fletcher Lummis, who promoted California tourism with his magazine Land of Sunshine and founded the Landmarks Club in 1895 to restore the crumbling Spanish missions. Never common beyond the Southwest, its regional popularity was spurred by its adoption by the Santa Fe and Southern Pacific Railroads as the preferred style for train stations and resort hotels, where the original scale of the missions could be more successfully replicated. Throughout California, Mission Revival architecture was used into the 1920s, alongside other Period Revival styles.

Beginning in the late 19th century, California architects borrowed and freely adapted features of the California missions—bare plaster walls, curvilinear bell parapets or espadañas, arcades, tile roofs—often utilized in combination with elements of other styles.

In Bakersfield, known examples of the Mission Revival style date to the first decade of the 20th century and are quite rare.

Criteria NRHP: C CRHR: 3 BRHP: c
Character-Defining Features
 Red clay tile roofs with overhanging eaves and open rafters  Shaped parapets
 Cement plaster exterior wall finish
 Arched window and door openings
 Details may include bell towers, arcades, quatrefoil openings or patterned tiles Eligibility Standards
 Dates from the period of significance; and
 Represents a good or excellent local example of the style; and  Exhibits high quality of design or distinctive features; and/or  Represents a notable work of an important practitioner; and  Retains the essential character-defining features of the style; and  Retains sufficient integrity to convey significance from the historic period.  Properties with regional or national significance, or with exceptional integrity from the historic period, may be eligible for listing in the California and/or National Register.

Integrity Threshold
According to guidance from the NPS, a property significant for its architecture/design must retain those physical features that characterize the type, period, or method of construction that the property represents. Integrity of location and setting are typically less important for properties that are eligible for their architectural merit. An eligible property under this sub- theme therefore should retain integrity of design, materials, workmanship, and feeling. A building that has lost some historic materials or details may still be eligible if it retains the

Bakersfield Historic Context Statement 171
Historic Resources Group
features that illustrate its original style and appearance in terms of the massing, spatial relationships, proportion, pattern of windows and doors, texture of materials, and ornamentation. Due to the rarity of extant examples in Bakersfield, a greater degree of alteration may be acceptable for the earliest examples of the style in the city.

1002 Oleander Avenue (1901). 2525 19th Street (1907).

Bakersfield Historic Context Statement 172
Historic Resources Group
Sub-Theme: Residential Vernacular
The term “Residential Vernacular” is used here to describe what are typically modest houses or cottages with minimal decorative features. These residences date from the late 19th and early 20th centuries and may display some details associated with Victorian-era residential architecture. However, these details tend to be applied in a superficial manner to an otherwise simple house form, and thus the result is not representative of a recognizable style.

Bakersfield retains an extant population of these residences with varying degrees of integrity.

Criteria NRHP: C CRHR: 3 BRHP: c
Character-Defining Features
 Simple square or rectangular form
 Gabled or hipped roof, moderately pitched, with boxed or open eaves  Wood exterior cladding, often including wood shingles  Single or paired wood double-hung windows
 Simple window and door surrounds

Eligibility Standards
Residential Vernacular buildings typically would not be individually eligible for their architectural merit. Instead, intact examples would more appropriately be evaluated as examples of early patterns of residential development, as the home of an important pioneering person or family, or as a contributor to a larger residential historic district.

805 Kentucky Street (1905). 2103 20th Street (1898).

Bakersfield Historic Context Statement 173
Historic Resources Group

2104 18th Street (c. 1900). 331 Holtby Road (c. 1900).

Bakersfield Historic Context Statement 174
Historic Resources Group
Sub-Theme: Commercial Vernacular
Although not an officially recognized style, “commercial vernacular” describes simple commercial structures with little decorative ornamentation, common in American cities and towns in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Commonly found in early business districts or along streetcar line corridors, these buildings can range from one-story commercial blocks with multiple retail storefronts, to mixed-use buildings of two or more stories with retail on the ground level and apartments or offices above. Commercial vernacular buildings are most commonly of brick construction, with minimal decorative detailing.

Criteria NRHP: C CRHR: 3 BRHP: c
Character-Defining Features
 Brick exterior wall surfaces, with face brick on the primary façade  Ground-story retail storefronts, typically with a continuous transom window above  Wood double-hung sash upper-story windows, often in pairs  Segmental arch window and door openings on side and rear elevations  Decorative detailing, if any, may include cornices, friezes, quoins, or string courses

Eligibility Standards
Commercial Vernacular buildings typically would not be individually eligible for their architectural merit. Instead, intact examples would more appropriately be evaluated as examples of early patterns of commercial development, as the location of an important early business, or as a contributor to a larger commercial historic district.

