Agenda — Finance, Economic Development and Jobs Committee, September 22, 2025 (part 4 of 4)

Bakersfield Historic Context Statement 187
Historic Resources Group
 Smooth plaster veneer at exterior walls
 Divided-light wood-sash casement or double-hung windows, often breaking the cornice line
 Louvered wood shutters
 Decorative half-timbering and circular entrance tower with conical roof (Norman variation)
Eligibility Standards
 Dates from the period of significance; and
 Represents a good or excellent local example of the style; later examples should be excellent local examples; 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. Late examples, from the 1940s or 1950s, should be highly intact. 2829 21st Street (1952).

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Bakersfield Historic Context Statement 188
Historic Resources Group
Sub-Theme: Spanish Colonial Revival (1919-1959)
The Spanish Colonial Revival style attained widespread popularity throughout Southern California following the 1915 Panama-California Exposition in San Diego, which was housed in a series of buildings designed in the late Baroque Churrigueresque style of Spain and Mexico by chief architect Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue. The Churrigueresque style—with its intricate ornamentation juxtaposed against plain stucco wall surfaces and accented with towers and domes—lent itself to monumental edifices of churches and movie palaces, but was less suited to residential or smaller scale commercial buildings. For those applications, architects drew inspiration from provincial Spain, particularly the arid southern region of Andalusia.

The resulting Spanish Colonial Revival style was a deliberate attempt to develop a “native” California architectural style. While it romanticized the area’s colonial past, it also drew directly from Spanish and other Mediterranean precedents, and ultimately bore little resemblance to the missions and rustic adobe ranch houses that comprised the state’s colonial-era buildings.

The style is characterized by its infinitely creative combinations of plaster, tile, wood, and iron.

Character-defining features include plaster-clad volumes arranged around patios; low-pitched gable and shed roofs sheathed in clay barrel tiles; and sprawling irregular plans with low horizontal orientation and asymmetrical façades.

The popularity of the Spanish Colonial Revival style coincided with Southern California’s population boom of the 1920s, and extended across nearly all property types. It shaped the region’s expansion for nearly two decades, reaching its peak of popularity in 1929, and tapering off through the 1930s as the Great Depression took hold. Like other period revival styles, the Spanish Colonial Revival style was often simplified, reduced to its signature elements, or creatively combined with design features of other Mediterranean regions such as Italy, southern France, and North Africa, resulting in a pan-Mediterranean mélange of eclectic variations (see Mediterranean Revival Style). It was sometimes combined, although much less frequently, with the emerging Art Deco and Moderne styles.

The Spanish Colonial Revival style proliferated throughout residential neighborhoods of the 1920s and 1930s in Southern California, and was also utilized for commercial and institutional commissions during the same period. The style persisted into the postwar period specifically for church architecture, as religious institutions expanded to serve their growing congregations and eschewed modern designs in favor of traditional styles.

Spanish Colonial Revival architecture is common in Bakersfield. Examples range from elaborate architect-designed residences and commercial building from the 1920s and 1930s, to church from both the prewar and postwar periods. Architects known to have extant examples in Bakersfield include Higgins & Root, Ernest L. McCoy, S. Charles Lee, and John Montgomery Cooper.

Criteria NRHP: C CRHR: 3 BRHP: c
Character-Defining Features
 Asymmetrical façade
 Irregular plan and horizontal massing

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Bakersfield Historic Context Statement 189
Historic Resources Group
 Varied gable or hipped roofs with clay barrel tiles
 Plaster veneered exterior walls forming wide, uninterrupted expanses  Wood-sash casement or double-hung windows, typically with divided lights  Round, pointed, or parabolic arched openings
 Arcades or colonnades
 Decorative grilles of wood, wrought iron, or plaster
 Balconies, patios or towers
 Decorative terra cotta or glazed ceramic tilework
Eligibility Standards
 Dates from the period of significance; and
 Represents a good or excellent local example of the style; later examples should be excellent local examples; 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, particularly on secondary façades, 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. Eligible examples must retain characteristic clay barrel tile roofing. Late examples, such as postwar churches, should be highly intact.

Hughes Residence, 2221 Cedar Street (c. 1925). Padre Hotel, 1702 18th Street (1928).

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Bakersfield Historic Context Statement 190
Historic Resources Group

Fox Theater, 2001 H Street (1930). St. Paul's Episcopal Church, 216 17th Street (1953-61).

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Bakersfield Historic Context Statement 191
Historic Resources Group
Sub-Theme: Mediterranean Revival (1919-1939)
The Mediterranean Revival style is distinguished by its eclectic mix of architectural elements from several regions around the Mediterranean Sea, including Spain, Italy, southern France, and North Africa. Much of American architecture of the late 19th and early 20th centuries can be broadly classified as Mediterranean in origin, including the Beaux Arts, Mission Revival, Spanish Colonial Revival, and Renaissance Revival styles. By the 1920s, the lines between these individual styles were frequently blurred and their distinguishing characteristics blended by architects who drew inspiration from throughout the Mediterranean region. These imaginative combinations of details from varied architectural traditions resulted in the emergence of a distinct Mediterranean Revival style.

In contrast to the more academic and literal interpretations—such as the Andalusian-influenced Spanish Colonial Revival style, or the restrained and dignified Renaissance Revival style—the broader Mediterranean Revival freely combined elements of Italian, Spanish and Moorish architecture into what might otherwise be Spanish Colonial Revival designs. The Mediterranean Revival style is sometimes more formal than the simpler and more rustic Spanish Colonial Revival style, and often more flamboyant than the sober Renaissance Revival style.

Typical features of the Mediterranean Revival style include arched entrance doorways with richly detailed surrounds; arcades and loggias; stairways and terraces with cast stone balustrades; and Classical decorative elements in cast stone or plaster, including architraves, stringcourses, cornices, pilasters, columns, and quoins.

Mediterranean Revival architecture can be seen in Bakersfield, particularly among large residences of the 1920s and 1930s, typically alongside more popular styles of the period, such as American Colonial Revival and Spanish Colonial Revival.

Criteria NRHP: C CRHR: 3 BRHP: c
Character-Defining Features
 Frequently symmetrical façade
 Rectangular plan, two-story height
 Hipped roof with clay barrel tiles, wide boxed or bracketed eaves or eave cornice  Exterior walls veneered in smooth plaster
 Wood-sash casement windows, typically with divided lights; sometimes double-hung windows; Palladian windows or other accent windows
 Arched door or window openings
 Elaborate door surrounds
 Arcades, colonnades, or loggias
 Terraces and stairs with cast stone balustrades
 Cast stone or plaster decorative elements including architraves, stringcourses, cornices, pilasters, columns, and quoins
 Decorative grilles of wood, wrought iron, or plaster
 Balconies, patios or towers
 Decorative terra cotta or glazed ceramic tilework

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Bakersfield Historic Context Statement 192
Historic Resources Group
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, particularly on secondary façades, 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. Eligible examples must retain characteristic clay barrel tile roofing.

Beggs/Brandt Residence, 729 Oleander Avenue (1919). 1809 Beech Street (1930).

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Bakersfield Historic Context Statement 193
Historic Resources Group
Sub-Theme: Romanesque Revival (1920-1939)
The Romanesque Revival style is another variation of Mediterranean-inspired architecture. The style first appeared in the United States in the late 19th century with the work of Henry Hobson Richardson, but largely fell out of favor in the early 20th century. A different iteration of the style emerged after World War I, based on northern Italian precedents which typically utilized brick with stone trim in place of stone construction, and used rounded arches exclusively. The Romanesque Revival style was used for churches, university campuses, and occasionally for commercial buildings. In Southern California, both the University of Southern California (USC) and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) adopted Romanesque Revival as their official campus styles in the 1920s.

While the style is rare in Bakersfield, the city boasts an excellent example in a monumental and prominently located downtown church, designed by local architect Charles H. Biggar.

Criteria NRHP: C CRHR: 3 BRHP: c
Character-Defining Features
 Brick masonry construction with stone/cast stone trim; occasionally concrete construction with impression of formwork left intact
 Pitched clay barrel tiled roofs, often gabled
 Corbel table along cornices, eaves, or rakes
 Rounded arches in arcades, loggias, and at window and door openings  Square towers, typically with tiled hipped roofs; sometimes conical or rounded towers with low conical roofs
 Friezes with decorative relief
 Multiple belt courses
 Rope molding and twisted columns
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.

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Bakersfield Historic Context Statement 194
Historic Resources Group
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. Eligible examples must retain characteristic clay barrel tile roofing.

Bakersfield First Baptist Church, 1200 Truxton Avenue (1931).

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Bakersfield Historic Context Statement 195
Historic Resources Group
Sub-Theme: Byzantine Revival (1920-1959)
The term “Byzantine” refers to the eastern portions of the Roman Empire; the architectural style that was developed in these areas by late Romans and early Christians in the 5th century would go on to influence church buildings in countries like Greece and Italy, among others, for thousands of years.450 In the mid-19th century, a British group called the Palestine Exploration Fund began to investigate parts of ancient Israel and the eastern Mediterranean, sparking a series of discoveries that would influence modern synagogue architecture. The discovery of the ancient Byzantine synagogue at Bet Alfa in the mid-1920s inspired the construction of Byzantine Revival synagogues across the United States. Byzantine Revival is architecture seen almost exclusively in religious buildings associated with Eastern European and Middle Eastern faiths. Although the style was first seen in California in the 1920s, there are examples constructed after World War II, as religious institutions expanded to serve their growing congregations and eschewed modern designs in favor of traditional styles.

The Byzantine Revival 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
 Cruciform plan
 Symmetrical composition
 Decorative brick and stonework
 Domes, often onion domes
 Arches
 Marble columns and inlay, mosaics, inlaid gold, and inlaid stone paving 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.

450 Francis D.K. Ching, A Visual Dictionary of Architecture (Hoboken: Wiley and Sons, 1996), 131.

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Bakersfield Historic Context Statement 196
Historic Resources Group
building that has lost some historic materials or details, particularly on secondary façades, 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.

St. George Greek Orthodox Church, 401 Truxton Avenue (1956).

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Bakersfield Historic Context Statement 197
Historic Resources Group
Sub-Theme: Monterey Revival (1920-1939)
The Monterey Revival (or Monterey Colonial Revival) style is based upon the distinctive style of residential architecture that developed in California beginning in the 1830s, as more and more Yankee merchants and settlers arrived in Alta California and adapted the Anglo building traditions of the East Coast to local Hispanic customs. As its name implies, the style developed in and around Monterey and combined vernacular adobe construction with elements of American Federal and Greek Revival architecture, including multi-light wood-sash windows, louvered shutters, paneled doors, and Classical details executed in wood. The style’s most distinguishing characteristic is a second-floor covered wood balcony, often cantilevered, extending the length of the primary façade, and sometimes wrapping one or two sides. The best-known example of the style, and one of the earliest, is the Thomas Larkin adobe, constructed beginning in 1834 and one of the first two-story dwellings in Monterey.451 The style was revived beginning in the mid- to late-1920s and was favored by architects and homeowners who perhaps found the fantastical Spanish and Mediterranean revivals too exotic and too different from the building traditions familiar to most Americans. The Monterey Revival style reached the height of its popularity in Southern California in the 1930s, with some examples constructed in the early 1940s. The Monterey Revival style replaced adobe construction with wood-framed walls veneered in smooth plaster and devoid of surface ornament, and featured low-pitched gable or hipped roofs, double-hung wood windows, and those quintessential second-story balconies.

Monterey Revival architecture can be seen in Bakersfield, particularly among large residences of the 1920s and 1930s, typically alongside more popular styles of the period, such as American Colonial Revival and Spanish Colonial Revival.

Criteria NRHP: C CRHR: 3 BRHP: c
Character-Defining Features
 Two-story height, sometimes with one-story wings
 Rectangular or L-shaped plan
 Low-pitched hipped or side gable roofs with wood shakes or clay tiles  Typically asymmetrical composition of the primary façade  Plaster-veneered exterior walls devoid of surface ornament  Second-floor covered wood balcony, sometimes cantilevered, across primary façade and occasionally wrapping one or more sides; simple wood posts and wood or metal railing  Wood-sash double-hung windows, typically with divided lights  Louvered or paneled wood shutters
 Recessed entrances with paneled wood doors
Eligibility Standards
 Dates from the period of significance; and
 Represents a good or excellent local example of the style; and

451 Monterey County Historical Society, “Monterey’s Larkin House Adobe and Garden,” http://www.mchsmuseum.com/larkinhouse.html (accessed May 2025).

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Bakersfield Historic Context Statement 198
Historic Resources Group
 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, particularly on secondary façades, 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.

Zimmer Residence, 527 Oleander Avenue (1937). Dimon Residence, 620 Holtby Road (1941).

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Bakersfield Historic Context Statement 199
Historic Resources Group
Sub-Theme: Georgian Revival (1920-1939)
The Georgian style was the predominant architectural style in Great Britain and its North American colonies throughout the 18th century. It takes its name from the three kings— George I, George II, and George III—whose successive reigns (1714-1820) encompassed the period, but its stylistic elements were probably fixed by the end of the 17th century. The Georgian style combined traditional elements of late medieval English architecture—steeply- pitched roofs, towering chimneys, and dormers—with the strict proportions, symmetrical composition, and Classical detailing of the Italian Renaissance. The Georgian style also incorporated a new invention from the period, the vertical sliding sash (double-hung) window.

Inspired by pattern books and constructed by prosperous merchants and planters, Georgian- style houses of the American colonies were smaller and less ornate than their British counterparts, but no less stately and projecting a similar aura of dignity and gentility. In the late 18th century, the sober and restrained Georgian style gave way to the lighter, more ornate Adam style.

The U.S. Centennial Exposition of 1876 inspired a sense of patriotism in Americans and fostered a renewed interest in the styles of the Colonial era. The earliest attempts at a revived Georgian style in the late 19th century were rarely authentic reproductions, but rather took elements of Georgian architecture and applied them to Victorian buildings. In the early 20th century, architects began to produce more accurate interpretations that featured historically correct proportions and details, resulting in a proper revival style.

The Georgian Revival style is characterized by a rectangular plan; formal, symmetrical, five-bay façade composition; restrained use of Classical ornament; hipped or side gable roof with eave cornice, sometimes with dormers; tall chimneys; and divided-light double-hung wood windows.

Georgian Revival buildings of the 1920s and 1930s sometimes also feature Adam (Federal), Palladian, or other Neoclassical elements such as columned, pedimented porticos or Venetian (Palladian) windows.

The Georgian Revival style is not common in Southern California and appears to be quite rare in Bakersfield.

Criteria NRHP: C CRHR: 3 BRHP: c
Character-Defining Features
 Hipped or side gable roofs with eave cornice; sometimes dormers  Rectangular plan and simple massing
 Symmetrical façade, typically 5 bays wide
 Exterior walls veneered in brick; occasionally wood siding  Main entrance centered on front façade, with paneled wood door flanked by Classical pilasters or columns supporting a pediment
 Divided-light double-hung wood windows, sometimes with louvered or paneled shutters
 Prominent brick chimney(s)

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Bakersfield Historic Context Statement 200
Historic Resources Group
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, particularly on secondary façades, 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.

Woman’s Club of Bakersfield, 2030 18th Street (1921).

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Bakersfield Historic Context Statement 201
Historic Resources Group
Sub-Theme: American Colonial Revival (1920-1949)
American Colonial Revival describes a varied style that combines a number of architectural features found throughout the American Colonies, particularly in New England. The style has neither the strict formality of the Georgian Revival, nor the decorative embellishments of the Neoclassical, although it sometimes incorporates elements of both. It also adapts elements of Dutch colonial architecture, such as the gambrel roof. The U.S. Centennial Exposition of 1876 inspired a sense of patriotism in Americans and fostered an interest in the styles of the Colonial era. Early examples in the late 19th century were rarely accurate reproductions, but were instead free interpretations with details inspired by colonial precedents; later examples shifted to more historically correct proportions and details. In the early 20th century, the American Colonial Revival style was employed primarily for grand homes; however, by the 1920s it was being widely applied to more modest single- and multi-family residences. The restoration of Colonial Williamsburg in the 1930s refueled interest in the style, and it remained popular into the postwar era, again reflecting a renewed sense of patriotism after World War II.

American Colonial Revival buildings are typically one or two stories in height, and are sometimes symmetrical but frequently asymmetrical, with rectangular, L-shaped, or irregular plans. They typically feature side-gable or cross-gable roofs, sometimes with gabled dormers; exterior walls clad in horizontal wood siding, occasionally brick; prominent brick chimneys; double-hung, divided-light wood windows, often with louvered wood shutters; paneled wood doors, sometimes with sidelights, transom lights, or fanlights; and restrained use of Classical details. Some American Colonial Revival houses have small pedimented porches, while others have shed-roofed porches supported on wood posts extending the length of the primary façade.

American Colonial Revival architecture can be seen in Bakersfield, particularly among large residences of the 1920s and 1930s, typically alongside other popular styles of the period, such as the Spanish Colonial Revival style.

Criteria NRHP: C CRHR: 3 BRHP: c
Character-Defining Features
 Side-gable or cross-gable roof, often with dormers
 Asymmetrical composition (occasionally symmetrical)
 Horizontal wood siding at exterior walls
 Paneled wood entry door, sometimes with sidelights, transom light, or fanlight  Double-hung divided-light wood windows, often with louvered wood shutters  Projecting front porch
 Prominent brick chimney
 Restrained Neoclassical details, such as columns or pediments 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

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Bakersfield Historic Context Statement 202
Historic Resources Group
 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, particularly on secondary façades, 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.
2200 Truxton Avenue (1923). The Georgian Building, 2025 18th Street (1923).

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Bakersfield Historic Context Statement 203
Historic Resources Group
Sub-Theme: Dutch Colonial Revival (1910-1939)
Like its American Colonial counterpart, the Dutch Colonial style enjoyed a revival in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.452 Dutch Colonial architecture was based on architecture and housing types from the Netherlands dating back to the medieval period. The style has a particular association with the northeastern portion of the country, from Pennsylvania in the south to inland New York in the north. Dutch Colonial residential architecture exhibited regional variations, reflecting available resources. For instance, stone was rarely used as a building material in the Netherlands, but was utilized much more often in the colonies because it was widely available. The most widely recognized aspect of Dutch Colonial architecture is the gambrel roof, though this was not used exclusively. The earliest Dutch houses were one-room deep with steeply-pitched roofs. However, as homes became larger, these steeply-pitched roofs proved vulnerable to wind stresses without additional bracing. As a result, many larger Dutch- influenced houses instead employed the gambrel roof.

Character-defining features of the Dutch Colonial Revival style include simple building forms; clapboard or brick exterior cladding; front- or side-gambrel roofs, often with wide shed-roof dormers; and full-width recessed or projecting porches. Classical detailing is often restrained and includes pediments, columns or pilasters, divided-light double-hung wood windows, and decorative wood shutters. The style was less popular in Southern California than its American Colonial and Georgian counterparts. Early examples of Dutch Colonial Revival architecture are often hybrids, reflecting influences of the Shingle or other Victorian era styles.

Dutch Colonial Revival architecture appears to be rather rare in Bakersfield, typically appearing in residential neighborhoods from the 1920s and 1930s alongside more popular styles of the period, such as the American Colonial Revival and Spanish Colonial Revival styles.

Criteria NRHP: C CRHR: 3 BRHP: c
Character-Defining Features
 One or two stories in height
 Simple building forms
 Clapboard or brick exteriors
 Front- or side-gambrel roof
 Roof dormers, typically wide with shed roofs
 May have a full-width porch, recessed or projecting
 Restrained classical detailing, including pediments; columns or pilasters; divided-light double-hung sash windows
 Decorative wood shutters
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

452 Excerpted from City of Los Angeles, SurveyLA Historic Context Statement: American Colonial Revival, prepared by GPA Consulting, December 2015, 20-21.

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Bakersfield Historic Context Statement 204
Historic Resources Group
 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, particularly on secondary façades, 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.