909 18th Street (1929). 2020 Eye Street (c. 1910).

Bakersfield Historic Context Statement 175
Historic Resources Group
THEME: The Craftsman Movement
Sub-Theme: Craftsman (1900-1919)
Craftsman architecture grew out of the late 19th-century English Arts and Crafts movement. A reaction against industrialization and the excesses of the Victorian era, the movement stressed simplicity of design, hand-craftsmanship, and the relationship of the building to the climate and landscape. Craftsman architecture developed in the first decade of the 20th century as an indigenous California version of the American Arts and Crafts movement, incorporating Southern California’s unique qualities with an emphasis on natural materials. Applied almost exclusively to domestic building types, Craftsman architecture was all but ubiquitous throughout Southern California from the early 1900s through the 1920s. Craftsman residences range from high-style, two-story homes to modest single-story bungalows.

Larger, more elaborate Craftsman houses were typically commissioned by wealthy patrons, and custom-designed in direct response to the needs of the homeowners and a particular physical site. These houses generally feature a low-pitched gable roof; broad overhanging eaves with exposed purlins and rafter tails; wood windows grouped in horizontal bands; and generous porches. A high-style Craftsman house is distinguished not only by its scale, but by the quality of the materials and complexity of design, often featuring elaborate custom woodwork, brickwork, or stained glass.

The Craftsman bungalow emerged around 1910 and persisted into the 1930s in some areas.

The bungalow’s simplicity of form, informal character, direct response to site, and extensive use of natural materials—particularly wood and stone—was a regional interpretation of the reforms espoused by the Arts and Crafts movement’s founder, William Morris. The proliferation of the ubiquitous bungalow was fed in part by the rise of “kit houses”. As the name implies, individuals could purchase a building site and order a house from a mail-order catalog, such as Sears & Roebuck Co., to be delivered by rail. A typical kit included some 12,000 pre-cut pieces and an instruction manual for the assembly of a modest yet complete single-family residence. Their comparative affordability made kit homes very popular with middle- and working-class families, as well as housing tract developers.

Craftsman bungalows generally have rectangular or irregular plans, one to one-and-a-half stories tall, with a pronounced horizontal emphasis. Features include low-pitched, front-facing gable roofs; deep overhanging eaves with exposed purlins and rafter tails; wood clapboard or shingle exteriors; and generous front porches, composed of river stone, brick, or plastered porch piers.

Bakersfield boasts a large population of Craftsman-style residences. Examples include large custom-designed houses by local architects such as Erskine Bemus and Orville L. Clark, as well whole neighborhoods of modest Craftsman-style bungalows.

Criteria NRHP: C CRHR: 3 BRHP: c
Character-Defining Features
 Horizontal massing

Bakersfield Historic Context Statement 176
Historic Resources Group
 Low-pitched gable roof with rolled or composition shingle roofing  Wide overhanging eaves with exposed rafter tails, outriggers, or knee braces  Exterior walls clad in wood shingle, shake, or clapboard siding  Projecting partial- or full-width front porch
 Heavy porch piers, often of river stone or brick
 Stone or brick foundations or chimneys
 Wood-sash casement or double-hung windows, often grouped in multiples  Wide front door, often with a beveled light
 Wide, plain window and door surrounds, often with extended lintels  Extensive use of natural materials (wood, brick, or stone) Eligibility Standards
 Dates from the period of significance; and
 Represents a good or excellent local example of the style; and  Exhibits high quality of design or distinctive features; and/or  Represents a notable work of an important practitioner; and  Retains the essential character-defining features of the style; and  Retains sufficient integrity to convey significance from the historic period.  Properties with regional or national significance, or with exceptional integrity from the historic period, may be eligible for listing in the California and/or National Register.

Integrity Threshold
According to guidance from the NPS, a property significant for its architecture/design must retain those physical features that characterize the type, period, or method of construction that the property represents. Integrity of location and setting are typically less important for properties that are eligible for their architectural merit. An eligible property under this sub- theme therefore should retain integrity of design, materials, workmanship, and feeling. A building that has lost some historic materials or details may still be eligible if it retains the features that illustrate its original style and appearance in terms of the massing, spatial relationships, proportion, pattern of windows and doors, texture of materials, and ornamentation. Due to the extensive use expressed natural materials—wood, brick, stone—in Craftsman architecture, integrity of materials and workmanship are of particular importance.

Barlow Residence, 1905 18th Street (1905). 2200 22nd Street (1910).

Bakersfield Historic Context Statement 177
Historic Resources Group

2029 C Street (1910). Frank Munzer Residence, 1701 F Street (c. 1910)

Allardt Residence, 721 Oleander Avenue (1914). Bimat Residence, 527 Niles Street (1910).

2208 Sunset Avenue (1930). 2228 Park Way (1911).

Bakersfield Historic Context Statement 178
Historic Resources Group

2221 Park Way (1926). 2208 San Emidio Street (1911).

Bakersfield Historic Context Statement 179
Historic Resources Group
Sub-Theme: Prairie Style (1900-1919)
The Prairie Style is an indigenous American style developed in the late 19th century in Chicago—one of the centers of the American Arts and Crafts movement—by a group of architects known collectively as the Prairie School. The acknowledged master of the Prairie Style was Frank Lloyd Wright, whose designs emphasized the horizontal with eaves extending well beyond the face of the exterior wall, bands of casement windows, and open floor plans that accentuated the flow of interior space.

A West Coast version of the Prairie Style developed later and differed somewhat from its Midwestern counterpart. Almost exclusively applied to domestic architecture, the Southern California Prairie Style house is defined by simple rectangular volumes and strong horizontal lines. It usually features exterior walls finished in cement plaster; flat or low-pitched roofs with wide boxed eaves, sometimes punctuated by decorative brackets; and horizontal bands of windows. French doors frequently provide a flowing connection from living and dining room to outdoor patios and terraces. Unlike their Craftsman counterparts, where porches play a key role in welcoming visitors, porches on many Prairie Style houses are reserved for the homeowner, surrounded by low walls with squat square piers and only accessible from the interior. Informal interior spaces with direct connection to the outdoors, along with restrained use of ornamentation, link these houses to the larger Craftsman idiom, as well as to the modern styles that would soon follow.

The Prairie Style is relatively rare in Southern California, and appears to be extremely rare in Bakersfield.

Criteria NRHP: C CRHR: 3 BRHP: c
Character-Defining Features
 One- or two-story rectangular volumes, sometimes with projecting wings  Pronounced horizontal emphasis
 Low-pitched hipped or flat roofs
 Wide boxed eaves, sometimes supported on decorative brackets  Cement plaster or brick exterior wall surfaces
 Recessed or projecting entry porches with low walls and square piers  Wood tripartite or casement windows in horizontal groupings, sometimes with continuous sills; double-hung windows are less common
Eligibility Standards
 Dates from the period of significance; and
 Represents a good or excellent local example of the style; and  Exhibits high quality of design or distinctive features; and/or  Represents a notable work of an important practitioner; and  Retains the essential character-defining features of the style; and  Retains sufficient integrity to convey significance from the historic period.  Properties with regional or national significance, or with exceptional integrity from the historic period, may be eligible for listing in the California and/or National Register.

Bakersfield Historic Context Statement 180
Historic Resources Group
Integrity Threshold
According to guidance from the NPS, a property significant for its architecture/design must retain those physical features that characterize the type, period, or method of construction that the property represents. Integrity of location and setting are typically less important for properties that are eligible for their architectural merit. An eligible property under this sub- theme therefore should retain integrity of design, materials, workmanship, and feeling. A building that has lost some historic materials or details may still be eligible if it retains the features that illustrate its original style and appearance in terms of the massing, spatial relationships, proportion, pattern of windows and doors, texture of materials, and ornamentation. Due to the rarity of extant examples in Bakersfield, a greater degree of alteration may be acceptable for examples of the style in the city.

2109 B Street (1919). McGill Apartments, 1821-1829 B Street (1923).

Bakersfield Historic Context Statement 181
Historic Resources Group
THEME: Early 20th-Century Period Revival Styles
Sub-Theme: Neoclassical (1900-1939)
Neoclassical architecture includes elements of the late 18th century Classical Revival and Adam (Federal) styles, as well as the early 19th-century Greek Revival style, sometimes combining of all of these influences in a single building. The Neoclassical style was influenced by the work of the 16th century Italian architect Andrea Palladio, who adapted Roman temple forms to residential design. The Neoclassical style was championed in the United States by Thomas Jefferson, whose designs for the Virginia state capitol, the University of Virginia, and his own home, Monticello, are among the finest American examples of the style. Neoclassical architecture did not achieve the broader popularity of the related American Colonial Revival style in the 1920s and 1930s. Like the Italian Renaissance Revival style, Neoclassicism was also widely employed in the design of civic and institutional buildings, and banks. These buildings typically convey a sense of grandeur, monumentality and permanence.