2212 Truxton Avenue (1904). 2418 K Street (1910).

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Bakersfield Historic Context Statement 205
Historic Resources Group
Sub-Theme: East Asian Eclectic (1920-1979)
East Asian Eclectic architecture, a derivative and referential style that borrowed forms and ornament directly from ancient buildings in East Asia, emerged as part of the larger Exotic Revival trend in the western U.S. beginning in the 1920s. As it developed in the post-World War II period, the East Asian Eclectic style adopted some of the design language of the Modern movement. The distinctive, sweeping upturned eaves and steep roofs of early buildings gave way to decorative upturned beams and eaves supporting flat roofs, creating more linear and boxy forms. In some East Asian communities, the East Asian Eclectic style persisted beyond the postwar period—in residential neighborhoods, commercial enterprises, and religious institutions— as a way of communicating cultural and ethnic identity through design.

East Asian Eclectic architecture can be seen in those areas of downtown Bakersfield that were historically occupied by the city’s two Chinatowns, primarily among restaurant and religious buildings from the 1950s through the 1970s.

Criteria NRHP: C CRHR: 3 BRHP: c
Character-Defining Features
 Flat roof with decorative post-and-beam structural system, or pitched rakes at roof perimeter
 Brightly-colored roofs tiles
 Upturned eaves, often with carved brackets and rafter tails  Ornamented roof ridge
 Recessed entryways, often with elaborated surrounds
 Elaborated windows, including decorative mullion patterns, patterned grilles, or surrounds
 For mixed-use buildings, may have second-floor balconies  For retail, may have neon signage in fonts evoking calligraphy  For Chinese-influenced examples, may be painted red and gold  For Chinese-influenced examples, ornamentation may include dragon or lion motifs 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  May represent important ethnic or cultural community identity; 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.

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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, particularly on secondary façades, 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 the style, and the significance of East Asian Eclectic architecture within the context of cultural identity in Bakersfield, a greater degree of alteration may be acceptable. Replacement of signage is acceptable in commercial examples of the style, as tenants or uses change over time.

New China Café, 801 18th Street (1928).

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THEME: Early Modernist Styles
Sub-Theme: Art Deco (1925-1939)
Art Deco originated in France in the 1910s as an experimental movement in architecture and the decorative arts. It developed into a major style when it was first exhibited in Paris at the 1925 Exposition Internationale des Arts Decoratifs et Industriels Modernes, from which it takes its name. The Exposition’s organizers had insisted on the creation of a new, modern aesthetic.

The architecture of the Art Deco movement rejected the rigid organizational methods and classical ornamentation of the Beaux Arts style. It emphasized a soaring verticality through the use of stepped towers, spires, and fluted or reeded piers; and embraced highly stylized geometric, floral and figurative motifs as decorative elements on both the exterior and interior.

Ornate metalwork (especially aluminum), glazed terra cotta tiles, and bright colors were hallmarks of the style.

Art Deco was the first popular style in the United States that consciously rejected historical precedents. Instead, it was a product of the Machine Age and took its inspiration from industry and transportation. Art Deco was employed primarily in commercial and institutional buildings, and occasionally in multi-family residential buildings. It was rarely used for single-family residences. By the mid-1930s, in the depths of the Great Depression, the highly decorated style was already viewed as garish and overwrought, and it was soon abandoned in favor of the cleaner, simpler Streamline Moderne and PWA Moderne styles.

Downtown Bakersfield boasts a handful of commercial buildings designed in the Art Deco style, all dating from the 1930s.

Criteria NRHP: C CRHR: 3 BRHP: c
Character-Defining Features
 Vertical emphasis
 Smooth exterior wall surfaces, usually of plaster
 Flat roofs with decorative parapets or towers
 Stylized decorative elements in cast stone, glazed terra cotta tiles, or aluminum  Abstract geometric decorative motifs, such as zigzags and chevrons  Figurative motifs, such as floral or waterfall
 Stepped towers, piers, pilasters, and other vertical elements  Steel windows, usually fixed or casement

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 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, particularly on secondary façades, 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.

Kress Department Store; 1401 19th Street (1931). Nile Theater, 1721 19th Street (remodeled 1938).

San Joaquin Power Garage, 800 20th Street (1936).

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Sub-Theme: Streamline Moderne (1930-1950)/PWA Moderne (1933- 1943)
The constraints of the Great Depression cut short the development of Art Deco architecture, and replaced it with a purer expression of modernity, the Streamline Moderne style.

Characterized by smooth surfaces, curved corners, and sweeping horizontal lines, Streamline Moderne is considered to be the first thoroughly Modern architectural style to achieve wide acceptance among the American public. Inspired by the industrial designs of the period, the style was popular throughout the United States in the late 1930s, particularly for projects funded by Depression-era federal relief programs (see “PWA Moderne” below). Unlike the equally modern but highly-ornamental Art Deco style of the late 1920s, Streamline Moderne expressed an austerity perceived as more appropriate for the Depression era. Indeed, many of the prime movers behind the Streamline Moderne style—such as Raymond Loewy, Walter Dorwin Teague, Gilbert Rohde, and Norman Bel Geddes—all disliked Art Deco, seeing it as falsely modern. Nonetheless, in practice the Art Deco and Streamline Moderne styles were not necessarily opposites, as it was not uncommon to see Streamline buildings that incorporated some Deco elements.

The origins of the Streamline Moderne are rooted in transportation design, which took the curved form of the teardrop, because it was the most efficient shape in lowering the wind resistance of an object. Product designers and architects alike who wanted to express efficiency borrowed the streamlined shape of cars, planes, trains, and ocean liners. Streamline Moderne architecture not only looked more efficient, but in fact was often less inexpensive to build because of its smooth concrete or plaster exteriors which lacked labor-intensive ornamentation. The Streamline Moderne’s finest hour was the New York World’s Fair of 1939- 1940—known as the “World of Tomorrow” —showcased the homes and cities of the future, all in streamlined pavilions. Streamline Moderne architecture was applied to residential, commercial, and institutional properties from the 1930s through the immediate post-World War II period.

PWA Moderne-style buildings were constructed as part of government relief projects sponsored by the Public Works Administration (PWA) and the Works Progress Administration (WPA), established by President Roosevelt’s New Deal. Sometime referred to as “Depression Moderne” or “Classical Moderne”, the PWA Moderne style combines the clean lines of Streamline Moderne with simplified decorative elements of Art Deco to create a monumental but restrained architectural language appropriate for post offices, courthouses, schools, libraries, city halls, bridges, and other institutional, infrastructure, and public works projects.

Thus, the period of significance for the PWA Moderne style is 1933-1943, coinciding with the combined active years of the PWA and WPA.

Downtown Bakersfield boasts a number of Streamline and PWA Moderne style buildings from the 1930s and 1940s, including commercial, institutional and civic buildings.

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Criteria NRHP: C CRHR: 3 BRHP: c
Character-Defining Features
 Horizontal emphasis
 Asymmetrical façade
 Flat roof with coping
 Smooth plaster or concrete exterior wall surfaces
 Curved corners and end walls
 Flat canopies over entrances or bands of windows
 Glass block and porthole windows
 Fluted or reeded moldings or string courses (speedlines)  Pipe railings along exterior staircases and balconies  Steel sash windows

PWA Moderne sub-type
 Formal symmetry and massing
 Smooth exterior wall surfaces, including plaster, marble, terrazzo, and polished stone  Piers or engaged columns
 Windows often vertically arranged in recessed bays
 Minimal ornamentation

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, particularly on secondary façades, 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.

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Sill Building, 1500-1516 18th Street (1939). Woolworth's Department Store, 1400 19th Street (1950).

James Building, 1600-1614 20th Street (1947). Harvey Auditorium, Bakersfield High School, 1241 G Street (1948).

J.C. Penney, 1504-1510 19th Street (1947). Bank of America, 1931 Chester Avenue (1930).

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Bakersfield Fire Station No. 1, 2101 H Street (1939). Kern County Hall of Records, 1655 Chester Avenue (remodeled 1940).

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Sub-Theme: Late Moderne (1939-1955)
The Late Moderne style is a transitional style that incorporates elements of both the Streamline Moderne and International styles. The earliest examples of the style appeared in the late 1930s, but its development was delayed by the almost complete halt in construction activity during World War II. The Late Moderne style, therefore, did not achieve widespread popularity until the postwar years. It was used especially in large-scale commercial and civic buildings of the late 1940s and early 1950s.

The Late Moderne style combines the classical proportions, heavy massing, and applied ornament that characterized the Streamline Moderne style with the strict rectilinear volumes, horizontal emphasis, and smooth wall surfaces of the International Style. Walls were sometimes veneered in brick, especially Roman brick, in lieu of plaster or concrete to give the buildings added texture. Fenestration was minimal, usually consisting of horizontal bands of ribbon windows. One of the most distinctive features of the Late Moderne style is the bezel window: a grouping of windows, usually with a horizontal orientation, set within a prominent, protruding surround that contrasts with the material and color of the adjacent wall surface.

Commercial examples of the style may feature a tall, geometrically-shaped signage pylon, or projecting canopies with curvilinear profiles, sometimes with circular cutouts.

Examples of the Late Moderne style appear to be relatively rare in Bakersfield.

Criteria NRHP: C CRHR: 3 BRHP: c
Character-Defining Features
 Heavy massing and rectilinear volumes
 Horizontal orientation
 Flat roofs
 Unadorned wall surfaces of concrete or plaster, sometimes brick  Horizontal bands of windows, typically steel-sash casement, awning, or hopper  Bezeled windows
 Geometric signage pylons
 Projecting canopies with curvilinear profiles or circular cutouts

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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, particularly on secondary façades, 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.

California Department of Employment, 1924 Q Street (1951). Cornet 5-10-25 Cent Store, 1006 Baker Street (1948).

American Federal of Labor (A.F. of L.) Union 743, 911 20th Street (1949).

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Sub-Theme: Minimal Traditional (1934-1959)
The Minimal Traditional style grew out of Federal government initiatives to encourage home ownership by influencing the design of modest housing before and after World War II. The National Housing Act of 1934 created the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), which helped reignite the construction of single-family residences during the Great Depression by establishing mortgage terms that brought home ownership within reach for the average American family. The FHA also influenced how homes and neighborhoods were designed. As early as 1936, the FHA embraced the principles of modern community planning, advocating for well-designed comprehensive communities at the neighborhood scale. That year the FHA published a bulletin, Principles of Planning Small Houses, with guidelines for the design of a small, economical, and efficient “minimum” house. Builders following these guidelines were more likely to secure construction loans and mortgages.

The Minimal Traditional house—with simplified traditional forms and minimal detailing—first began to appear in single-family residential tracts developed in the mid- to late-1930s as the country began to emerge from the Great Depression. However, the proliferation of this highly efficient modest housing type was spurred by World War II and the sudden need to house vast numbers of workers who had relocated to accommodate the nation’s wartime production needs. After the war, large new residential subdivisions were developed throughout the United States but primarily in the southwest to accommodate returning servicemen and their families, purchasing new homes with no down payment under the G.I. Bill. While the Minimal Traditional style is primarily associated with the detached single-family house, it was also applied to low-density apartment buildings of the same period.

Criteria NRHP: C CRHR: 3 BRHP: c
Character-Defining Features
 One-story height
 Rectangular plan and simple forms
 Medium- or low-pitched hip or side-gable roof with shallow eaves  Smooth stucco wall cladding, often with accents in wood lap, stone, or brick veneer  Wood divided-light windows (picture, double-hung sash, casement)  Projecting three-sided oriel
 Shallow entry porch with slender wood supports
 Decorative wood shutters
 Lack of decorative exterior detailing

Eligibility Standards
Properties designed in the Minimal Traditional style typically would not be individually eligible for their architectural merit. As described above, the style emerged out of a need for construction efficiency and affordability according to FHA guidelines, and not in response to important architectural or stylistic movements. As noted by Caltrans in their statewide guidance for evaluating such properties: “Postwar tract houses by merchant builders generally will possess the distinctive characteristics of their type, style, and period. However, since these houses were built in multiples, it would not be possible to identify a single residence within a

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tract as being an important example relative to its neighbors.”453 As such, Minimal Traditional- style residences typically do not reflect distinctive characteristics or high quality of design that would qualify the property for individual historic designation as an example of its architectural style. Instead, a geographically contiguous collection of Minimal Traditional-style tract houses would more appropriately be evaluated as a historic district.

Heckert and Warford Apartments, 2301 E Street (1937).

453 California Department of Transportation, “Tract Housing in California, 1945-1973: A Context for National Register Evaluation,” Sacramento, CA, 2011.

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Sub-Theme: International Style (1920-1941)
The International Style—an architectural aesthetic that stressed rationality, logic, and a break with the past—emerged in Europe in the 1920s with the work of Le Corbusier in France, and Walter Gropius and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe in Germany. The United States became a stronghold of Modern architecture after the emigration of Gropius, Mies, and Marcel Breuer.

Two Austrian emigrants, Richard Neutra and Rudolph Schindler, helped introduce modern architecture to Southern California in the 1920s. Their buildings were minimalist in concept, stressed functionalism, and were devoid of regional characteristics and nonessential decorative elements. In 1932, the Museum of Modern Art hosted an exhibition, titled simply "Modern Architecture," that featured the work of 15 architects from around the world whose building designs shared a stark simplicity and vigorous functionalism. The term “International Style” was coined by Henry Russell Hitchcock and Philip Johnson in the exhibition catalog.

The early impact of the International Style in the United States was primarily in the fields of residential and small-scale commercial design. The economic downturn of the Depression, followed by World War II, resulted in little architectural development during this period. It was not until the postwar period that Americans embraced Modernism, and its full impact on the architectural landscape is observed. Therefore, pure examples of the International Style from the prewar period are rare.

Bakersfield is home to an outstanding example of the International Style, the 1937 Frank and Kay Davis Residence, designed by Richard Neutra, one of the progenitors of the style.

Criteria NRHP: C CRHR: 3 BRHP: c
Character-Defining Features
 Rectangular massing and boxy forms
 Balance and regularity, but not symmetry
 Clear expression of form and function
 Steel-frame structure used as an organizing device
 Flat roofs
 Elevation of volumes on tall piers (piloti), particularly in commercial examples  Frequent use of glass, steel, concrete, and smooth cement plaster  Horizontal bands of flush steel-sash windows, often meeting at corners  Absence of ornamentation

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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. Due to the nature of the style—characterized by simple forms and absence of ornamentation—eligible examples should be highly intact with only minor alterations on secondary façades.

David Residence, 2914 21st Street (1937).

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Sub-Theme: Ranch (1930-1969)
The Ranch style emerged from the 1930s designs of Southern California architect Cliff May, who merged modernist ideas with traditional notions of the working ranches of the American West and the rustic adobe houses of California’s Spanish and Mexican era ranchos. The resulting architectural style—characterized by its low horizontal massing, sprawling plan, and wood exterior detailing—embodied the ideal of “California living.” While the earliest Ranch houses date to the 1930s, the style and its variations enjoyed enormous popularity throughout the United States from the 1940s into the 1970s. In the post-World War II period, the Ranch house epitomized unpretentious residential architecture and proliferated throughout postwar suburban housing tracts, often in conjunction with the Minimal Traditional style of the same period.

The Ranch style was more conservative than other residential architecture of the period, often using decorative elements based on historical forms and capitalizing on the national fascination with the region’s romanticized Spanish past or the “Old West.” The underlying philosophy of the Ranch house was the use of natural materials and the informality of indoor-outdoor living.

The “California Ranch” describes the earlier Cliff May variation from the style 1930s and 1940s, which in.

Terms for the various Ranch sub-types vary across sources. For purposes of this historic context statement, the term “California Ranch” is used to describe the earlier Cliff May variation from the style 1930s and 1940s, characterized by smooth stucco exterior walls and low-pitched clay barrel tiles roofs. While this sub-type never achieved widespread popularity, its influence on later variations of the Ranch architectural style cannot be minimized.

The popularity of the Ranch house persisted in residential suburbs into the postwar period. The most common variation is the “Traditional Ranch”. The Traditional Ranch-style house is characterized by its one-story height; asymmetrical massing in L- or U-shaped plans; low- pitched hipped or gabled roofs with wide overhanging eaves; a variety of exterior cladding materials, including plaster and wood board-and-batten; and large wood picture windows and divided-light double-hung wood windows. More elaborate examples—sometimes called “Cinderella Ranch”—incorporate extensive decorative details, including scalloped bargeboards, false cupolas and dovecotes, fixed wood shutters, turned wood porch supports, and wood or leaded diamond-pane windows. The popularity of the Ranch-style house peaked during the 1950s and 1960s, coinciding with the proliferation of Mid-Century Modernism. This convergence of architectural styles inevitably resulted in a hybrid variation called “Modern Ranch,” which emphasizes simple horizontal planes and modern rather than traditional stylistic details.

Examples of the Ranch style—particularly the postwar varieties—can be seen throughout the city of Bakersfield. However, Bakersfield also boasts a unique population of California Ranch- style residences dating from the 1930s and 1940s, designed by local architect and architectural educator Clarence C. Cullimore. Some of these also employ adobe brick construction.

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Criteria NRHP: C CRHR: 3 BRHP: c
Character-Defining Features
 One-story height
 Sprawling L- or U-shaped plan, often with radiating wings  Low, horizontal massing with wide street-facing façade  Low-pitched hipped or gable roof with open overhanging eaves  Divided-light wood sash windows (picture, double-hung sash, casement)  Wide, covered front porch with wood posts
 Brick or plaster chimneys
 May include an attached garage, sometimes linked with an open breezeway

California Ranch sub-style
 Clay barrel roof tiles
 Smooth plaster exterior wall cladding
 Thick wood-frame walls to mimic the appearance of adobe construction; actual adobe brick construction is uncommon
 Attic vents in gable ends

Traditional Ranch sub-style
 Wood roof shakes or shingles
 Plaster, wood lap or wood board-and-batten exterior wall cladding, often with brick or stone veneer accents
 Detailed may include scalloped bargeboards, extended rafters, false cupolas and dovecotes, fixed wood shutters, turned wood porch supports, wood or leaded diamond- pane windows

Modern Ranch sub-style
 Flat or low-pitched hipped roof with composition shingle or gravel roofing  Smooth plaster exterior wall cladding
 Metal-frame windows and sliding glass doors
 May have wood or concrete block privacy screens
 Often designed by a noted architect of the period

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Except for architect-designed, high-style examples, residences designed in the Traditional Ranch or Modern Ranch styles typically would not be individually eligible for their architectural merit. As noted by Caltrans in their statewide guidance for evaluating such properties:
“Postwar tract houses by merchant builders generally will possess the distinctive characteristics of their type, style, and period. However, since these houses were built in multiples, it would not be possible to identify a single residence within a tract as being an important example relative to its neighbors.”454 As such, Traditional Ranch or Modern Ranch- style residences typically do not reflect distinctive characteristics or high quality of design that would qualify the property for individual historic designation as an example of its architectural style. Instead, a geographically contiguous collection of these tract houses would more appropriately be evaluated as a historic district.

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, particularly on secondary façades, 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 nature of the style—characterized by its sprawling plan and low, horizontal massing—eligible examples should retain their original form and scale.

Ames Residence, 2929 21st Street (1932). Hubbell/Nicholson Residence, 2630 21st Street (1934).

454 California Department of Transportation, “Tract Housing in California, 1945-1973: A Context for National Register Evaluation,” Sacramento, CA, 2011.

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Clarence C. Cullimore Home and Studio, 101 Oleander Avenue (1930).

Frick Residence, 2221 Myrtle Street (1960).

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Sub-Theme: Programmatic/Mimetic (1925-1969)
Programmatic/Mimetic architecture is a unique expression of commercial American roadside design which conveys an advertising message through the building form itself. First appearing in the 1920s and 1930s and persisting into the post-World War II period, Programmatic and Mimetic buildings are typically designed as out-of-scale objects, necessarily giving these eye- catching commercial structures a distinct advantage in conveying an advertising message to passing motorists.

The term “programmatic” refers to those buildings whose exterior form is directly related to its interior program, typically a commercial building in the form of the product for sale within (i.e. a hot dog stand in the form of a hot dog. “Mimetic” refers to buildings which mimic forms which are not related to the building’s use but may be related to the name of the original business, such as a restaurant in the form of a derby hat, or the spirit of the activity housed within, such as a chili restaurant in the form of a chili bowl. In either case, these structures take the form of objects not normally associated with architecture, including food, animals, or household items.

Programmatic/Mimetic roadside buildings could be found throughout the country, but were particularly well-suited to Southern California. The mild climate and the resulting local tradition of inexpensive stucco-on-wood-frame construction made them easy and cheap to build. This construction also allowed for a greater freedom of form than could be achieved with the masonry or clapboard exteriors typical elsewhere. Additionally, the region’s early embrace of car culture lead to well-trafficked automobile corridors that could be lined with low-scale commercial and auto-related businesses—service stations, restaurants and food stands, lodging, retail stores—many of which communicated their internal use not only with signage, but with the design of the building itself. Note the term “Programmatic/Mimetic” does not apply to thematic signage applied to an otherwise ordinary building form, or to buildings that adopt a fantasy architectural theme.

Today, extant examples of Programmatic/Mimetic architecture are rare in any community where they still exist.

Criteria NRHP: C CRHR: 3 BRHP: c
Character-Defining Features
 Typically a low-scale commercial building
 Primarily applied to commercial and auto-related businesses, such as restaurants, food stands, and retail stores
 Conveys an advertising message through the building form itself  Takes the form of an object—often out-of-scale—not normally associated with architecture, such as food, animals, or household items  Free-standing in a roadside setting to allow for viewing from the automobile  May be linked to particular commercial chains, companies and/or designers

Eligibility Standards
 Dates from the period of significance; and

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 Represents a good and rare local example of the style; 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. However, because Programmatic/ Mimetic architecture is associated with roadside commercial development, eligible examples should also retain integrity of location. Thus, an eligible property under this sub-theme should retain integrity of location, design, materials, workmanship, and feeling. Due to the extreme rarity of extant examples, a greater degree of alteration may be acceptable, provided that the building’s overall form is retained and that the object it was originally designed to resemble remains readily apparent.

Barn Bail Bonds, 1438-1440 Chester Avenue (1963).

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THEME: Postwar Modernist Styles
Sub-Theme: Mid-Century Modern (1945-1965)
Mid-Century Modern broadly describes post-World War II iterations of the International Style, which was characterized by geometric forms, smooth wall surfaces, and an absence of exterior decoration. Mid-Century Modernism represents the adaptation of these elements to the local climate and topography, as well as to the postwar need for efficiency and affordability in new construction as the population boomed.

After World War II, two trends emerged based on the International Style and the work of two of its progenitors, Walter Gropius and Mies van der Rohe. The first trend, modeled on the early work of Gropius, emphasized the expression of a building’s function and freely borrowing materials and methods of construction from modern technology. Gropius advocated for industrialized building techniques and for standardization and prefabrication in construction.

He introduced the screen-wall system that utilized a structural steel frame to support the floors and which allowed the external glass walls to continue without interruption. In Southern California, this often meant the use of wood post-and-beam construction as a clear expression of structure and materials, which allowed for large expanses of glass and open interior plans consistent with informal, indoor-outdoor living.

The second postwar trend reflects the work of Mies van der Rohe and his followers. Within the Miesian tradition there are three subtypes: the glass and steel pavilion, modeled on Mies’ design for the Barcelona Pavilion (1929); the skyscraper with an all-glass curtain wall like his Seagram Building (1954) in New York; and the modular office building like his design for Crown Hall (1955) at the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT). While Gropius’ mantra was “form follows function”, Mies’s was “less is more”. Meis focused his efforts on the idea of enclosing open and adaptable “universal” spaces with clearly arranged structural frameworks, featuring pre-manufactured steel frames spanned with large sheets of glass.

Mid-Century Modern architecture in California can be traced to the work of early Modernists including Richard Neutra and Rudolph Schindler, whose local work inspired “second generation” Modern architects like Gregory Ain, Craig Ellwood, Harwell Hamilton Harris, Pierre Koenig, Raphael Soriano, and many more. These postwar architects developed an indigenous Modernism that was born from the International Style but matured into a fundamentally regional style, fostered in part by Art and Architecture magazine’s pivotal Case Study Program (1945-1966). The style gained popularity due to its embrace of modern materials and standardized, prefabricated parts which permitted efficient and economical construction.

Mid-Century Modernism became the predominant architectural style in the postwar years and is represented in almost every property type, from single-family residences to governmental buildings to churches and synagogues. While the Mid-Century Modern style is typically characterized by its simple, boxy forms—flat roofs, smooth wall surfaces, expanses of glass— more expressive versions of the style may incorporate dramatic elements, such as A-frame or folded-plate rooflines, exterior accents panels of stone or brick veneer, or decorative screen block walls.

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Mid-Century Modern architecture from the postwar period is abundant in Bakersfield, with significant residential, commercial, and institutional examples. These range from notable residential works by internationally-significant architects like Richard Neutra and Frank Lloyd Wright, to a substantial population of commercial and civic buildings designed by a cadre of talented Bakersfield architects, many of whom first studied under Clarence C. Cullimore at Kern County Union High School, then went on to architecture school at USC and other prestigious programs, before returning to Bakersfield to practice. Bakersfield’s earthquake in 1952 was also an important factor in luring these young architects back home where they could help to rebuild their city and ultimately shape the postwar built environment of Bakersfield and beyond.

Criteria NRHP: C CRHR: 3 BRHP: c
Character-Defining Features
 One or two-story configuration
 Horizontal massing (for small-scale buildings)
 Simple geometric forms
 Expressed post-and-beam construction, in wood or steel  Flat roof or low-pitched gable roof with wide overhanging eaves and cantilevered canopies
 Unadorned wall surfaces
 Wood, plaster, brick or stone used as exterior wall panels or accent materials  Flush-mounted metal-frame fixed windows and sliding doors, and clerestory windows  Exterior staircases, decks, patios and balconies
 Little or no exterior decorative detailing

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 details; and/or  Represents a notable work of an important local 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 exceptionally good integrity from the historic period, may be eligible for listing in the California and/or National Register.

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of the massing, spatial relationships, proportion, pattern of windows and doors, texture of materials, and ornamentation. Due to the nature of the style, eligible examples should retain their original form, massing and scale.

Leddy Residence, 2501 Dracena Street (1959). David M. Biggar Residence, 620 Oleander Avenue (1950).

City Hall South, 1501 Truxtun Avenue (1954). Kern County Free Library (Beale Memorial Library), 1315 Truxtun Avenue (1957).

General Services Administration of Kern County, 800 Truxtun Avenue (1964).

County of Kern Superior Court, 1415 Truxtun Avenue (c.
1956).

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Congregation B'nai Jacob , 600 17th Street (1956). First Christian Church, 1660 S Street (1954).

Nighbert Building, 1234 Chester Avenue (1962). Lowe and Raak Building, 2001 E Street (1956).

1400 Chester Avenue (1963). 1306-1308 Chester Avenue (1964).

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Sub-Theme: Googie (1949-1969)
Googie has been described as Modernism for the masses. With its swooping lines and organic shapes, the style attempted to capture the playful exuberance of postwar America. The style is named for the John Lautner-designed Googie’s Restaurant in Los Angeles, completed in 1949.

As people increasingly relied on the automobile, the businesses lining commercial thoroughfares adopted bold forms and dynamic details to attract attention. The style was thus widely employed in roadside commercial architecture of the 1950s and 1960s, including coffee shops, bowling alleys, and car washes.

Examples of Googie architecture are rare in Bakersfield, typically represented in mid-century commercial buildings, such as restaurants and a bowling alley.

Criteria NRHP: C CRHR: 3 BRHP: c
Character-Defining Features
 Expressive rooflines, including butterfly, folded-plate, and cantilevers  Organic, abstract, and parabolic shapes
 Range of materials, including concrete, steel, asbestos, cement, glass block, plastic and plywood
 Large expanses of plate glass
 Thematic ornamentation, including tiki and space age motifs  Primacy of signage, including the pervasive use of neon

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 details; and/or  Represents a notable work of an important local 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 exceptionally good 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. However, because the Googie style is associated with roadside commercial development, eligible examples should also retain integrity of location. Thus, an eligible property under this sub-theme should retain integrity of location, design, materials, workmanship, and feeling. A building that has lost some historic materials or details, particularly on secondary façades, may still be eligible if it retains the features that illustrate its original style and appearance in terms of the massing, spatial

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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, provided that the building retains its primary features and that it remains visible from the public right-of-way.

Bowling Alley, 1819 30th Street (1959). Sambo’s Restaurant, 350 Oak Street (1964).

International House of Pancakes, 1530 California Avenue (1964).

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Sub-Theme: Late Modern (1966-1979)
Late Modernism describes the stylistic evolution of Modern architecture from the mid-1950s through the 1970s. Unlike the straightforward, functionalist simplicity of the International Style and Mid-Century Modernism, Late Modern buildings exhibit a more deliberate sculptural quality with bold geometric volumes, uniform surfaces such as glass skin or concrete, and a sometimes exaggerated expression of structure and systems. Significant architects who helped define the style include Marcel Breuer, Philip Johnson, Cesar Pelli, and John Portman.

Late Modern architecture is relatively uncommon in Bakersfield, with the style typically applied to commercial office buildings.

Criteria NRHP: C CRHR: 3 BRHP: c
Character-Defining Features
 Bold geometric volumes
 Large expanses of unrelieved wall surfaces
 Uniform use of cladding materials including glass, concrete, or masonry veneer  Exaggerated expression of structure and systems
 Hooded or deeply set windows
 Little or no applied ornament

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 details; and/or  Represents a notable work of an important local 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 exceptionally good integrity from the historic period, may be eligible for listing in the California and/or National Register.
 For listing in the National Register, a property that has achieved significance within the last 50 years must be of exceptional importance.

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, particularly on secondary façades, 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.

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Bakersfield Police Department, 1601 Truxtun Avenue (1975). Bank of America Tower, 1430-1440 Truxton Avenue (1974).

2100 E Street (1969).

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Sub-Theme: New Formalism (1966-1979)
New Formalism is a variation of Late Modernism that first developed in the mid-1950s as a reaction to the International Style’s strict vocabulary and total rejection of historical precedent.

New Formalist buildings are monumental in appearance, and reference Classical forms through the use of abstracted full-height columns, projecting cornices, and arcades. Traditional materials such as travertine, marble, or granite are used, but typically in a panelized form. In Southern California, the style was applied mainly to public and institutional buildings. On a larger urban design scale, symmetry and grand axes were used to achieve a modern monumentality. Three architects essential in the development of the New Formalist style— Edward Durrell Stone, Philip Johnson, and Minoru Yamasaki—had all previously achieved prominence working within the International Style and other Modernist idioms.

Examples of New Formalist architecture are rare in Bakersfield, represented among large-scale civic and commercial buildings.

Criteria NRHP: C CRHR: 3 BRHP: c
Character-Defining Features
 Monumental scale and proportions
 Formal and symmetrical plan
 Simple geometric forms and smooth wall surfaces
 Flat roofs with heavy overhanging roof slab
 Highly-stylized Classical elements, such as entablatures, arches and colonnades  Use of heavy materials, such as concrete, travertine, marble and granite  Large screens of perforated concrete block, concrete, or metal  Formal hardscape elements, such as elevated podiums, plazas, pools and fountains

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 details; and/or  Represents a notable work of an important local 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 exceptionally good integrity from the historic period, may be eligible for listing in the California and/or National Register.
 For listing in the National Register, a property that has achieved significance within the last 50 years must be of exceptional importance.

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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, particularly on secondary façades, 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.

United Bank of California, 1330 Truxton Avenue (1968). Frapwell & Ghezzi Office, 1717 28th Street (1968).

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THEME: Method of Construction
Sub-Theme: Adobe Brick (1920s-1940s)
This theme is not based upon architecture style, but instead captures properties unique for their use of 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.

Adobe construction demonstrates a continuation of indigenous building traditions passed down by generations of craftspeople. Adobe construction used locally available resource and was particularly appropriate for the climate in the Southwest, keeping building interiors cool in the summer and warm in the winter. Adobe buildings from the 18th and 19th centuries were typically small, single-story structures with thick adobe walls. They usually featured flat roofs framed with timber beams (or vigas), and long, covered porches (or corredors) along one or more sides. Adobe construction consists of thick walls composed of large sun-dried bricks, usually made from mud and straw and covered with earth plaster to protect the unfired bricks.

The unreinforced adobe walls typically vary from one and one-half to six feet thick, resting on a dirt or rock foundation. Door and window openings are usually framed with heavy timber lintels, often left exposed.

During the 1920s, the popularity of period revival architectural styles inspired a renewed interest in adobe construction among architects like George Washington Smith and John Byers due to its particular suitability for Spanish, Italian and Mexican-influenced architectural styles.

With the onset of the Great Depression, many architects and builders sought out inexpensive methods of construction, including adobe. Adobe needed two things: earth and manual labor, both in abundant supply during the economic downturn. In the years that followed, experiments in adobe construction resulted in technological advances that retained its thermal advantages while virtually eliminating the traditional problems of erosion and seismic instability; the new adobe included a small amount of emulsified asphalt to reduce its solubility in water.455
In Bakersfield, adobe construction experienced a renaissance in the 1930s through the efforts of local architect Clarence C. Cullimore. As early as the 1920s, Cullimore began to advocate for the use of “adobe sun-dried brick construction” for dwellings in California, not only for its thermal properties and suitability to the local climate, but also for its advantages of being fire resistant and soundproof.456 He developed plans for adobes with a roof truss system bolted into a continuous reinforced concrete bond stone at the top of all adobe walls.457 Bakersfield’s first adobe house was the G.E. Stanfield Residence, built in 1935. It was also the first adobe house with an insured loan from the Federal Housing Administration to be approved and constructed.458

455 “Plans and Construction Information on Modern Adobe Homes,” California Homes, March 1937, 1. 456 Cullimore, Clarence, A.I.A., “Adobe Houses,” California Arts & Architecture, September 1936, 19. 457 California Homes, 1.; California Arts & Architecture, 19-20. 458 California Homes, 4; California Arts & Architecture, 20.

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Also at this time, Cullimore began experimenting with adobe construction in his residential projects on and around Oleander Avenue, and he would continue working in adobe after World War II. He also developed innovative technologies to strengthen these adobe structures—such as incorporating steel reinforcement—to improve their ability to withstand earthquakes. After the war, Cullimore submitted his master’s thesis at USC on this topic and was ultimately awarded Fellowship in the American Institute of Architects (FAIA), not for his architectural designs or his role in architectural education, but for his advances in the technology of modern adobe construction.

Criteria NRHP: C CRHR: 3 BRHP: c
Character-Defining Features
 One or two stories in height
 Low, horizontal massing
 Typically applied to single-family residences
 Typically utilized in buildings incorporating elements of the Spanish Colonial Revival, Monterey Revival, or Ranch styles
 May display thick walls
 May display heavy timber window or door framing
 Adobe brick construction on the ground story; upper story (if any) may be wood-frame  Adobe brick may be evident beneath a smooth plaster exterior wall finish (if not evident, may be determined through research)

Eligibility Standards
 Dates from the period of significance; and
 Represents a good and rare local example of the method of construction; and  Retains sufficient integrity to convey 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
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, particularly on secondary façades, 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 nature of the style—characterized by its construction method and materials—visual evidence of the adobe brick construction must remain readily apparent and not be obscured by altering the exterior wall material or finish.

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McCutcheon Residence, 2115 Verde Street (1934). Johnson Residence, 629 Holtby Road (1935).

156 F Street (1935-1937). Finlayson Residence, 29 Oleander Avenue (1936).

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THEME: Local Practitioners
This theme is not based upon architecture style, but rather captures properties that are significant as the work of their architect or other designer. This theme was developed in order to acknowledge properties that may be eligible as the work of a particular practitioner—such as a master or noted Bakersfield architect (see below)—separate and apart from whether or not the property is an excellent example of a particular architectural style. For example, a property may be eligible for its architectural merit as an example of the excellence achieved by a specific architect who may nor may not have embraced stylistic precedents. Or, a certain practitioner may have particular importance in the geographical area where they practiced, but not every example of their work would be considered outstanding architecturally. More commonly, though, a property that is eligible under this theme is often also found eligible under a style- based sub-theme. That is, the property’s significance as the work of a practitioner is in addition to—but not dependent upon—its significance as representative of a particular architectural style.

The NPS defines a “master” as a “figure of generally recognized greatness in a field, a known craftsman of consummate skill, or an anonymous craftsman whose work is distinguishable from others by its characteristic style and quality.”459 An architect or builder who was prolific does not necessarily indicate that they should be considered a master in the field. Generally, a master architect or designer made significant contributions to the field of architecture, designing innovative buildings or developments that shaped the future of the built landscape around them. For a property to be considered eligible as the work of a master, it “must express a particular phase in the development of the master’s career, an aspect of his or her work, or a particular idea or theme in his or her craft.”460
As described elsewhere in this historic context statement, Bakersfield boasts a population of talented architects who made significant contributions to the local architectural landscape.

These practitioners may not be well known outside of the region, However, their impact on the built environment of the Bakersfield and surrounding areas cannot be denied, and thus they would be considered significant within the local context.

For the purposes of the current Cultural Resources Survey project, this historic context statement includes a list of Master and Noted Local Practitioners (see Figure 8 below), as well as an Architect Biographies section (see Attachment), provided for reference. Note that both of these reference tools were developed to support the concurrent field surveys, which were limited to the four survey areas as determined by the City: Downtown Bakersfield, East Bakersfield, Oleander/Sunset and Westchester/Riviera. As a result, these tools are largely informed by extant historic resources in these survey areas. As more research is conducted into Bakersfield’s built environment—including future survey efforts—these architects lists and biographies may be expanded to incorporate additional or newly available information.

459 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, 20.
460 National Register Bulletin 15, 20.

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Criteria NRHP: C CRHR: 3 BRHP: d 461
Eligibility Standards
 Dates from the period of significance; and
 Represents the work of a master or noted architect or other important designer that has made significant contributions to the local architectural landscape; and  Retains sufficient integrity to convey 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
According to guidance from the NPS, a property significant for its architectural merit as the work of the architect or other designer must retain those physical features that express a particular phase in the development of his or her career, an aspect of his or her work, or a particular idea or theme in his or her craft. Integrity of location and setting are typically less important for properties that are eligible as the work of the architect or other designer. 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, particularly on secondary façades, may still be eligible if it retains the features that illustrate its original appearance in terms of the massing, spatial relationships, proportion, pattern of windows and doors, texture of materials, and ornamentation. Due to the nature of the style— characterized by its expression of the design intent of a particular architect or other designer— any physical features, elements, materials, or other aspects that convey the architect’s or other designer’s original intent must remain intact.

461 While the City of Bakersfield’s local designation criteria generally align with the criteria for listing in the National Register of Historic Places and the California Register for Historical Resources, the local criteria divide criteria A/3—for type, period, method of construction, high artistic values, or work of a master—into two separate criteria. Local criterion (c) captures properties significant for their “style, type, period, or method of construction”; local criterion (d) is applied to properties significant as “the work of a builder, designer, architect, engineer, landscape architect, interior designer, artist or craftsman.” As such, having a discrete theme for Local Practitioners, separate from the style-based sub-themes, is particularly useful.

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The following list of identified Master and Noted Local Practitioners is provided here for reference. This list was developed as a reference tool to support the concurrent field surveys in the four survey areas as determined by the City: Downtown Bakersfield, East Bakersfield, Oleander/Sunset and Westchester/Riviera. This list is largely informed by extant historic resources in these survey areas. As more research is conducted into Bakersfield’s built environment—including future survey efforts—this lists of local practitioners may be expanded to incorporate additional or newly available information.