Neoclassical residential architecture is best identified by its symmetrical façade dominated by a full-height porch, or entrance portico, with over-scaled Classical columns supporting a pediment. Another common feature is the Palladian window—a tripartite window composed of a larger arched central section flanked by two smaller side sections—as a focal point of the façade.

Examples of Neoclassical architecture can be found in Bakersfield dating from the teen through the 1920s, though the style is not common.

Criteria NRHP: C CRHR: 3 BRHP: c
Character-Defining Features
 Symmetrical façade
 Rectangular plan, sometimes with side wings
 Low-pitched hipped or side gable roof
 Exterior walls clad in masonry veneer or horizontal wood siding  Monumental entrance portico with Classical columns and pedimented roof  Paneled wood entrance door with sidelights, transom light, and Classical surround  Wood double-hung, divided-light windows, sometimes with louvered wood shutters; often Palladian windows
Eligibility Standards
 Dates from the period of significance; and
 Represents a good or excellent local example of the style; and  Exhibits high quality of design or distinctive features; and/or  Represents a notable work of an important practitioner; and  Retains the essential character-defining features of the style; and  Retains sufficient integrity to convey significance from the historic period.  Properties with regional or national significance, or with exceptional integrity from the historic period, may be eligible for listing in the California and/or National Register.

Bakersfield Historic Context Statement 182
Historic Resources Group
Integrity Threshold
According to guidance from the NPS, a property significant for its architecture/design must retain those physical features that characterize the type, period, or method of construction that the property represents. Integrity of location and setting are typically less important for properties that are eligible for their architectural merit. An eligible property under this sub- theme therefore should retain integrity of design, materials, workmanship, and feeling. A building that has lost some historic materials or details may still be eligible if it retains the features that illustrate its original style and appearance in terms of the massing, spatial relationships, proportion, pattern of windows and doors, texture of materials, and ornamentation. Due to the rarity of extant examples in Bakersfield, a greater degree of alteration may be acceptable for examples of the style in the city.

Wiley Residence, 317 Oleander Avenue (1919). McKee Residence, 3031 21st Street (1937).

Bakersfield Historic Context Statement 183
Historic Resources Group
Sub-Theme: Tudor Revival (1900-1939)
The Tudor Revival style is loosely based on a variety of late medieval English building traditions including Perpendicular Gothic, Tudor, Elizabethan, and Jacobean. It has its origins in the late 19th-century English Arts and Crafts movement, whose leaders drew inspiration in part from English domestic architecture of the 16th and 17th centuries because of its picturesque qualities and sympathetic relationship to the natural landscape. The earliest examples of the style appeared in the United States in large estates of the 1890s. The Tudor Revival style grew in favor after World War I and reached its peak of popularity in the 1920s and 1930s, as architects and developers adapted it to the country’s rapidly growing suburban residential communities, as advancements in masonry veneering techniques allowed even the most modest examples to emulate the brick and stone exteriors of English prototypes.

High-style Tudor Revival houses are typically two and sometimes three stories in height with steeply-pitched, multi-gable roofs. Slate roof shingles are found in the finer examples, but wood shakes and composition shingles are also common. At least one front-facing gable is almost universally present as a dominant façade element. The buildings are usually rambling compositions of multiple volumes in a variety of sizes and shapes. Exterior walls are veneered in brick or stone, or feature decorative half-timbering, sometimes in elaborate patterns, with plaster between, mimicking the appearance of medieval construction techniques. Tall, narrow divided-light casement windows, sometimes with leaded diamond-shaped lights, are set in horizontal groupings or projecting bays. Main entrances—often set in crenellated turrets or under secondary gables with catslides—feature paneled wood doors framed by four-centered pointed arches. Projecting exterior chimneys with multiple flues and elaborate brickwork are sometimes located on the primary façade.

A sub-type of Tudor Revival is the Storybook style, which is a more whimsical version of Tudor Revival architecture derived from the quaint medieval cottages of the Cotswold region of southwestern England. The Storybook style was particularly popular in Hollywood where motion picture set designers sometimes moonlighted as architects.

In Bakersfield, the Tudor Revival style appears in high-style residential estates, or as isolated examples of modest scale in residential neighborhoods from the 1920s and 1930s, alongside more popular styles of the period, such as Craftsman and Spanish Colonial Revival.