For the purposes of this list, a “master” local practitioner is one who is considered to have made a significant contribution to the local architectural landscape through the consistently high quality of their work, often working in specific architectural styles; the sheer quantity of completed projects of a particular type or style; and/or for high-profile, influential, or otherwise iconic projects. A “noted” local practitioner is one who is known to have completed a meaningful number of projects during a given period, but the quality of the work may range from custom- designed, high-style examples to more modest or vernacular designs; or one whose body of work is not well enough known or whose contribution is not sufficiently established to characterize them as a master.

Figure 8. Master and Noted Architects
Master Bakersfield Architects, Partnerships & Firms
Charles H. Biggar Ernest J. Kump
Orville L. Clark Franklin & Kump
Bemus & Clark Edwin J. Symmes
Clarence C. Cullimore
Noted Bakersfield Architects, Partnerships & Firms
Alford, C. Barton Ghezzi, Frank A.

Biggar, Whitney Goss & Choy
Bemus, Erskine Harkness, David
Call, Wilson Hayslett, Jack
Cartnal, David McCoy, Ernest L.

Choy, Allan Kinn Metcalf, Arthur C.

Choy, Eugene Kinn Paynter, William H.

Cross, David G. Parsons, Francis
Eddy, Robert N. Renfro, Donald
Eddy & Paynter Stuhr, Robert
Eddy, Paynter & Renfro Wright, J. Warren
Frapwell, C. Robert Wright, Metcalf & Parsons

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“County Majority Is For Suffrage.” Bakersfield Morning Echo, October 13, 1911.

Cowenhoven, Ginger. “Ying On Remodel Will Double Building Size.” The Bakersfield Californian, no date.

Clipping from “China Alley” Historical Sites file, City of Bakersfield. “Crestline Homes Designed By Cliff May.” Classified advertisement. The Bakersfield Californian, July 25, 1953.
“Crops Growin Wide Variety When Great Water Supply Comes.” The Bakersfield Californian, September 9, 1924.

Cruz, Donato. “America’s Newest City:” 1950s Bakersfield and the Making of the Modern Suburban Segregated Landscape.” Master of Arts in History, California State University, Bakersfield, 2020. “CSB Building, Plans Involve Eight Projects Worth $10 Million.” The Bakersfield Californian, December 24, 1974.

Cullimore, Clarence, A.I.A. “Adobe Houses.” California Arts & Architecture, September 1936.

Curran, Charles S. “The Bakersfield Sandstone Brick Company.” Interviewed by Alice Pinkerton, May 1976. California State University, Bakersfield, https://csubdspace.calstate.edu/bitstream/handle/ 10211.3/121588/Curran_Charles_U12.pdf?sequence=1. Accessed August 30, 2022.

Day, Elizabeth May Garber. Interview by Stacey Ingels, May 2, 1981. California Odyssey Oral History Program, California State College, Bakersfield, https://csub.app.box.com/s/ w234w84nwxth4sq04inu12m9xynpgtsv. Accessed March 26, 2023.

Densho Encyclopedia,
https://densho.org/?gclid=Cj0KCQjwqoibBhDUARIsAH2OpWgRDP85UMzp10sX4vmBTueR8Da-h- Z2cRmoI66ZMQbH8T9r7Js9QkaAgs 5EALw_wcB#. Accessed November 3, 2022.

De Venado, Alfred. “Black Power in Bakersfield: Sanitation Workers Strike.” The Movement 2, no. 11, December 1966.

Doctor, Joseph E. Shotguns on Sunday: The True Story of the West’s Last Badman. Bakersfield, CA:

Brewer-Pipkin Publications, 1988.

Dodge, Mary Holmand. Interview by Betty Parker, October 23, 1977, California State College, Bakersfield.

Duginski, Paul. “The Grapevine is the Heart of California’s Freeway System. It Is Also Vulnerable.” Los Angeles Times, December 28, 2019.

Echeverria, Jeronima (Jeri). “California-Ko ostatuak: A History of California’s Basque Hotels.” PhD Diss., North Texas State University, 1998.

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_____. Home Away From Home: A History of Basque Boarding Houses. Reno, NV: University of Nevada Press, 1999.

Eissinger, Michael. “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.

Eldredge, Zoeth Skinner. The March of Portola and the Discovery of the Bay of San Francisco. San Francisco, CA: The California Promotion Committee, 1901. “Election of New Club Officers to Take Place at Meeting Tomorrow Evening.” The Bakersfield Californian, May 7, 1925.
“Elegant Simplicity.” The Bakersfield Californian, May 3, 1967. “E.L. Jefferson Like Kern County Best.” Bakersfield Morning Echo, September 28, 1910.

Elliot, W.W. & Co. History of Kern County, California. Bakersfield, CA: Kern County Historical Society, 1965.
“Erecting Fine Tank House in the Rosedale Colony.” The Bakersfield Californian, September 25, 1911.

Ernest J. Kump Collection, Finding Aid. Environmental Design Archive, University of California, Berkeley. “Erskine Bemus.” California State University, Bakersfield, https://hrc.csub.edu/architecture/ biographies/bemus/. Accessed March 7, 2023.
“Filipino, Pilipino, Philippines-What’s The Difference?” Center for Philippine Studies, University of Hawaii, Manoa, http://www.hawaii.edu/cps/filipino.html. Accessed January 17, 2023. “First Settler In Bakersfield Returns After A Long Absence.” The Daily Californian, June 21, 1902. “47 Buildings.” Classified advertisement. The Bakersfield Californian, January 8, 1954. “Garces Circle Statue.” The Living New Deal, https://livingnewdeal.org/projects/garces-circle-statue- bakersfield-ca/. Accessed June 16, 2022.

Garfinkel, Alan P., Ph.D., “Native Americans and the Panama Cemetery Tracing the Local Roots of Catholicism in Bakersfield, Part 1.” Kern County Historical Society Quarterly Bulletin, Winter 2007. “Gas Extension; Menonite Plan.” Bakersfield Morning Echo, August 23, 1911.

Gayton, A.H. Yokuts and Western Mono Ethnography I: Tulare Lake, Southern Valley, and Central Foothill Yokuts. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1948.

Geiger, Jeffrey E. German Prisoners of War at Camp Cooke. Mechanicsburg, PA: Sunburry Press, Inc., 2018.

Gia, Gilbert. “The Alphonse Weill Letter,” 2014. Historic Bakersfield and Kern County, https://www. historicbakersfieldandkerncounty.com/_files/ugd/caae83_5026c2237d3d4114b4307ee78694c698.pdf.

Accessed January 18, 2023.
_____. “Arson in 1877,” 2007. Historic Bakersfield and Kern County, https://www. historicbakersfieldandkerncounty.com/_files/ugd/caae83_bb6809f403a04f2a92ff2ef6e0 7c51be.pdf.

Accessed January 18, 2023.

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_____. “Bakersfield and the Anti-Chinese Pogroms of 1893,” 2013. Historic Bakersfield and Kern County, https://www.historicbakersfieldandkerncounty.com/_files/ugd/caae83_8c6558261fd3460793964c58c b4950ee.pdf. Accessed January 18, 2023.
_____. “Bakersfield’s Breweries, 1866-1920 (v.4), 2022. Historic Bakersfield and Kern County, https://hcommons.org/deposits/?facets%5Bauthor_facet%5D%5B%5D=Gilbert+Peter+Gia. Accessed January 18, 2023.
_____. “Bakersfield’s Curfew, 1891-1988 (v.3),” 2019. Historic Bakersfield and Kern County, https://www.historicbakersfieldandkerncounty.com/_files/ugd/caae83_bba199806d7e42979c4b1e6a9 02ae80c.pdf?index=true. Accessed January 18, 2023.
_____. “Bakersfield High’s Dormitories, 1915-1955 (v.7).” Historic Bakersfield and Kern County, https:// www.historicbakersfieldandkerncounty.com/_files/ugd/caae83_102c401b040243bcb7c6aa914671739

6.pdf. Accessed January 18, 2013.
_____. “Bashing Bakersfield: A Look Back 1873-1922,” 2013. Historic Bakersfield and Kern County, https://www.historicbakersfieldandkerncounty.com/_files/ugd/caae83_3651e6039f91432c902e9a2ed e43315c.pdf. Accessed January 18, 2023.
_____. “The Death of Artemio Cruz, A Censorship Challenge at Bakersfield College,” 2014. Historic Bakersfield and Kern County, https://www.historicbakersfieldandkerncounty.com/_files/ugd/ caae83_19fe64489b714fb1808891434874a58c.pdf. Accessed January 18, 2023. _____. “Dust Storms and Valley Fever, 1874-2014, 2014. Historic Bakersfield and Kern County, https:// www.historicbakersfieldandkerncounty.com/_files/ugd/caae83_1ecdcf71132345b1bbe46e9ef5dc2e66 .pdf. Accessed January 18, 2023.
_____. “East Bakersfield Schools and Icehouse, 1920s-1930s (v.4),” 2009. Historic Bakersfield and Kern County, https://www.historicbakersfieldandkerncounty.com/_files/ugd/caae83_ b90bc5a914d34a5083e438e56938ae9d.pdf. Accessed January 18, 2023. _____. “El Adobe and Crystal Inn Nightclubs, 1936-1958 (v.6),” 2014. Historic Bakersfield and Kern County, https://www.historicbakersfieldandkerncounty.com/_files/ugd/caae83_a805a9506fca4b198f5ebc6893 92a11a.pdf. Accessed January 23, 2023.
_____. “Flood, War & Treason, Bakersfield’s Beginnings 1860-1867 (v.2),” 2015. Historic Bakersfield and Kern County, https://www.historicbakersfieldandkerncounty.com/_files/ugd/caae83_ 597af04c49d64b6195c60bbbe3079db0.pdf. Accessed January 18, 2023. _____. “History in Bakersfield Sidewalks 1893-2011,” 2016. Historic Bakersfield and Kern County, https:// www.historicbakersfieldandkerncounty.com/_files/ugd/caae83_5e9bb9784a184585a81013d971b08f6

0.pdf. Accessed January 18 and April 17, 2023.
_____. “History of Weill Park (v.2),” 2016. Historic Bakersfield and Kern County, https://www. historicbakersfieldandkerncounty.com/_files/ugd/caae83_0b2a0876c192415e96b1246983d7c417.pdf.

Accessed January 18, 2023.
_____. “How Andy Got Well, 1896 X-Rays,” 2009. Historic Bakersfield and Kern County, https://www. historicbakersfieldandkerncounty.com/_files/ugd/caae83_7501e9c051c040d4955da5812d1d474a.pdf.

Accessed January 18, 2023.

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_____. “Jim Spohn’s Old Granada Theater (v.5),” 2012. Historic Bakersfield and Kern County, https://www. historicbakersfieldandkerncounty.com/_files/ugd/caae83_d1ef5305a49145e4af6d0a5e75342de4.pdf.

Accessed March 4, 2023.
_____. “John Barker’s Ranch, Ditch, and Springs 1874-1909,” 2015. Historic Bakersfield and Kern County, https://www.historicbakersfieldandkerncounty.com/_files/ugd/caae83_82dd75b9941d45c78056441b2 fa8dec9.pdf. Accessed January 18, 2023.
_____. “Life on Kentucky Street, 1930,” 2009. Historic Bakersfield and Kern County, https://www. historicbakersfieldandkerncounty.com/_files/ugd/caae83_fcf9076ba35b420d976826778b615927.pdf.

Accessed January 18, 2023.
_____. “Lions at the Jail (v.2),” 2010. Historic Bakersfield and Kern County, https://www. historicbakersfieldandkerncounty.com/_files/ugd/caae83_ffb5dc6b51b94b5e920d1df5a57905bb.pdf.

Accessed January 18, 2023.
_____. “Mme. Brignaudy In the Bakersfield Tenderloin 1905-1933 (v. 15),” 2019. Historic Bakersfield and Kern County, https://hcommons.org/deposits/item/hc:23495/. Accessed January 18, 2023). _____. “Playing at the Mandarin, 1935,” 2019. Historic Bakersfield and Kern County, . https://hcommons.org/deposits/item/hc:24449. Accessed January 18, 2023. _____. “Sedition in Bakersfield, 1918,” 2014. Historic Bakersfield and Kern County, https://www. historicbakersfieldandkerncounty.com/_files/ugd/caae83_8c6558261fd3460793964c58cb4950ee.pdf.

Accessed January 18, 2023.
_____. “Transient Relief Camp at Kern County Fairgrounds, 1930-1937” 2020. Historic Bakersfield and Kern County, https://www.historicbakersfieldandkerncounty.com/_files/ugd/caae83_ 08021e284a07463e99f2edb75efbf93a.pdf. Accessed January 18, 2023. _____. “Underground Bakersfield (v.6),” 2012. Historic Bakersfield and Kern County, https://www.

Historicbakersfieldandkerncounty.com/_files/ugd/caae83_27f097e6cfcd4e3bb82d79e88bbfa2c2.pdf.

Accessed January 18, 2023.
_____. “The Undressed Bank at 18th & Chester 1909-2014,” 2014. Historic Bakersfield and Kern County, https://www.historicbakersfieldandkerncounty.com/_files/ugd/caae83_97b7daf74e89460ea03218880 019b49a.pdf. Accessed January 18, 2023.
_____. “What Happened to Bakersfield’s Old Chinese Cemetery?” 2009. Historic Bakersfield and Kern County, https://hcommons.org/deposits/item/hc:48643/. Accessed January 18, 2023.

Gia, Gilbert Peter. Race, Sports and Black Unity, 1875-1988. Bakersfield, CA: Gilbert Peter Gia, 2019.

Gibbs, Jocelyn, ed. Outside In: the Architecture of Smith and Williams. Santa Barbara, CA: University of California, Santa Barbara, 2014.
“Girl Cab Drivers, Messengers Appear.” The Bakersfield Californian, July 18, 1941.

Graves, Donna and Gail Dubrow. “Taking Intersectionality Seriously.” The Public Historian, Vol. 41, No 2, May 2019.
“Heritage Important to This State Appointee.” The Bakersfield Californian, February 8, 1976. “Hillcrest Center Celebrating Its Fourth Birthday.” The Bakersfield Californian, March 29, 1955.

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“His Death Was Sudden,” Bakersfield Morning Echo, June 30, 1906.

Historical Marker Database, https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=55116. Accessed August 1, 2022.

Historical Research Center. California State University, Bakersfield, https://hrc.csub.edu/architecture/ biographies/john-pedersen/. Accessed February 3, 2023.
“Historic Contexts & Resource Surveys.” California Office of Historic Preservation, https://ohp.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=23317. Accessed March 2, 2023. “Historic Union Cemetery.” American Cemetery & Cremation, November 2014, http://www.interment.net/ data/us/ca/kern/union-cemetery-bakersfield- history-article.pdf.

Accessed February 28, 2023.
“History of Bakersfield High School.” Bakersfield Alumni Association, https://bakersfieldalumni.org/ history-of-bhs. Accessed February 28, 2023.
“History of California State University, Bakersfield.” California State University, Bakersfield, https://csub.libguides.com/c.php?g=1052694&p=7643887. Accessed January 19, 2023.

Hooper, Ken. “The Generous Truxtun Beale.” Bakersfield.com, https://www.bakersfield.com/bakersfield_ life/the-generous-truxtun-beale/article_0ae613c2-4437-543c-92a4-f8263472ab76.html. Accessed February 28, 2023.
“How Bakersfield is Handling Its Triple-Earthquake Crisis.” American City, October 1952. Earthquake Vertical File, Jack Maguire Local History Room, Beale Memorial Library. Quoted in Donato Cruz, “America’s Newest City:” 1950s Bakersfield and the Making of the Modern Suburban Segregated Landscape.” Master of Arts in History, California State University, Bakersfield, 2020, 132. “Huge City to Rise in South For Retirants,” Los Angeles Times, December 17, 1961.

Hughes, Guy. Battle of the Joss House. New York, NY: Carlton Press, c. 1968). Quoted in Gilbert Gia, “Mme. Brignaudy In the Bakersfield Tenderloin, 1905-1933 (v.15),” 2019. “Industrial Brochure Published By Chamber.” The Bakersfield Californian, August 6, 1953. “Inventor Anderson Pours House of Pumice, Concrete and Steel.” The Bakersfield Californian, March 19, 1949.
“Japs Establish Buddhist Mission.” The Bakersfield Californian, April 19, 1909. “Japs Send Message.” The Bakersfield Californian, May 23, 1942. “Jastro House,” California DPR Form, prepared by Christopher D. Brewer, 1984, “Jastro House” Historical Sites file, City of Bakersfield.
“John Pedersen.” Historical Research Center, CSU Bakersfield, https://hrc.csub.edu/architecture/ biographies/john-pedersen/. Accessed February 3, 2023.

JRP Historical Consulting. “Key Postwar Housing Tracts Within the Greater Bakersfield Area, 1945- 1973.” October 2018.

Karpe, Elmer F. and Florence J. “Block Restrictions: Mayflower Block 10.” City Hall Records (14018133) July 25, 1944. Quoted in Donato Cruz, “America’s Newest City:” 1950s Bakersfield and the Making of the Modern Suburban Segregated Landscape.” Master of Arts in History, California State University, Bakersfield, 2020. 16.

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“Kern County Airport Hangar.” The Living New Deal, https://livingnewdeal.org/projects/kern-county- airport-hangar-bakersfield-ca/. Accessed June 16, 2022.

Kern County Historical Society, Historic Kern Quarterly Bulletin. Vol. 72, No 1, Fall 2024. “Kern High School Bids Will Be Opened Friday.” The Bakersfield Californian, August 7, 1955.Kirkland, Jerry. “Coming of Age at Beale Park: A Collective Memoir,” 2011. Historic Bakersfield and Kern County, https://www.historicbakersfieldandkerncounty.com/_files/ugd/caae83_ 7d272d47721a42dba216c806304a923c.pdf. Accessed January 18, 2023. “Kern Residence Properties.” Bakersfield Morning Echo, February 5, 1903.

Kroeber, Alfred L. Handbook of Indians of California. New York, NY: Dover Publications, 1976.

Lafong, Carla and Gilbert P. Gia “Jim Spohn’s Old Granada Theater,” 2004, 2012. Historic Bakersfield and Kern County, https://www.historicbakersfieldandkerncounty.com/_files/ugd/caae83_ d1ef5305a49145e4af6d0a5e75342de4.pdf. Accessed January 18, 2023. “Large Cat Playful, Walks Rail,” The Bakersfield Californian, May 19, 1975.

Latta, Frank F. Handbook of Yokuts Indians. Santa Cruz, CA: Bear State Books, 1977.

La Vigne, Dominique. “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.

Letter from Leo Veale to Chris Choate and Cliff May, May 29, 1955. Cliff May Papers. “Mapping Inequality.” American Panorama. Ed. Robert K. Nelson and Edward L. Ayers. https://dsl.richmond.edu/panorama/redlining/#loc=5/39.1/-94.58. Accessed June 6, 2022.

Mary Holmand Dodge Interview. California State College, Bakersfield. Interview by Betty Parker, October 23, 1977.
“Masonic Temple To Be Dedicated Monday in Italian Type.” The Bakersfield Californian, May 31, 1924.

Mayer, Steven. “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.

Maynard, John Arthur. Bakersfield, A Centennial Portrait. Encino, CA: Cherbo Publishing Group, Inc., 1997.

Mendoza, Ruben. Herencia Mexicana: The Mexican Americans of Kern County, 1879-1955. Bakersfield, CA: Mexican Heritage Project Fund of Kern County, 1986.

Milam, J. Garth. “Plague in the Boomtowns: The Spanish Influenza in Bakersfield, and Kern County, 1918- 1920.” M.A. History, California State University, Bakersfield, Fall 2012. https://scholarworks. calstate.edu/downloads/db78tg947. Accessed August 30, 2022.

Milligan, Jim M. “California…Home of City Builders,” Mueller Record, December 1964. Quoted in JRP Historical Consulting, JRP Historical Consulting. “Key Postwar Housing Tracts Within the Greater Bakersfield Area, 1945-1973.” October 2018.
“Millions of Dollars in New Buildings.” The Bakersfield Californian, December 23, 1910.

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Mince, Judith. “Chinese Americans In Kern County,” The Bakersfield Californian, no date, no page.

Clipping from “China Alley” Historical Sites file, City of Bakersfield. “Much Building This Fall.” The Bakersfield Californian, July 11, 1911.

Nachtigal, Jeff. “Saving a Landmark.” The Bakersfield Californian, June 20, 2007. “Nation’s Largest Tract of Factory Built Dwellings Taking Shape in Calexico.” Los Angeles Times, May 16, 1971.
“Negro Youths Battle Police in Bakersfield.” Madera Tribune, May 1966. “New Building System Said to Reduce Price of Homes.” Los Angeles Times, February 25, 1979. “New Classrooms at High School.” Bakersfield Morning Echo, July 11, 1920. “New Hospital Plans Win Board Approval.” The Bakersfield Californian, December 2, 1953.

Nilya, Brian. “Executive Order 9066,” in Densho Encyclopedia, https://densho.org/give/?gclid=Cj0KCQjw2v-
gBhC1ARIsAOQdKY0YkDBP23RiBCp7PdLsLSa1Mvmm2Y_Woy1wkO3WnhmodKsIeBQ7fpIaAlIOE ALw_wcB. Accessed January 9, 2017.
1939 New World Year Book. https://www.google.com/books/edition/New_World_sun_Year_Book/ FwhLAQAAIAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Yano+crate+Co&pg=PA450&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage& q=Yano%20crate%20Co&f=false Accessed March 26, 2023.
“Notice to the Public,” Daily Californian, May 7, 1892. “Oak Park Tower.” The Bakersfield Californian, November 3, 1974. “October Building Hits Five-Year Record High.” The Bakersfield Californian, November 7, 1945. “110 Anniversary of Sociedad Juarez Mutualista Mexicana.” Video. YouTube, https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=25x-k5F9-cI. Accessed November 9, 2022.
“1,000 Curious Americans Saw Choo Li’s Funeral.” The Bakersfield Californian, August 24, 1908. “Only Two Weeks Old.” The Bakersfield Californian, March 23, 1940. “Opening Tuesday for Tejon Theater.” The Bakersfield Californian, June 16, 1947.

The Oracle, 1951, no page.
“Oro Vista Housing Units Now Filled, Project Officer Says.” The Bakersfield Californian, June 9, 1954. “Our Fluid History With Water.” The Bakersfield Californian, December 1, 2016. “Our History.” Tejon Indian Tribe, https://www.tejonindiantribe.com/our-history/. Accessed October 19, 2022.
“Pacific Coast.” Iron Age, December 1, 1927.

Paquette, Mary Grace. Basques to Bakersfield. Bakersfield, CA: Kern County Historical Society, 1982.

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

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Parker, Johnie Mae. How Long? Not Long! The Battle to End Poverty in Bakersfield. Bakersfield, CA:

Johnie Mae Parker, 1987.
_____. Oral History. California State College, Bakersfield, 1971. Quoted in Donato Cruz, “America’s Newest City:” 1950s Bakersfield and the Making of the Modern Suburban Segregated Landscape.” Master of Arts in History, California State University, Bakersfield, 2020. “Pin Money For the Ladies.” Bakersfield Morning Echo, October 29, 1922. “Pioneer Merchant Succumbs At 62.” The Bakersfield Californian, May 28, 1949. “Plans and Construction Information on Modern Adobe Homes.” California Homes, March 1937. “Platz Is Building Bungalows.” Bakersfield Morning Echo, January 26, 1913. “Police Quell Near-Riot by 200 Zoot-Suit Enthusiasts.” The Bakersfield Californian, June 12, 1943.

Poulogianis, Chris. “Early Life in Bakersfield.” Interview by Jack Coy and Francisco E. Serrano. California State University, Bakersfield, April 1974. California State University, Bakersfield, https://csub- dspace.calstate.edu/bitstream/handle/10211.3/122590/Poulogianis_Chris_U34.pdf?sequence=2. “Powerful Israeli Air Force Has Roots Here,” The Bakersfield Californian, June 7, 2013. “Preamble.” The Bakersfield Californian, December 9, 1939. “Presbyterians Accept Plans For New Church.” Bakersfield Morning Echo, February 1, 1910.

Price, Robert E. The Bakersfield Sound: How a Generation of Displaced Okies Revolutionized American Music. Berkeley, CA: Heyday, 2018.
“Projects in Pomona.” The Living New Deal, https://livingnewdeal.org/us/ca/pomona-ca/. Accessed March 1, 2022.
“Purchase Ground for Third Six Unit Court in West Bakersfield.” The Bakersfield Californian, January 30, 1937, 5.
“Rapid Rehab Work Said Remarkable.” The Bakersfield Californian, December 31, 1953. “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.
“Residents of Sunset-Mayflower Area Push Annexation Action.” The Bakersfield Californian, March 8, 1949.
“Retailers Seek Good Location.” The Bakersfield Californian, April 7, 1910. “Returning Veterans Swell Student Registration at High School, College.” The Bakersfield Californian, August 22, 1946.

Riddell, Francis A and William J. Wallace, eds. “The Status of San Joaquin Valley Archaeology,” in Essays in California Archaeology: A Memorial to Franklin Fenega. Berkeley, CA: University of California Archaeological Research Facility, 2002.

Rios, Daniel. “Black Yields: Race, Space, Labor and Working Class Resistance in Bakersfield, California, 1960-1974.” M.A. Interdisciplinary Humanities, University of California, Merced, 2018.

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“Rites Held for John T. Bayse.” The Bakersfield Californian, September 12, 1944.

Rodgers, Frank “Kent”. “Alpha-Foxtrot-Five-Two-Black.” The Ground Observer Corps in Bakersfield, 1956,” 2015. Historic Bakersfield and Kern County, https://www.historicbakersfieldandkerncounty. com/_files/ugd/caae83_eae49cba41724dbd96d015843e19baff.pdf. Accessed January 18, 2023.

Rodriguez, Alicia. “‘No Ku Klux Klan for Kern’: The Rise and Fall of the 1920s KKK in Kern County, California.” Southern California Quarterly, Volume 99, No 1., 2017. “The Rosedale Colony,” Bakersfield Magazine, August 11, 2015. Clipping from “Palm Cross” Historical Sites file, City of Bakersfield.
“The Rosedale Colony,” Shafter Press, November 3, 1976.

Rosenthal, Jeffrey S., Gregory G. White, and Mark Q. Sutton. “The Central Valley: A View from the Catbird’s Seat,” in California Prehistory: Colonization, Culture, and Complexity, ed. Terry L. Jones and Kathryn A. Klar. Lamham, MA: Altamira Press, 2007.

Rothstein, Richard. The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America.

New York, NY: Liveright/W.W. Horton, 2017.
“Rush Back to School Greatest in History.” The Bakersfield Californian, September 7, 1948. “School Growth Program Told.” The Bakersfield Californian, January 1, 1946. “School Shop Course For Girls Lauded.” The Bakersfield Californian, December 16, 1942.

Scott, Harrison Irving. The Ridge Route: The Road that United California. Torrance, CA: H.I. Scott, 2015. “Second Amputation of Leg Necessary,” Bakersfield Morning Echo, July 14, 1906. “Second Quake Anniversary Recalls Day of Death, Rebuilding Program.” The Bakersfield Californian, August 23, 1954.

Serraino, Pierluig and Julius Shulman. Modernism Rediscovered. New York, NY: Taschen, 2000. “Short Overview of California Indian History.” State of California Native American Heritage Commission, https://nahc.ca.gov/resources/california-indian-history/. Accessed on October 19, 2022.

Silverstein, Michael. “Yokuts: Introduction,” in Handbook of North American Indians 8: California, ed.

Robert F. Heizer. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institute, 1978. “Six Students Spotlighted at Center.” The Bakersfield Californian, January 26, 1966. “Southern Pacific Railroad Depot,” California DPR Form, prepared by Christopher D. Brewer, 1988, Southern Pacific Railroad Depot Historical Sites file, City of Bakersfield. “Spanish Type Warehouse Completed.” Los Angeles Times, February 10, 1929.

Stafford, John Allen. “Basque Ethnohistory in Kern County, California.” M.A., Anthropology; Sacramento State College, 1971.
“State College Decision Time Nears.” The Bakersfield Californian, November 26, 1965.

Steger, Morgan. “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.

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“13 Architects Call For Stricter City Building Code Rulings, New Fees.” The Bakersfield Californian, September 19, 1952.
“Timeline of 150 Years.” Bakersfield.com, https://www.bakersfield.com/special/ 150-years/timeline-150- years-of-kern-county-history/article_3b1dbe9c-ece6-50d6-8b44-88fb09a8507a.html. Accessed November 3, 2022.
“Thursday Night…” Kern County Californian, June 7, 1884. “Transportation—General 1923-28: Automobiles and the Highways.” Calvin Coolidge Papers. American Memory Collection, Library of Congress.
“Tule River Indian Reservation,” historical plaque. Tule County Historical Society, October 16, 1949.

Internet Archive, https://ia902806.us.archive.org/25/items/cvicl_001688/cvicl_001688_access.jpg.

Accessed October 20, 2022.

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.

U.S. Department of the Interior. National Register Bulletin 16A: How to Complete the National Register Form. Washington D.C.: National Park Service, 1997.

U.S. Department of the Interior. National Register Bulletin 24: Guidelines for Local Surveys: A Basis for Preservation Planning. Washington D.C.: National Park Service, 1985.

U.S. Department of the Interior. “Secretary of the Interior’s Standards and Guidelines for Archeology and Historic Preservation.” Washington D.C.: National Park Service, September 29, 1983. National Park Service, https://www.nps.gov/subjects/historicpreservation/upload/standards-guidelines- archeology-historic-preservation.pdf. Accessed March 2, 2023.

Vera Cruz, Philip. Oral History Interview by Fred Gonzales, 2016. California State University, Bakersfield, https://csub-dspace.calstate.edu/handle/10211.3/179628. “Veteran Restaurateur Reveals Opening of New Establishment,” The Bakersfield Californian, March 4, 1950.

Wallace, William J. “Southern Valley Yokuts,” in Handbook of North American Indians 8: California, ed.

Robert F. Heizer. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institute, 1978.

Warwick, Keith. California’s Highway 99: Modesto to Bakersfield. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2014.
“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.

Weeks, Donna Tessandori. The Italians of Kern County. Bloomington, IN: Xlibris, 2011. “Which Assessor Stood for People?” Bakersfield Morning Echo, September 25, 1906. “William F. Cody (1916-1978).” PS Mod Com, http://psmodcom.org/index.php/william-f-cody. Accessed June 24, 2015.

Williams, Franklin H. “The Bakersfield Community.” The Crisis, Vol, 58, no. 4. April 1951. Quoted in Donato Cruz, “America’s Newest City:” 1950s Bakersfield and the Making of the Modern Suburban Segregated Landscape.” Master of Arts in History, California State University, Bakersfield, 2020.

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Winship, Sian. “Shaping Generations of Architects: Two High School Programs That Changed the Built Environment in Southern California and Beyond.” Southern California Quarterly, Volume 101, No. 2.

Withey, Henry F. and Elsie Rathburn Withey. Biographical Dictionary of American Architects, Facsimile Edition. Hennessey & Ingalls, Inc., 1970.
“Woman’s Club History Told.” Bakersfield Morning Echo, March 9, 1934.

Wong, Linda. Untitled article. The Bakersfield Californian, August 5, 1978, D11. Clipping from “China Alley” Historical Sites file, City of Bakersfield.

Wood, Raymund F. “Francisco Garcés Explorer of Southern California.” Southern California Quarterly, Vol. 51, No. 3. September 1969.

Works Progress Administration. The WPA Guide to California. California, New York: Hastings House, 1939.

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ATTACHMENT: ARCHITECT BIOGRAPHIES
The following list of architect biographies comprises individuals, partnerships and firms with known works in Bakersfield from this historic context’s period of study, which extends through 1974. These include practitioners that had established practices in Bakersfield or the larger Kern County area, as well as practitioners from other geographies areas that came to Bakersfield for particular projects.

Information contained herein has been compiled from a wide range of sources, notably Withey's Biographical Dictionary of American Architects, the American Institute of Architects directories and membership files,462 and the Pacific Coast Architecture Database (PCAD). This information has been supplemented with Ancestry.com records, the Avery Index to Architectural Periodicals, and listings found in local and regional newspapers such as The Bakersfield Californian, Fresno Bee, San Francisco Examiner, and Los Angeles Times.

Alford, Clarence “Bart” (1914-1988), AIA
Born: Los Angeles, CA
Education: University of Southern California, B.Arch (1939) Firm: Draftsman, Charles H. Biggar, AIA (1939-42); Building Inspector, U.S.E.D./Fresno (1943-44); Draftsman, R.H. Cooley, Structural Engineer (1944-45); Architect, Charles H. Biggar (1945-49); Partner, C.B. Alford, Architect, W.J. Thomas - A Partnership (1945-48) Professional
Biography:

Clarence Barton “Bart” Alford was born in Los Angeles. By the early 1930s, Alford’s family was in Bakersfield where he became a student of educator/architect Clarence Cullimore, Sr.

Alford is chiefly known for the Tejon Theater (1946), Sierra High School (1952), North High School (1953), and Kern General Hospital. Alford and Thomas designed many schools during the postwar period in Bakersfield and the surrounding communities. These works were featured in national trade magazines such as Architect & Engineer.

C.B. Alford was a founding member of the Golden Empire chapter of the AIA in 1977. His work appears to have been heavily commercial. By the mid-1950s, he was designing department stores including the J.C. Penney store in Westchester and an F.W. Woolworth in West Los Angeles. Much of his work appears to be Mid-Century Modern in style.

Bart Alford died in Bakersfield in 1988.

Anderson, Milton Lawrence (1895-1987)
Born: Swea City, IA
Education: University of Minnesota, Bachelor of Science (1921) Firm: Draftsman, Chester Williams (1921-22); Chief Designer, John M. Cooper (1922-27); Architect, Norstrom & Anderson (1928-46); Architect, Milton L. Anderson (1946); Principal, Milton L.

Anderson (1947-unknown)

462 AIA membership files could not be requested for many of the architects during the research and writing of this historic context statement because the facility was closed for renovation until 2025, and files were not accessible during this time.

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Professional
Biography:

Milton Lawrence Anderson was born in Iowa in 1895. After completing his Bachelor of Science at the University of Minnesota, he worked in a variety of offices in Iowa and California. In 1922, he relocated to Los Angeles.

Anderson opened his own office in 1947. During his solo practice, projects included the Cornet Coffee Shop (1947) in Pasadena,
By 1969, Anderson was retired from practice and living in San Marino.

Ayer, Paul H. (1914-1989), AIA
Born: Bakersfield, CA
Education: University of California, Berkeley, B.Arch (1938) Firm: Designer, Franklin & Kump (1937-41); Office Manager, Kump & Falk, Architects (1941-46); Partner, Franklin & Simpson, Architects (1945-53); Principal, Paul H. Ayer, Architect (1947- unknown)
Professional
Biography:

Paul Herbert Ayer was born in Bakersfield in 1914. He attended Kern County Union High School where he was a student of Clarence Cullimore, Sr. He earned his B.Arch from Berkeley in 1938.

During World War II, Ayer served as a structural engineer in the Panama Canal from 1941-1943.

Simpson is best known for his own house in Fresno, built in 1955, and for the Fraizer Park Elementary School (1941). Ayer’s modern design for the Bakersfield YMCA Building was published in The Bakersfield Californian.

His body of work appears to span a wide variety of projects including civic/institutional, single- family and multi-family residential.

Bemus, Erskine (1849-1921)
Born: Dunkirk, NY
Education: Unknown
Firm: Bemus & Long, Architects (c. 1911-c. 1912); Erskine Bemus, Architect (1912-unknown); also partnered with Orville L. Clark on projects
Professional
Biography:

Bemus served in the Civil War on the side of the Union, seeing action primarily in North Carolina.

By the 1880s, he was living in Ohio and working as a carpenter. During the first decade of the 20th century, Bemus was a well-known builder and architect. He appears to have had a prolific career designing and building the bungalows that Bakersfield was famous for.

By 1909, Bemus was a practicing architect in Bakersfield—living with his daughter and her husband, who worked in the oil industry. In 1910, he partnered with Orville L. Clark. The following year, he appears in partnership with Long, as Bemus and Long.

Bemus is best known for the Baer Residence, Barlow Residence (a.k.a., Guild Residence), Beggs Residence, and Jamison Residence in Bakersfield. He also designed the Laura Harding office Building and Labor Temple in that city.463

Biggar, Charles H. (1882-1948) AIA
Born: Danville Township, IL
Education: University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, B.Arch (c. 1903); Ecole des Beaux Arts, Paris (1912-13)

463 “Erskine Bemus,” California State University, Bakersfield, https://hrc.csub.edu/architecture/biographies/bemus/ (accessed March 7, 2023).

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Firm: Draftsman, William P. White (1910-1911); Partner, Wiseman and Biggar (c. 1912); Partner, Kysor and Biggar (c. 1915); Principal, Charles H. Biggar, Architect (c. 1920-c. 1948) Professional
Biography:

Charles Howatt Biggar was Bakersfield’s premiere architect working in the early 20th century.

Biggar was born to Scottish parents in Danville Township, Illinois in 1882. His parents immigrated to America in the late 1870s or early 1880s. Biggar originally studied medicine at college but transferred to architecture. Upon his graduation from the University of Illinois, he went to Paris where he studied in the atelier of Leon Jaussely at the Ecole de Beaux Arts.

By 1910, Biggar was living in Bakersfield, making frequent trips to Los Angeles, and working alongside architect Thomas B. Wiseman in the firm of Train and Williams. Around 1915, Biggar established his own firm in Los Angeles with Charles Kysor. After World War I, Biggar returned to Bakersfield and re-established partnership with Wiseman. After Wiseman’s untimely death, Biggar found himself with no shortage of work during the boom time of Bakersfield’s growth.

His most well-known buildings in Bakersfield include the Woman’s Club of Bakersfield (1921), the Haberfelde Building (1927), the Chamber of Commerce Building (1928), and East Bakersfield High School (1938). Most of these commissions were in various Period Revival Styles popular at the time. His work took a more modern turn as fashion was dictating, with the Bakersfield Central Fire Station (1938), the Tejon Theater (1947), and the Harvey Auditorium (1948).

Biggar was published in Architect & Engineer for his work building schools after the 1933 Long Beach earthquake.

Biggar, Whitney (1920-2005), AIA
Born: Los Angeles, CA
Education: University of California, Berkeley, B.Arch (1946); University of California, Berkeley, M.Arch (1947)
Firm: Draftsman, Charles H. Biggar (1938-46); Apprenticeship, Quintin & Westberg, AIA (1948); Apprenticeship, Gates W. Burrows, AIA (1949); Principal, Whitney Biggar, AIA Architect (1949- 68); Principal, Biggar, Frapwell, Ghezzi, Cartnal (BFGC) (1968-84) Professional
Biography:

Whitney Biggar was the son of Bakersfield architect Charles H. Biggar, and a former student of architect/educator Clarence Cullimore, Sr. He formed his own practice in 1949. His designs were greatly influenced by the work of Frank Lloyd Wright and other modern architects.

Biggar enjoyed a wide and varied practice including residential, commercial, and civic/institutional commissions. He built chiefly in Bakersfield and the surrounding communities.

His best known works include Kern County Free Library (1957), West High School (1965), and Highland High School (1970). Biggar’s designs for schools were featured as best practices in the book, California School Buildings, 1960-1965. His residential work for members of Bakersfield’s Frick family was also widely published.

Biggar received an AIA award for Brundage Pharmacy in 1950.

In his later years, Biggar partnered with other architects. In 1968, he partnered with David Cartnal in 1968, becoming Biggar, Frapwell, Ghezzi, Cartnal (BFGC). He retired from BFGC in 1984.

Biggar officially retired from the practice of architecture in 1984.