Criteria NRHP: C CRHR: 3 BRHP: c, d
Character-Defining Features
 Asymmetrical façade and irregular massing
 Steeply-pitched multi-gabled roof with a prominent front-facing gable; slate, wood shake, or composition roofing
 Brick or plaster exterior wall cladding, typically with half-timbering and decorative details in stone or brick
 Tall, narrow divided-light windows, usually casement, often grouped horizontally or in bays; may have leaded diamond-shaped lights
 Entrance with pointed arch, set in turret or under secondary gable  Prominent chimney with elaborate brickwork

Bakersfield Historic Context Statement 184
Historic Resources Group
Storybook sub-type
 Steeply-pitched gabled roofs, or hipped roofs with clipped gables  Composition shingles laid in irregular patterns and rolled eaves to suggest thatching  Eyebrow dormers
 Exterior walls veneered in a rough, irregular plaster finish Eligibility Standards
 Dates from the period of significance; and
 Represents a good or excellent local example of the style; and  Exhibits high quality of design or distinctive features; and/or  Represents a notable work of an important practitioner; and  Retains the essential character-defining features of the style; and  Retains sufficient integrity to convey significance from the historic period.  Properties with regional or national significance, or with exceptional integrity from the historic period, may be eligible for listing in the California and/or National Register.

Integrity Threshold
According to guidance from the NPS, a property significant for its architecture/design must retain those physical features that characterize the type, period, or method of construction that the property represents. Integrity of location and setting are typically less important for properties that are eligible for their architectural merit. An eligible property under this sub- theme therefore should retain integrity of design, materials, workmanship, and feeling. A building that has lost some historic materials or details may still be eligible if it retains the features that illustrate its original style and appearance in terms of the massing, spatial relationships, proportion, pattern of windows and doors, texture of materials, and ornamentation.

Briscoe Residence, 2128 18th Street (1914). 311 Oleander Avenue (1930).

Bakersfield Historic Context Statement 185
Historic Resources Group

2830 Sunset Avenue (1929). 2830 18th Street (1926).

Bakersfield Historic Context Statement 186
Historic Resources Group
Sub-Theme: French Revival (1920-1955)
French Revival architecture in Southern California typically consists of two sub-types, Chateauesque and French Provincial. The Chateauesque style is loosely modeled on the 16th- century chateaux of France’s Loire Valley and combines features of French Gothic and Renaissance architecture. The style gained popularity in the United States in the late 19th century and is most closely associated with Richard Morris Hunt, the first American architect to study at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. The style did not gain popularity in Southern California until the 1920s, when it was most frequently applied to luxury apartment buildings, and only occasionally to large single-family residences.

Chateauesque style buildings are typically two or more stories in height and feature multiple, steeply-pitched hipped roofs with towers, turrets, spires, tall chimneys, and highly ornamented dormers. Exterior walls are usually veneered in stone, brick, or scored plaster, and are ornamented with Classical pilasters, stringcourses, and cornices. Windows are typically divided-light wood casements, frequently paired or grouped with prominent mullions.

The more modest French Provincial style was popularized after World War I and is based upon country houses of the French provinces, including Normandy. Although it shares several basic features with the more elaborate Chateauesque style, the French Provincial style is much simpler in its composition and detailing. It is characterized by a prominent, steeply pitched hipped roof with flared eaves and a Classical eave cornice; simple rectangular plan and massing; exterior walls veneered in smooth plaster; and divided-light wood-sash casement or double- hung windows, usually with louvered wood shutters. Upper-story windows sometimes break the cornice line with shallow dormers. The Norman variation usually features decorative half- timbering and a circular entrance tower with a conical roof.

French Revival architecture, of either the Chateauesque or French Provincial sub-types, are rare in Bakersfield. Known examples date anywhere from the 1920s to the 1950s. Therefore, the period of significance for this style extends through the immediate postwar period.

Criteria NRHP: C CRHR: 3 BRHP: c
Character-Defining Features
 Multiple steeply-pitched hipped roofs
 Complex massing
 Stone, brick, or scored plaster veneer at exterior walls  Towers, turrets and spires
 Highly ornamented dormers
 Tall exterior brick or stone chimneys
 Divided-light wood casement windows, paired or grouped, with prominent mullions  Classical pilasters, string courses, and cornices

French Provincial sub-type
 Steeply-pitched hipped roofs with flared eaves and eave cornice  Rectangular plan and simple massing