Bliesner, William John (1872-1945)
Born: Saint Louis, MO
Education: Unknown

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Firm: Designer, R.B. Young (prior to 1894); Partner, Bliesner and Merithew (1894-95); Bliesner, Heinlein and Kronnick (1897- c. 1899); Partner, Bliesner and Bradbeer (1900-c. 1901); Partner, Burnham and Bliesner (1902-05); Principal, William J. Bliesner (c. 1907-12) Professional
Biography:

William Bliesner was born in Missouri before moving to Los Angeles in his 20s. Bliesner changed his working associations frequently during his lifetime, and worked as a carpenter, architect, and engineer. Bliesner worked out of Los Angeles for most of his career.

Bliesner designed several Carnegie-funded libraries over the course of his career. These included the Carnegie Library, Pomona (1903), Carnegie Library, San Bernardino (1904), and Carnegie Library, Riverside (c. 1905).

Bliesner worked as a draftsman and engineer toward the end of his life.

Call, Wilson (1916-2017) AIA
Born: Bakersfield, CA
Education: Long Beach Evening High School (1946); International Correspondence School, Certificate in Architecture
Firm: Draftsman, George K. Parker (1948-53); Draftsman, Charles H. Parker (1953-61); Draftsman, Don G. Simpson (1961-63); Wilson Call, Architect (1963-2017) Professional
Biography:

Ralph Wilson Call was born in the oilfields of Bakersfield in 1920. With no formal training in architecture per se, Call mobilized his drafting skills during World War II and was a draftsman for the U.S. Post Engineers from 1942-1945.

Around 1963, Call opened his own practice in Bakersfield. He was prolific. When the California State Licensing Board approached him for practicing without a license, Call took the exam and passed it in 1963.

Call is best known for his own residence (1964) and for his numerous commercial buildings including the Hillcrest Shopping Center (1950), Oaklane Shopping Center (1946), and Moss Rest and Convalescent Home (1961-1962). He won the Architectural Award sponsored by the Architectural Forum and Southern California Edison in 1964, for the D.M. Steele Office Building (c. 1963) in Delano.

Call was also a prolific inventor, obtaining numerous patents. It is estimated that he produced over 1000 architectural projects by 1980 and 2000 homes with local developers. He heavily invested in real estate in the city.

Call died in 2017 at the age of 101.

Cartnal, David R. (1942-present), FAIA
Born: Ohio
Education: California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo, B.S. Architectural Engineering and B.A.

Architecture (1965)
Firm: Designer, Kump Associates (1966-76); Principal, Biggar & Cartnal; Principal, BFGC Architects Planners (1968-2009); Managing Principal Architect, IBI Group Architects Planners (unknown); Managing Principal, IBI Group (2012-present)
Professional
Biography:

David R. Cartnal was born in Ohio in 1942. By 1950, he and his family were living in Kern County where his father was a horse trainer. Cartnal earned a B.Arch from California State Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo in 1965. In 1968, he partnered with Whitney Biggar to form Biggar & Cartnal. In 1968, Biggar & Cartnal and Frapwell & Ghezzi merged in 1974 to form BGFC.

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Cartnal was also active in civic affairs. During the 1970s, he served on the Design Review Board during a movement by the Downtown Business District to encourage modernization to storefronts in 1977. The previous year he had also served as one of the architects on an advisory committee for a new sign ordinance.

Cartnal’s best known works include the remodel for the Bakersfield College Downtown Center (c. 1974) and the Regional Occupational Center of Kern (c. 1978).

Cartnal was elevated to Fellow in the American Institute of Architecture in 1996.

Choate, Christian C. (1908-1981)
Born: Jackson, MO
Education: University of Southern California, B.Arch (c. 1930) Firms: Cliff May Homes (1953-1958), Christian Choate, Architect Professional
Biography:

Christian C. Choate was a Southern California architect. He and his partner, Cliff May, founded a mass-production line called Cliff May Homes in 1953, which marketed low-cost May designs to builders around the country. Early in life, Choate expressed his creativity through painting.

While attending architecture school at USC, Choate’s fourth-year project was singled out as a prize-winner.

As a licensed architect, Choate approved and signed May’s designs. Choate worked with May between 1953-1958. During his career, Choate focused on residential work and later designed Los Angeles homes for a celebrity clientele. Choate’s solo work, which focused on the Modern Ranch Style, was featured in the Los Angeles Home Magazine, Arts & Architecture, and Western Building. A Choate design was selected by House and Home magazine as one of their “20 Quality Houses for 1950.”
Some of Choate’s notable works include the Long Beach Rossmoor development (with architect R.C. Jones in 1958), the Beverly Hills Buhler Residence (1963), and Malibu Antibes Apartments (1964).

Choy, Allan Kinn (1920-2004), AIA
Born: Canton, China
Education: Bakersfield College, Associate of Arts (1941); University of Southern California, B.Arch (c. 1948) Firm: Draftsman, Designer & Job Captain, Ernest L. McCoy (1948-55); Principal, Goss and Choy, Architects, AIA (1959-c. 1971)
Professional
Biography:

Allan Kinn Choy was a member of the early Chinese community in Bakersfield. His father was K.C. Choy. His brother was Eugene Kinn Choy, also an architect. A student of architect/educator Clarence Cullimore, Sr., Choy was one of the students who emerged from Cullimore’s program and studied architecture at USC. During World War II, Choy served with the Army Air Force in India and China.

After graduation, Choy was employed by Ernest L. McCoy. In 1959, Choy partnered with Calvin W. Goss to form Goss and Choy, Architects, AIA.

Choy is best known for the 99 Car Wash Services Building (1959), BAMEY Office Building (1960), Robert O. McCoy Residence (1961), Dr. Wong Medical Office Building (1961), and The Bakersfield National Bank Building (1964), all in Bakersfield. He also designed the FBI Office Building in Las Vegas, Nevada in 1961.

In 1971 he became the Architect of Kern County, retiring in 1988.

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Choy, Eugene Kinn (1912-1991), AIA
Born: Canton, China
Education: University of Southern California, B.Arch (c. 1939) Firm: Jr. Draftsman, Stanton Willard (1938); Draftsman, Frank Wynkoop (1939-41); Draftsman, Marsh, Smith & Powell (1945-47); Principal, Eugene Kinn Choy & Associates (1949-c. 1986) Professional
Biography:

Eugene Kinn Choy was a member of the early Chinese community in Bakersfield. His father was K.C. Choy. His brother was Allan Kinn Choy, also an architect. A student of architect/educator Clarence Cullimore, Sr., Choy was one of the students who emerged from Cullimore’s program and studied architecture at USC. While at university, his 1939 design for a motion picture exposition was featured in Architect and Engineer.

Choy was just the second Chinese person in the United States to become a licensed architect.

Choy’s early works in Bakersfield included Wings Café (c. 1948), the remodel of Choy’s department store (c. 1938), and Temple Beth El (1951). Choy also designed the Temple of the Five Gods (1951).

Choy’s own Los Angeles-based practice was diverse with residential, commercial, civic/institutional, and industrial projects. A number of his avant-garde Modern-style Los Angeles and Bakersfield residences were photographed by Julius Shulman.

Choy is best known for his modern designs for the Ramo-Woolridge Building (1956), American Electronics Inc. (1962), Cathay Bank (1966), and Ford Boulevard School (1969) all in and around Los Angeles.

Clark, Orville L. (1883-1940), AIA
Born: Cleveland, OH
Education: Attended New Lyme Institute, Mathematics and Mechanics (c. 1900) Firm: Apprentice, White Architect (c. 1900); Superintendent Construction Company (c. 1905); Principal, Orville L. Clark (c. 1915 – c. 1930)
Professional
Biography:

Orville Lee Clark was born in Cleveland, Ohio and was orphaned as a child.

Clark migrated to Los Angeles around 1907 and relocated to Bakersfield in 1908 where he established a successful practice. Clark’s office was located in the old Fish Building at 19th Street and Chester Avenue. A prolific architect in Bakersfield, he also designed other commissions in and around Los Angeles including buildings in Culver City. Based on census records, he appears to have moved back and forth from Bakersfield to Los Angeles depending upon projects.

Clark’s work included single-family residences, apartment houses, hotels and other commercial buildings. One of his most revered commissions was the Baker Branch of the Bakersfield Public Library (1915).

Clark died in 1940 in Kern County.

Clement, Robert Lee (1931-2005),464 AIA
Born: Fresno, CA
Education: Bakersfield College (1951)
Firms: Architect, Wright Metcalf & Parsons (1955-62); Architect, Eddy & Paynter Associates (1962); Principal, Robert Clement, AIA (c. 1977)

464 Robert Lee Clement’s AIA membership file was not accessible due to the closure of the AIA archive until 2025.

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Professional
Biography:

Robert Lee Clement was born in Fresno in 1931. He served in the Air Force during the Korean War from 1951-55. He attended Bakersfield College.

Clement was a landscape architect who worked in the offices of Wright Metcalf & Parsons and Eddy and Paynter. He established his own firm in the early 1970s. Clement designed the landscape for the Stockdale Business Center (c. 1977).

Clement died in Bakersfield in 2005.

Clements, Stiles O. (1883-1966), AIA
Born: Centerville, MD
Education: Drexel Institute of Technology, B.Arch (1902); Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Special Student in Architecture (1908); Ecole Des Beaux Arts, Paris (one year) Firms: Designer, Morgan, Walls & Morgan (1917-24); Partner, Morgan, Walls & Clements (1924-37); Partner, Stiles Clements & Associates (1937-55); Stiles & Robert Clements (1955-65) Professional
Biography:

Stiles Oliver Clements was born in Maryland and moved to Los Angeles in 1911 at the age of 28.

He became a designer with Morgan, Walls & Morgan eventually rising to the level of partner. In 1937, he established his own solo practice.

Clements is best known as the designer of more than 40 major buildings on Wilshire Boulevard.

He was also the designer of the Richfield Oil Building in downtown. He worked in a variety of styles over the years from Beaux Arts to Spanish Colonial Revival, to Art Deco. His work was well published—appearing in Architectural Record, American Architect, Architect & Engineer, Architectural Digest, California Arts and Architecture and many others. His work appears frequently in Gebhard and Winter’s Los Angeles: An Architectural Guide. Clements also served on the Regional Planning Commission for the County of Los Angeles.

Cody, William F. (1916-1978), FAIA
Born: Dayton, OH
Education: University of Southern California, B.Arch (1942) Firms: Heth Wharton (1935); Asa Hudson (1935); William Knowles (1942); Blanchard, Maher and Ward (1945); Marsh, Smith and Powell (1946); William F. Cody & Associates (1946-72) Professional
Biography:

William F. Cody, FAIA, was born in Dayton, Ohio in 1916. He trained in progressive Modernism at the USC School of Architecture and graduated in 1942. During his time at USC, Cody worked with Cliff May, whose houses were influenced by vernacular historic architecture in California.

From May, Cody developed a preference for houses that were convenient and comfortable.

Following his graduation from USC, Cody apprenticed at several California firms, moving to Palm Springs in 1946. In Palm Springs, Cody was first employed as staff architect for the Desert Inn Hotel before setting out on his own to design the Del Marcos Hotel (1947). A subsequent project, the conversion of the 1936 Thunderbird Ranch to Thunderbird Country Club, led to design commissions for clubhouses at Tamarisk, Eldorado, Seven Lakes and seven other country clubs in the area. It is through these many projects that Cody is credited with the County Club Sub-division concept in the West.

Cody’s career included a wide variety of commercial and residential projects in Palm Springs and beyond, including projects in Phoenix, San Diego, Palo Alto, and Havana. Notable works include the Spa Bath House (along with Wexler & Harrison and Phillip Koenig), and the adjacent Spa Hotel, the Perlberg Residence (1952), Shamel Residence (1961), Abernathy Residence (1962), and the L’Horizon Hotel (1952), St. Theresa’s Catholic Church (1968), and the Palm Springs Library Center, (1972-1975).

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Cody was inducted into the College of Fellows of the AIA in 1965. Cody suffered a debilitating stroke in 1972 that ended his architectural career.465

Cross, David G. (1935-2017), AIA
Born: Bakersfield, CA
Education: Bakersfield High School
Firms: Draftsman, David Harkness, AIA (1955-1956); Draftsman, Whitney Biggar, AIA (1956-60); Draftsman, Wright Metcalf & Parsons, AIA (1960-64); Principal, David Gardner Cross, AIA (1966-69); Principal, David Gardner Cross Associates (1969-unknown) Professional
Biography:

A student of architect/educator Clarence Cullimore, Sr., Cross worked as a draftsman for several prominent Bakersfield architects and firms. He established his own practice in 1965. Cross also co-founded American Home Industries Corporation, a successful pre-fabricated home company based in Bakersfield.

Cross’ best known works include Presbyterian Church (1967), Community National Bank (1968) and the Delano Community Center (1969). He also designed projects outside of Bakersfield including a shopping center in Huntington Beach and the Tahiti Marina at Marina Del Rey.

Cullimore, Sr., Clarence C. (1886-1963), FAIA
Born: Jacksonville, IL
Education: University of California, Berkeley, B.S. (1910); University of Southern California, March (1942) Firm: Principal, Clarence Cullimore, Architect (1925-27); Partner, Symmes & Cullimore (1927-30); Principal, Clarence Cullimore, Architect (1931-55)
Professional
Biography:

Upon graduation from Berkeley where he trained under John Galen Howard, Clarence Cullimore, Sr. immediately relocated to Bakersfield where he obtained a job teaching mechanical drawing at Kern County High School. During his time there, Cullimore transformed the program well beyond mechanical drawing to include a high school version of architectural training. He also taught architecture in the evening adult school and at Bakersfield College. His book, Elementary Courses in High School Drafting, was adopted as supplementary text for Cal’s university courses in 1922.

Cullimore was fascinated with adobe construction and traveled throughout California drawing and painting these romantic buildings. During the 1940s, he attended USC where he did his masters’ thesis on contemporary adobe construction—resolving the seismic issues associated with the construction method. He was the author of several books and articles including Santa Barbara Adobes. He was also instrumental in the preservation of Fort Tejon.

During the 1920s and 1930s, Cullimore designed a number of small residences for clients throughout Bakersfield in popular period revival styles, but most often in Spanish Colonial Revival. He often used adobe to construct his residential designs. His Bakersfield home and studio at 101 Oleander Avenue was an exemplar of his talent as a designer as well as an educator. His design work was published in Arts + Architecture, Architect & Engineer, Sunset, and other national trade publications.

In 1944, Cullimore was elevated to Fellowship in the American Institute Of Architects for his contribution to modern adobe construction.

Cullimore, Clarence, Jr. (1926-2014), AIA
Born: Bakersfield, CA

465 “William F. Cody (1916-1978),” PS Mod Com, http://psmodcom.org/index.php/william-f-cody (accessed June 24, 2015).

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Education: University of Southern California, M.Arch (1949) Firms: Part-time Draftsman, Clarence Cullimore FAIA (1941-1950); Draftsman and Job Captain, Ernest J. Kump, AIA (1949-1951); Senior Draftsman, Masten and Hurd Architects AIA, (1951-52); Architect, Ernest L Mc Coy, AIA (1954); Partner, Kenney, Maag and Cullimore (1955-56), Partner, Kenney & Cullimore (c. 1956-c. 1958); Architect, Division of Architecture, State of California (1959-unknown)
Professional
Biography:

Clarence Cullimore, Jr., also known by the nickname “Cully”, was the son of architect/educator Clarence Cullimore, Sr. During World War II, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy. After the War, he attended and graduated from the USC School of Architecture.

After graduation, he worked for Ernest J. Kump in San Francisco. He practiced in San Mateo and in Bakersfield. In the mid-1950s Cully partnered with Edward J. Kenney forming Kenney & Cullimore. The firm leveraged Cully’s experience in school design from the Kump office and designed Buttonwillow High School (c. 1958), Mexicali Restaurant (1957), Jastro Park Swimming Pool and Toilets (c. 1958), Santa Rosa School (c. 1958) and other projects.

However, his career is largely remembered for his 27 years of service in Sacramento with the State of California. He also served as Director of Building and Safety for the City of Stockton (1972-1974). When he retired in the early 1990s, he was Executive Director of the State Historical Building and Safety Board.

In 2010, Cully received the California Preservation Foundation’s President’s Award for the 15 years he served as Executive Director of the State Historical Building Advisory Board and his efforts in developing and implementing the California State Historical Building Code.

Deasy, C.M. (1918-2010), FAIA466
Born: Mineral Wells, TX
Education: University of Southern California, B.Arch (1941) Firms: Principal, C. M. Deasy (1946-61); Partner, Deasy & Bolling (1961-c. 1971) Professional
Biography:

Cornelius Michael Deasy was born in Mineral Wells, Texas in 1918. After graduating from USC with his B.Arch, he served in World War II in the South Pacific.

Deasy designed a wide variety of projects. He is best known for Brock’s Department Store (1953), Granada School (1953), the Porterville Memorial Auditorium (1956), Mulholland J. High School (1963), and Lincoln Savings Building (1966). The majority of his work was in the Modern style.

Deasy was elevated to Fellowship by the American Institute of Architects in 1961. In addition to his practice, he taught architecture at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and wrote Design For Human Affairs (1974) and Designing Places For People (1985). He was active in community affairs throughout Los Angeles.

De Foy, F.W. (1889-1954), AIA
Born: Seattle, WA
Education: Unknown
Firms: James I. Barnes Construction (1942)

466 The C.M. Deasy AIA membership file was inaccessible due to the closure of the AIA Archive until 2025.

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Professional
Biography:

Fred Willard De Foy was born in Seattle, Washington in 1889 to a laborer father. By 1900 family had relocated to Buckeye Township in Shasta County. In the 1920 U.S. Census, De Foy is enumerated in Calexico, where he is working as an architect, although newspaper accounts place De Foy in Calexico as early as the mid-teens. De Foy first appears in Los Angeles City Directories in 1922 as an assistant building inspector for the City of Los Angeles. He was promoted the following year to inspector.

By 1924, De Foy was a draftsman at an unidentified firm. By 1929, the Los Angeles City Directory lists De Foy as a builder. His work appears to have mostly been industrial in nature:
designing a one-story machine shop in 1927467 and a Spanish-style bottling plan for the W.J.

Latchford Company in Los Angeles in 1929.468
By the 1940 U.S. Census, De Foy reports his occupation as architect and engineering. De Foy’s work on the 7-Up bottling plant in Bakersfield was published in Architectural Concrete in 1940, suggesting his interest in concrete construction. By 1944, he was working for James I. Barnes Construction in Santa Ana, California and temporarily relocating there.

Dooley, Railan G. (1925-2013)
Born: Jeanerette, LA
Education: ArtCenter (1954)
Firms: Ray Dooley Associates (1975)
Professional
Biography:

Railan “Ray” Gabriel Dooley in 1925 to a carpenter father. By 1940, he was living in Texas with his mother who was a cook in a private home. During World War II, he served in the U.S. Marine Corps. By 1948, the family had relocated to Kern County and he graduated from Taft High School. By 1950, Ray was a fireman in the oil fields. Ray then turned to more artistic pursuits and attended ArtCenter College of Design, from which he graduated in 1954.

Upon graduation, Dooley went to work at the Ford Motor Co. in Detroit but decided to pursue a career in architecture rather than industrial design. The 1956 Bakersfield City Directory shows he found employment as a draftsman at Mikles & Power in Taft.

Unconfirmed reports suggest that he did small projects as an architect. In 1976, The Bakersfield Californian reported that Dooley would be the architect of record for a new medical office for Dr. Vincent J. Troy.

Dooley was also known as a sculptor, with his work collected by the Bakersfield Museum of Art.

He died in 2013.

Dupes, Thomas (1879-1939)
Born: Maryville, TN
Education: Unknown
Firms: Unknown
Professional
Biography:

Thomas Walter Dupes was born in 1879 in Tennessee. He came to Kern County during the 1910s. In 1916, Southwest Contractor reported that Dupes was commissioned to design a new Labor Temple for the Kern County Labor Council.469 Among his jobs was as a building inspector around 1918. In 1925, Dupes had his own architectural design firm with Edward Glass, architect in Bakersfield.

467 “Pacific Coast,” Iron Age, December 1, 1927. Googlebooks scan, 1575. 468 “Spanish Type Warehouse Completed,” Los Angeles Times, February 10, 1929, E6. 469 “Business Buildings,” Southwest Contractor, April 1, 1916, 18.

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At his death in 1939, he was a construction foreman for the California State Forestry Department.

Eckbo, Garrett (1910-2000), FASLA
Born: Cooperstown, NY
Education: University of California, Berkeley, B.S. Landscape Architecture (1935); Harvard Graduate School of Design, M. Landscape Architecture (1939)
Firms: Partner, Eckbo, Royston & Williams (1945-58); Partner, Eckbo, Dean & Williams (1958-67); Partner, Eckbo, Dean, Austin & Williams (1967-92)
Professional
Biography:

Landscape architect Garrett Eckbo, FASLA, was one of the central figures in modern landscape design. Through several highly successful collaborations Eckbo became a leading practitioner of the "California style" of landscape architecture. His first firm, Eckbo, Royston & Williams, established an office in Pasadena in 1946. They designed landscapes for several Case Study program architects.

In 1958, the firm became Eckbo, Dean & Williams, and, in 1967, Eckbo, Dean, Austin & Williams (EDAW). Eckbo also spent several years as chair of the Department of Landscape Architecture at UC Berkeley. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, Eckbo designed landscapes for a number of residences, working prominent architects such as Palmer & Krisel, Wexler & Harrison, E. Stewart Williams, and William F. Cody.

Eddy, Robert N. (1915-2006), FAIA
Born: San Bernardino, CA
Education: University of Southern California, B.Arch (1940) Firms: Draftsman, Charles H. Biggar Architect (1937-38); Designer, Senior Draftsman, Inspector, Ernest L McCoy (1945-47); Principal, Robert N. Eddy Architect (1947-58); Principal, Eddy & Paynter Associates (1958-71); Principal, Eddy Paynter Renfro (1971-c. 1980); (Principal, Millard Archuleta/Eddy, Paynter Associates AIA (1980-unknown)
Professional
Biography:

Robert Nevelle Eddy was a student of educator/architect Clarence Cullimore, Sr., graduating Kern County Union High School in 1933. He went on through the USC pipeline and graduated from the School of Architecture in 1940.

Like so many, after graduation Eddy found employment as a draftsman in the office of Charles H. Biggar. From 1940-1942, Eddy worked as a draftsman for the Union Oil Company of California in Los Angeles.

After World War II, Eddy worked in the office of Ernest L. McCoy. He formed Eddy & Paynter with his fellow USC graduate William Paynter in 1957. Their robust practice included many residential, commercial, industrial, and civic/institutional commissions in the Central Valley. He is best known for Bakersfield City Hall (1955), Bakersfield Savings (1963), Foothill High School (1962), and the Valley Plaza Shopping Center (1967). Eddy and Paynter worked primarily in the Mid-Century Modern style. They were prolific and build many buildings in Bakersfield.

In 1980, Eddy/Paynter/Associates, AIA became an affiliate of Millard Archuleta Associates, AIA in Los Angeles. The firm was renamed Millard Archuleta/Eddy, Paynter Associates AIA. Eddy was elevated to Fellowship in the AIA in 1994 for his contributions to earthquake building standards—largely the result of his work in Bakersfield after the 1952 earthquake.

Frapwell, C. Robert (1924-2016), AIA
Born: Santa Cruz, CA
Education: University of California, Berkeley

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Firms: Designer, Wright Metcalf and Parsons (c. 1960); Frapwell and Ghezzi (1965-73); Principal, Biggar Frapwell, Ghezzi & Carnal (1974-unknown)
Professional
Biography:

Robert Clarence Frapwell was born in Santa Cruz and received his degree in architecture from the University of California, Berkeley. He served in the US Army during World War II. In 1952, he had his wife moved to Bakersfield because of all the work from the earthquake.

In 1965 he partnered with Frank Ghezzi to form Frapwell and Ghezzi. Their first commissions included the Kern Valley Bowling Center (c. 1965) and the Fruitvale Community Church (c. 1965). They also designed the Italian Heritage Association Fair Concession (1968). Other projects included Ferguson Bosworth Office Building (1968), Leo Meek Car Agency (1969), and the Leo Meek Volkswagen Agency (1969).

Biggar & Cartnal and Frapwell & Ghezzi merged in 1974 to form BGFC. Projects at that firm include buildings at California State University, Bakersfield (c. 1974) and the Regional Occupational Center (c. 1979).

Frapwell also served on the Bakersfield Planning Commission and business-civic organizations.

Ghezzi Frank A. (1930-present), AIA
Born: Zurich, Switzerland
Education: Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, M.Arch in Architecture and City Planning (1957) Firms: Designer, Wright Metcalf and Parsons (c. 1960); Frapwell and Ghezzi (1965-73); Principal, Biggar Frapwell, Ghezzi & Carnal (1974-unknown)
Professional
Biography:

Frank A. Ghezzi was born in Zurich, Switzerland. He earned his master’s degree in architecture and planning from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. While in Paris, he met a girl from Bakersfield; they married and settled in Bakersfield around 1957.

While at Wright, Metcalf & Parsons, he worked on the Bakersfield Civic Center. In 1965 he partnered with C. Robert Frapwell to form Frapwell and Ghezzi. Their first commissions included the Kern Valley Bowling Center (c. 1965) and the Fruitvale Community Church (c. 1965). They also designed the Italian Heritage Association Fair Concession (1968). Other projects included Ferguson Bosworth Office Building (1968), Leo Meek Car Agency (1969), and the Leo Meek Volkswagen Agency (1969).

For years, Gehzzi lived in the Richard Neutra-designed Davis Residence and made a small addition to the home.

Goss, Calvin W. (1917-1984), AIA
Born: Bird City, KS
Education: Pasadena Junior College (1938); Utah State Agricultural (1943) Firms: Draftsman, Chief Draftsman, Chief Architect, E. L. McCoy 1947-57); Partner, Goss & Choy (1959-unknown)
Professional
Biography:

Calvin Wendol Goss was born in Bird City, Kansas in 1917.

In 1959 he joined forces with Allan Kinn Choy to form the partnership of Goss & Choy. Notable works include the FBI Office Building (1961) in Las Vegas, Pine Street School (1964) in Bishop, the County Services Building (1964) in Independence, California, the Trona Intermediate School in Trona, and the Bakersfield National Bank (1964) in Bakersfield.

Goss retired from practice in 1981.

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Harding, Clifford (1922-1994), AIA470
Born: Las Vegas, NM
Education: University Southern California, B.Arch (1952) Firms: Chief Draftsman, Lloyd Fletcher (1952-53); Job Captain/Designer, Wright Metcalf & Parsons (1953-55); Job Captain, Robert N. Eddy (1955-56); Principal, Clifford Harding, Architect (1956- unknown); Partner, Harkness, Hayslett & Jang (c. 1956-58) Professional
Biography:

Clifford Harding was born in Las Vegas, New Mexico in 1922. He served in the U.S. Air Force from 1942-1945. After World War II, he attended USC’s architecture program--graduating in 1952.

After working his way up in various Bakersfield firms, Harding formed his own solo practice in 1956. Harding’s best known works include the Chester Avenue Baptist Church (1960), Kern County School Employee’s Federal Credit Union (1961), and the Skyway House Motel and Restaurant (1961). He also designed numerous projects throughout Kern County. In addition to commercial and civic/institutional projects, Harding designed several residences, including the 1966 Palla Residence.

In 1977, Harding was hired to advise downtown Tehachapi business owners for redevelopment of the area.

Harkness, David R. (1918-1995), AIA
Born: Wenatchee, WA
Education: University of Oregon, B.Arch (1951)
Firms: Ralph Beardsworth (c. 1952); Kistner, Wright & Wright (1951-52); Norman Entwistle (1952- 1953); Van Dyke & Barnes (1952-53); Risley & Gould (1953); Burton Schutt (1953); Wright Metcalf & Parsons (1953-54); Partner, Harkness, Hayslett & Jang (c. 1956-58) Professional
Biography:

David R. Harkness was born in Washington state and educated there until he attended and graduated from the University of Oregon.

Harkness is known of modern designs including his expressive, structural modern design for the Community National Bank of Kern County (1962). He is also known for his design for a ranch- style home for Tracy Harkness that was purchased by Buck Owens c. 1969.

By 1956, Harkness had formed a partnership with Harding and Jang. Their projects included the Mary Lavers Home For Girls (c. 1956) on the Kern County General Hospital grounds. Once again, his expression of structure was apparent on Our Savior’s Lutheran Church (c. 1957) in East Bakersfield, and the First Southern Baptist Church (c. 1958) in Bakersfield.

Hayslett, Jack (1928- present) AIA
Born: Maricopa, CA
Education: University of California, Berkeley B.Arch (1951) Firms: Draftsman, Robert N. Eddy (c. 1952); Partner, Harkness, Hayslett & Jang (1956-58); Partner, Hayslett & Essert (1958-61); Partner, Moring, Billing & Hayslett (1962-66)

470 Clifford Harding’s AIA membership file was not accessible due to the closure of the AIA archive until 2025.

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Professional
Biography:

After graduating from the University of California, Berkeley in 1951, Jack Hayslett was a draftsman in the office of Robert Eddy. He formed his first partnership in 1956, with a series of new partners over time.

He was an instructor at Bakersfield College and with William Goodban, wrote the college textbook, Architectural Drawing and Planning, in 1965. He is best known for his Municipal Transit Building (1959) and the Security First National Bank in Bakersfield.

During the late 1980s, Hayslett moved to Visalia and continues to practice architecture.

Hicks, James (1917-1985), AIA
Born: Anaconda, MT
Education: Glendale College (1935-36); University of Southern California, B.Arch (1941) Firms: Senior Draftsman and Architect, Spaulding, Rex and DeSwarte, Architects and Engineers (1945- 47); Architect Graham Latta (1948-49); Architect, Wright Metcalf & Parsons (1949-53); Architect, Robert N. Eddy (1953); Partner, Raport & Hicks, Architects (1947-48); Stuhr & Hicks, Architects (1953-c. 1970)
Professional
Biography:

James Mason Hicks, Jr. was born in rural Montana in 1917. After earning a degree from the USC School of Architecture, he trained with a series of Los Angeles-based firms before moving to Bakersfield around 1949.

Hicks is best known for additions to Jefferson High School (1954) in Bakersfield, the Police Station and Jail (1955) in Santa Maria, and Shandon Elementary School (1955) in Shandon.

Notable works by Stuhr and Hicks include Castle School (1976), St. John’s Catholic Church (1963); St. Phillip’s Catholic Church (1975); Greenfield High School (1964); Caroline Payne Harris School (1960), Lindsay High School (1964), and the Sherriff’s Facility for the County of Tulare (1961).

Jang, Harry (1919-1997), AIA
Born: Courtland, CA
Education: Sacramento Junior College (c. 1942); University of California, Berkeley M.Arch (1949) Firms: Unknown
Professional
Biography:

Harry Jang was born one of 11 children in a Chinese American family in Courland (near Sacramento) in 1919. He earned his architectural degree from the University of California Berkeley.

Jang moved to Bakersfield from Sacramento in 1953. It is likely he may have had family ties to Bakersfield’s large Chinese community and was aware of the work available after the earthquake. He appears to only have been in the area for a few years. By the early 1960s, he had returned to Sacramento. He worked in the office of the State Architect for 35 years.

Little is known of Jang’s work while in Bakersfield. A large residence on a corner lot in Westchester is documented by The Bakersfield Californian.471 The house is likely from the 1950s. Jang moved his office to Sacramento in the early 1960s.

Jefferson, E.L. (1856-unknown)
Born: New York (city unknown)
Education: Unknown

471 “Elegant Simplicity,” The Bakersfield Californian, May 3, 1967, 28.

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Firms: Unknown
Professional
Biography:

E.L. Jefferson was born in New York in 1856. His early architectural education is unknown, but by 1910, he had joined forces with T.R. Griffith in Bakersfield and advertised their services as architect and engineer.

He appears to have had large business interests in Portland, Oregon although the exact nature is unknown.472 In the 1920s, Jefferson was sued for not being a licensed architect, so it is possible that he had little formal training. In the 1910 census he identifies as an architect of city buildings.

References to E.L. Jefferson in The Bakersfield Californian no longer appear after 1913, suggesting he may have moved elsewhere.

Kump, Ernest, Jr. (1911-1999), FAIA
Born: Bakersfield, CA
Education: University of California Berkeley, B.Arch (1932); attended Harvard University Firms: Draftsman, J. M. Saffell; Partner, Franklin & Kump (1937-c. 1990) Professional
Biography:

Ernest Kump was born in Bakersfield in 1911, the son of Ernest Kump, Sr., who abandoned the family in 1914. Ernest studied under Clarence Cullimore, Sr. at Kern County Union High School.

He began studies for his M.Arch at Harvard but was forced to return to California for financial reasons. He then worked for his father’s firm in Fresno, but the two didn’t see eye to eye. His father fired him for what he referred to as “chicken coop architecture.”473 Ernest met Charles Franklin while working in his father’s office and in 1937, they established a practice with offices in Fresno and Bakersfield. Franklin and Kump rose to national prominence with their design for Fresno City Hall (1941). Following World War II, they established an office in San Francisco. Their work was published in Progressive Architecture and other trade magazines. They received numerous awards and Kump became a vocal spokesperson for the merits of modern architecture.

Kump authored several books and served on President Ronald Reagan’s Task Force for the Arts and Humanities. He also taught at Harvard, Columbia, Stanford and MIT. In 1956, he was elected a Fellow of the American Institute of Architecture.

Kump, Peter (1915-1991), AIA
Born: Bakersfield, CA
Education: B.Arch, Stanford (1937); Harvard University (1937-38); University of California, Berkeley (1938) Firms: Draftsman, Franklin & Kump (1939-41); Architectural Administration, U.S. Navy (1941-43); Architect, Kump & Falk (1943-50); Principal, Peter Kump, AIA (1950-c. 1962) Professional
Biography:

Peter Kump was born in Bakersfield in 1915, the son of Ernest Kump, Sr., who abandoned the family in 1914. Ernest studied under Clarence Cullimore at Kern County Union High School. He was the brother of Ernest Kump, profiled above.

During World War II, he served in the U.S. Navy and in 1944 he earned a meritorious service award.

By the mid-1950s, Peter established his own firm in Menlo Park, California. He was known for his work on schools including Ladera Elementary School (1953), Las Lomitas Elementary School (1954), and Ravenswood City Elementary School (1955). In addition to his school work, he also designed commercial office buildings and residences.

472 E.L. Jefferson Like Kern County Best,” Bakersfield Morning Echo, September 28, 1910, 8. 473 Finding aid for the Ernest J. Kump Collection, Environmental Design Archive, University of California, Berkeley.

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Lee, S. Charles (1899-1990), AIA
Born: Chicago, IL
Education: Technical College, Chicago (1918-1920); Armor Institute of Technology (1921) Firms: Draftsman, Rapp and Rapp Architects (1921); Principal, S. Charles Lee Architect (1922-48); Partner, Lee and Hayden, Architects (1948-unknown)
Professional
Biography:

Simeon Charles Lee was born in Chicago, Illinois and moved to Los Angeles in 1921. He was born Simeon Charles Levi, the son of German Jewish immigrants.

Lee is most famous for his theaters—specifically movie palaces of the 1920s. Lee’s theater designs employed the idea that experiencing the building should provide as much entertainment value as the film itself. He designed dozens of revered theaters throughout Southern California.

Many of these buildings are highly lauded in Gebhard and Winter’s guides to architecture.

Lee died in 1990 at the age of 101.

Leydenfrost, Harold (1923-2003), AIA
Born: Budapest, Hungary
Education: No college or university training
Firms: Architect, C.B. Alford & W.J. Thomas, Architects (1947-1957) Professional
Biography:

Harold Bernard Leydenfrost was born in Budapest, Hungary in 1923.By 1942, his family had relocated to New York where he attended high school. In 1942, he enlisted in the U.S. Army. He first appears in Bakersfield around 1947.

For a decade he worked in the office of C.B. Alford and W.J. Thomas. Little is known about his projects. In 1985, he was a member of the American Society of Engineers and Architects.

Luckman, Charles (1909-1998), FAIA
Born: Kansas City, MO
Education: University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, B.S. Architecture (1931) Firms: Chicago Master Steam Fitters, Association (1926-27); Robert L. Pioso (1928-29; 1930-31); Lind & Luckman (1936-43); Lever Brothers Company (1943-50); Pereira & Luckman (1950-58); Charles Luckman Associates (1958-98)
Professional
Biography:

From 1950 to 1958, Charles Luckman, FAIA, worked in partnership with William Pereira, specializing in large-scale projects such as office buildings, airports, hotels and Air Force bases, primarily in California. He studied architecture at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, graduating in 1931. During the Depression, he worked in the advertising department of the Colgate-Palmolive-Peet company and later advanced to sales manager of the Pepsodent Company. In 1937, he was featured on the cover of Time magazine.

In 1946, Luckman became president of Lever Brothers and was instrumental in commissioning the company’s new headquarters, Lever House (designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill), a major landmark in New York. An entrepreneur at heart, Luckman merged his passion for architecture with his sense of business and acquired ambitious commissions throughout the United States.474

Martin, Eugene K. (1883-1955), AIA
Born: Free State Danzig (Poland)

474 Pierluig Serraino and Julius Shulman, Modernism Rediscovered (New York, NY: Taschen, 2000), 564.

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Education: University of California, B.Arch and M.Arch (1912) Firms: Principal, Eugene K. Martin, Architect (1919-33); Engineer/Inspector, Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works (1934-35); Assistant Architect, Long Beach Board of Education (1935-36); Architect, Federal Housing Administration (1938-40); Partner, Gerald Marsac (1941); Supervisor of Construction, U.S. Navy, San Diego (1941-42); Chief Inspector, U.S. Navy Terminal Island (1942-43)
Professional
Biography:

Eugene K. Martin was born in Free State Danzig, a city state under the protection of the League of Nations. It was originally part of the nation of Poland when he was born there. Martin came to the United States in the early years of the 20th century and appears to have settled in San Francisco. He apprenticed as a draftsman in several offices in San Francisco. He was also a designer on the Panama Pacific Exposition in 1914-15.

Martin served in the U.S. Army during World War I, from 1916 through 1917. Martin appears to have gone to Bakersfield in 1918 as part of his duties with the U.S. Railroad Administration for the Southern Pacific Company. In 1919, Martin opened his own office where he designed buildings as well as provided inspection and supervision of construction. During the 1930s, Martin studied mass housing in England, France, Italy, Poland, Germany and Switzerland.

Martin retired from the practice of architecture in 1953.

McCoy, Ernest (1906-1981), AIA475
Born: Bakersfield, CA
Education: University of Southern California, B.Arch (1933) Firms: Draftsman, Charles H. Biggar, AIA (1934-42); architect, Charles H. Biggar, AIA (1943-44); Ernest McCoy, AIA (1944-c.1980)
Professional
Biography:

Ernest Lynn McCoy was born in Bakersfield in 1906. He was a student of Clarence Cullimore, Sr. at Kern County Union High School. He graduated from USC with a B.Arch in 1933. He was immediately hired by Bakersfield architect Charles H. Bigger as a draftsman and worked his way through various aspects of the practice: Draftsman, inspector, construction supervisor, etc. ultimately becoming the architect supervising all work for Bigger in 1942.

During World War II, McCoy worked for the U.S. Engineers in Sacramento where he supervised all airport construction. Upon his release from the service, he associated with Biggar on a housing project at Muroc Army Base.

In 1944, he opened his own practice. He worked mostly locally and was known for St. Pauls Episcopal Church (1954), First National Bank (1954), Emerson Junior High School (1954, McKinley Elementary School (1954), John Compton Jr. High School (1960), Golden Bear Oil Co. Lab (1960), and several other school projects. The majority of the school projects were Mid-Century Modern in style.

In 1975, he was named “Boss of the Year” by The Bakersfield Californian. McCoy was a founding member of the Golden Empire Chapter of the American Institute of Architects in 1977.

McDougall, Benjamin Greer (1865-1937), AIA
Born: San Francisco, CA
Education: California School of Design
Firms: Principal, Benjamin Greer McDougall

475 Alastair Simpson’s AIA membership file was not accessible due to the closure of the AIA archive until 2025.

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Professional
Biography:

Benjamin Greer McDougall joined the office of his father, Barnett McDougall & Sons and elder brother, Charles McDougall, and worked there until 1906 when he established his own office.

He designed a wide variety of buildings in the San Joaquin Valley as well as in San Francisco.

They included churches, apartments, commercial and single-family residences.

He is best known for the Sheldon Office Building (c. 1906-07) in San Francisco, the Federal Office Building (c. 1910) in Oakland, and the Standard Oil Building (1910) in San Francisco. He also designed St James Church in Los Angeles in 1922.

Metcalf, Arthur C. (1908-2002), AIA
Born: Bakersfield, CA
Education: University of Southern California, B.Arch (1932) Firms: Draftsman, E. J. Symmes (1932-35); Draftsman, Stanton Willard (1935-37); Associate Architect, Stanton Willard (1937-41); Principal, Wright & Metcalf (1945-46); Principal Wright, Metcalf & Parsons, (1946-c. 1974)
Professional
Biography:

Arthur Charles Metcalf was born in Bakersfield in 1908. His extended family were Bakersfield pioneers; his mother was the daughter of Charles Quincy, for which Quincy Street was named.

He was a student of architect/educator Clarence Cullimore, Sr. at Kern County Union High School. Metcalf was inducted into the Army during World War II, serving as a technical sergeant at Fort MacArthur.

After World War II, Metcalf formed a partnership with J. Warren Wright whom he met while in Symmes’ office. In 1953, they built their own office building in Bakersfield. The firm primarily worked in the Mid-Century Modern style.

His firms were best known for their civic/institutional work. Metcalf’s projects included Juvenile Hall (1948) in Bakersfield, the West Side District Hospital (1950) in Taft, State Employment Building (1951) in Shafter, and the master plan of Bakersfield College any many of its initial buildings. The Greater Bakersfield Memorial Hospital is also credited to Wright, Metcalf & Parsons.The firm was published in Progressive Architecture.

Metcalf retired from architectural practice in 1974. The same year he was presented with the AIA Key Man Award.

Mullgardt, Louis Christian (1866-1930), FAIA
Born: Washington, MO
Education: Attended Washington University, Department of Fine Arts Firms: Unknown
Professional
Biography:

He began professional practice in an office in St Louis in 1893. In 1902 he went to England. Upon his return, he practiced in San Francisco. Between 1920 and 1922, he was an architect in Honolulu, Hawaii.

He is best known for his design for the Court of Ages at the Pan Pacific International Exposition (1914-15). He also designed many single-family residences. He was a member of the Architectural Commission and the International Jury of the 1914-15 Exposition and also served as Architectural Advisor on National Parks. He authored many articles in trade magazines.

Neutra, Richard (1892-1970), FAIA
Born: Vienna, Austria
Education: Technische Hochschule Vienna (1917); University of Zurich

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Firms: Principal, Richard J. Neutra (1926-49); Partner, Neutra & Alexander (1949-58); Partner, Neutra & Neutra (1955-70)
Professional
Biography:

Richard Neutra was born in Vienna, Austria, in 1892. He graduated from the Technische Hochschule in Vienna in 1917. After World War I, Neutra moved to Switzerland and then to Germany, before joining the office of Erich Mendelsohn in Berlin in 1921.

In 1923, Neutra immigrated to the United States by way of Chicago along with fellow Austrian architect Rudolph Schindler. Together, they are credited with bringing European Modernism to America. Neutra worked with Frank Lloyd Wright, following him to Los Angeles in the early 1920s.

After collaborating with Schindler for several years, Neutra established his own practice in 1926.

The Lovell “Health” House (1927-29), widely recognized as one of the most important houses of the 20th century, came very early in his career. It is praised for its use of concrete and for being the first completely steel-framed residence in the United States.

Over the following decades, Neutra refined his style and material palette. His earlier houses were generally conceived as a series of interlocking minimal boxes. In later works these boxes dissolve into a series of planes and lines dynamically sliding past each other in three-dimensional collages, as in the Sorrells House (1956-57).

Neutra was also responsible for several large public commissions, either individually or in partnership with other architects. These included the Corona, the Channel Heights Community in San Pedro (1941-42), the Corona School in Bell (1935), Eagle Rock Park Clubhouse (1953), and the Los Angeles County Hall of Records (1962, with Robert Alexander, Honnold & Rex, and Herman Light). Between 1949 and 1958, he worked in partnership with Robert Alexander. Other notable projects include the VDL Research House in Los Angeles (1933), the Kaufmann House in Palm Springs (1946), and the Perkins House in Pasadena (1955).

Parsons, W. Francis (1903-1981), AIA
Born: Andale, KS
Education: University of California, Los Angeles (1921-23), University of Southern California, B.Arch (1923- 25)
Firms: Head Draftsman, Louis N. Crawford; Draftsman, E. Keith Lockhard; Draftsman, Soule and Murphy; Architect, Kern County Building Department (1938-46) Professional
Biography:

Wayman (“William”) Francis Parsons was born in Kansas in 1903.

The 1930s finds Parsons working as a draftsman in Santa Maria. By the late 1930s, Parsons was living in Bakersfield where he had associated himself with local architect Louis N. Crawford.

Parsons joined Wright & Metcalf to become Wright, Metcalf and Parsons in 1946. As J. Warren Wright and Arthur C. Metcalf found their firm expanding and growing in the postwar period, they selected Parsons, who had logged several years in the Kern County Building Department, to lead projects such as schools, city halls, lodges, commercial and office buildings. Parsons projects included Bakersfield College (1956), James Curran Jr. High School (1961), Delano Elementary School (1961), and Shafter High School (1961).

Parsons also served on the Kern County Planning Commission in the mid-1940s.

Paynter, William H. (1924-2004), AIA
Born: Bakersfield, CA
Education: University of California, Berkeley (1943-44); University of Southern California, B.Arch (1951)

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Firms: Draftsman, E. L. McCoy (1947); Robert N. Eddy & Associates (1949-54); Architect, Robert N.

Eddy & Associates (1954-57); Partner, Eddy & Paynter (1957); Partner, Eddy, Paynter & Renfro (c. 1980); Partner, Millard Archuleta/Eddy, Paynter Associates; Design Director, BFGC (1985- unknown)
Professional
Biography:

William Hackett Paynter was a student of educator/architect Clarence Cullimore, Sr., graduating Kern County High School. Paynter served in the US Army Air Force and was stationed in Brazil and Ascension Island.

He attended UC, Berkeley prior graduating from the School of Architecture in 1951. While at USC, he received the Alpha Rho Chi Honor Medal and was later decorated with the Producer’s Council Student Honor award in 1950 and as 1St Place Winner for the Western Division Carrier Corporation Small Home Competition.

Like so many, after graduation Eddy found employment in Bakersfield as a draftsman in the office of Ernest L. McCoy and later in Robert Eddy’s office. He formed Eddy & Paynter with his fellow USC graduate in 1957. Their robust practice included many residential, commercial, industrial, and civic/institutional commissions in the Central Valley.

Paynter is best known for Bakersfield City Hall (1955), Bakersfield Savings (1963), Foothill High School (1962), and the Valley Plaza Shopping Center (1967). Eddy and Paynter worked primarily in the Mid-Century Modern style. They were prolific and build many buildings in Bakersfield.

Pedersen, John P. (1888-1969), AIA
Born: Bodo, Norway
Education: Bodo Technical School, Certificate (1907), Pratt Institute, Certificate (1916) Firms: Draftsman, Harold Heyden, Architect (1918); Draftsman, Stiles Clements (1921); Draftsman, W.

Asa Hudson (1921-22); Draftsman, Arthur Kelley & Joe Estep, Architects (1922); Draftsman, T.

Beverly Keim, Architect (1922); Draftsman, W. Asa Hudson (1922-25: Associate Architect, W.

Asa Hudson (1925-28); John P. Pedersen, Architect (1928-42); Draftsman, Woodford & Bernard (1957-58); John P. Pedersen, Architect (1958-63)
Professional
Biography:

John P. Pedersen was born and schooled in Bodo, Norway. He attended the Pratt Institute in New York then came west to California where he worked in a variety of architect’s offices before he opened his own office in Beverly Hills in 1928. For the next 14 years he practiced there.

According to the Walter W. Stiern Library at California State University, Bakersfield, his practice was largely residential. He designed homes throughout Los Angeles, including a residence for Bruno Walter, conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.476 He is known to have designed several residences in Bakersfield, including the George H. Barnett Residence on Elm Street.477

Raney, Vincent G. (1905-2001), AIA
Born: Loogootee, IN
Education: University of Illinois, B.Arch (1930), University of Indiana, University of Arizona

476 “John Pedersen,” Historical Research Center, CSU Bakersfield, https://hrc.csub.edu/architecture/biographies/john-pedersen/ (accessed February 3, 2023).
477 Historical Research Center, CSUB.

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Firms: Draftsman, H.G. Atherton (1928); Draftsman, Frederick H. Reimers (1930-36); Draftsman, William I. Garren (1930-36); Draftsman Masten and Hurd (1934-35); Principal, Vincent G. Raney (1935-c. 1970)
Professional
Biography:

Vincent G. Raney was born in Loogootee, Indiana in 1905 and earned a B.Arch from the University of Illinois in 1930. During the Great Depression, he bounced around from firm to firm, picking up draftsman work.

By 1956, he established his own practice in San Francisco. He appears to have had a practice chiefly composed of commercial and civic/institutional projects. He is best known for his St. Ann Chapel (1953) in Palo Alto, Holy Cross High School (1957) in Mountain View, Notre Dame College (1961) in Belmont, and Century Theaters (1964-69) in San Jose, Sacramento, Orange, Reno, Salt Lake City, and Seattle. A rare residential commission was a home in Inverness that was published in Housing: Magazine of Homes and Gardens in 1942.

Renfro, Donald, (1931-2023), AIA
Born: Bakersfield, CA
Education: Bakersfield College (1949-51)
Firms: Designer, Whitney Biggar, Architect (1955-61); Associate, Eddy & Paynter (1961-71), Principal, Eddy Paynter Renfro & Associates (1970-78); Donald Renfro & Associates (1978-2004); Partner, Renfro & Cunningham; Partner, Renfro & Elliot
Professional
Biography:

Donald William Renfro attended Bakersfield College then served in the US Army in the European theater from 1952-1954. Upon returning to Bakersfield, he went to work for Eddy & Paynter Associates as a designer and project architect. Renfro was project architect for the building of Valley Plaza.

Eddy Paynter & Renfro continued the firm’s legacy of commercial and civic/institutional work.

Projects included Continental Telephone Corporation (1971), Occidental Petroleum Exploration Headquarters (1975), and a remodel of the Education Center for the Bakersfield School District (1976). The firm’s work during this period evolved from Mid-Century Modern to Corporate Modern in style.

Donald Renfro was also President of the Bakersfield Section of the Los Angeles Chapter of the AIA and a founding member and past-President of the Golden Empire Chapter during the 1970s.

He was also appointed to the Architectural Advisory Board of Bakersfield College.

Later in life, Renfro established other partnerships including merging with the Cunningham Group in 2004 to become Renfro & Cunningham, and later Renfro & Elliot.

Saffell, J.M. (c. 1858-1936)
Born: Washington County, Arkansas
Education: Unknown
Firms: Unknown
Professional
Biography:

Jackson McWIlliams Saffell was born in Arkansas around 1868. Prior to 1900, Saffell lived in Fresno, but established residency in Bakersfield in 1900.

Although very little is known about Saffell’s early years or education, he became a well-known architect in Kern County, designing many public buildings. He designed public buildings in Fresno and San Pedro as well.

Schroeder, Leonard John (1929-2020), AIA
Born: Wasco, CA

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Education: University of Oregon, B.Arch (1955), graduate work (1957) Firms: Leonard J. Schroeder, Architect (1965)
Professional
Biography:

Wasco-born Leonard Schroeder was not a student of educator/architect Clarence Cullimore, Sr. at Kern County Union High School. He studied at the Redemptorist Seminary in Oakland for eight years, prior to earning a B.Arch from University of Oregon. His early work life is currently unknown but he opened his own practice in Bakersfield in 1965.

His work includes the Dr. Siltze Chiropractic Office (1966) and Teakwood Mobile Home Lodge (1968), both in Bakersfield. He also designed the St. Elizabeth Catholic Church (1969) in McFarland. He was the architect of record for the Christian Reformed Church (1969) and the BPOE Elks Lodge, both in Bakersfield.

Over the years, he completed work for five school districts and projects for the Housing Authority of Kern County. He may be best known for the house he designed for Merle Haggard near the mouth of the Kern River.

Schroder retired in 2008.

Schulze, Henry A. (1853-c.1925), AIA
Born: Boston, MA
Education: Unknown
Firms: Partner, Schulze and Meeker (1889-90); Principal, Henry A. Schulze, Architect (1891-97); Partner, Arthur Brown, Jr. (1906); Principal, Henry A. Schulze, Architect (1907); Professional
Biography:

Henry Atherton Schulze was born to German parents in Boston, Massachusetts in 1854. Not much is known about his early years or education, but by 1880, Schulze was living in Alameda, California. By 1910, the firm was a family affair with his daughter as private secretary and two sons engaged as an architect and a draftsman.

Schulze is best known for the 1st Church of Christ Science (1900-1902), J.A. Folger and Company Office Building (1904); and the Olympic Club City Clubhouse #3 (1893-1894) all in the Bay Area. Schulze was widely published in Architect & Engineer of California, of which he was architectural editor for a number of years.

Schulze was retired from architecture by 1920.

Shomate, Edwin M. (1916-2013), AIA478
Born: Bakersfield, CA
Education: Attended University of California, Berkley (c. 1937) Firms: Unknown
Professional
Biography:

Edwin Maurice Shomate was born in Bakersfield in 1916. He was a student of Clarence Cullimore’s at Kern County Union High School.

In 1940, he was employed by the Works Progress Administration and living in Burbank. By the 1970s, Shomate was working in the office of the California State Architect. One of his enduring legacies in that capacity is his contribution to the development of ADA accessibility code, in 1976.

Sibbert, Edward F. (1899-1984), AIA479

478 Edwin Shomate’s AIA membership file was not accessible due to the closure of the AIA archive until 2025. 479 Edward F. Sibbert’s AIA membership file was not accessible due to the closure of the AIA archive until 2025.

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Born: Brooklyn, NY
Education: Pratt Institute, Structural Engineer (1919-20), B.Arch, Cornell University (1921-22) Firms: Designer, Kiehnel & Elliott (1923); Partner, Pancoast & Sibbert (1924-25); Architect, E.H. Faile & Co (1926-28); Architect/Vice President, S.H. Kress & Co. Buildings (1929-54); Partner Edward F.

Sibbert and Frederic C. Wood (c. 1956)
Professional
Biography:

Edward F. Sibbert was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1899. After graduating with a degree in architecture from Cornell University in the early 1920s, he was quickly employed as a designer and architect.

For over 20 years, Sibbert was the architect for S.H. Kress & Co. He won an AIA Gold Medal Award for his design for a 1940 Kress store in New York City.

Simpson, Alastair (1910-1992), AIA480
Born: San Francisco, CA
Education: University of California, Berkeley, B.Arch (1936) Firms: Principal, Ernest J. Kump & Associates (1937-45); Partner, Franklin & Simpson (1945-52); Alastair Simpson & Associates (1952-70)
Professional
Biography:

Alastair Simpson was born in San Francisco in 1910. After completing his architectural education at the University of California, Berkeley in 1936, he went to work for Ernest J. Kump & Associates. Simpson moved to Bakersfield in the late 1930s.

During World War II, Simpson worked for the U.S. government as an architect on military facilities. Simpson opened his own firm in Fresno in 1952. Simpson is best known for his civic/institutional commissions in and around Fresno and Bakersfield. They include Sierra High School (1958); Fresno Community Hospital (1959), and the Fresno Co. Jail (1960)—all in Fresno.

He also designed St Joseph’s Hospital (1963) in Stockton, Lodi Memorial Hospital (1966), and Lemoore High School (1968).

Smith, Whitney R. (1911-2002), FAIA
Born: Pasadena, CA
Education: Pasadena Junior College; University of California, Berkley, B.Arch. (1934) Firms: Farm Security Administration, San Francisco (1936); Lawrence Test, Architect in Pasadena (1937); Kem Weber and Harwell H. Harris, Designer (1938); Marsh, Smith & Powell, Architects (1939); Joseph Westor Smith, Jones & Contini. Principal, Smith and Williams (1949-73) Professional
Biography:

Whitney R. Smith was born on January 16, 1911, in Pasadena. He attended the University of Southern California (USC) and graduated in 1934 with his bachelor’s degree in architecture.

After receiving his degree Smith went on to work as a designer for notable architects in the Los Angeles area: Lawrence Test, Harwell Hamilton Harris, Kem Weber, and William L. Pereira.

From 1941 to 1942, Whitney Smith taught at USC. One of Smith’s students was Wayne Williams (1919-2007), who started working for Smith in the early 1940s.

Smith and Williams were published nationally and internationally in Arts + Architecture, Architectural Record, House and Home, Architect and Engineer, Architecture d'aujourd'hui, Bauen und Wohnen, Architecture Française, Architectural Form and Architect and Building News. Their residential and commercial work were both lauded by the critics as exceptional examples of the Mid-Century Modern style.

480 Alastair Simpson’s AIA membership file was not accessible due to the closure of the AIA archive until 2025.

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Whitney Smith also served on several civic boards and commissions in Pasadena and in Los Angeles. In 1957, Smith was elevated to Fellowship in the American Institute of Architects.

Sorenson, Ken (1938-present), AIA
Born: Washington, Oklahoma
Education: Unknown
Firms: Unknown
Professional
Biography:

Sorenson was born in 1938 in Washington Township, Oklahoma. By 1940, Sorenson’s father had moved the family to Ford City in Kern County where he was working in the oil fields.

Sorenson was a founding member of the Golden Empire chapter of the AIA.

Sorenson’s practice was diverse including residential, commercial and civic/institutional commissions during the 1970s. His best known work includes the Dana Villas condominiums (1977), an office for attorneys Ray Yinger and Philip C. Blanton (c. 1976), and ongoing work for the West Kern Community College District.

Stuhr, Robert (1917-2004), AIA
Born: San Francisco, CA
Education: Modesto Junior College; Notre Dame University; University of Oregon, B.Arch (1941) Firm: Chief Draftsman, Ernest L. McCoy, Architect (1946); Principal, Robert F. Stuhr and Associates (1953); Principal, Stuhr and Hicks, Architects (c. 1953-unknown) Professional
Biography:

Robert Francis Sthur was born in San Francisco. He attended Modesto Junior College and Notre Dame University prior to earning his B.Arch from the University of Oregon in 1941.

He established his own firm in 1953 with offices in Bakersfield and in San Luis Obispo. Offices, schools, churches and civic facilities were the firm’s principle emphasis. Notable works include Castle School (1976), St. John’s Catholic Church (1963), St. Phillip’s Catholic Church (1975), Greenfield High School (1964), Caroline Payne Harris School (1960), Lindsay High School (1964), and the Sherriff’s Facility for the County of Tulare (1961).

He retired from practice in 1992.

Swasey, McNeal (1891-1946), AIA
Born: St. Louis, MO
Education: No degree in architecture
Firms: Draftsman/Architect, Hedden Construction Co; Project Manager, Myron Hunt (1919-22); Principal, McNeal Swasey (1922), Architect; Partner, Swasey and Hayne (c. 1930) Professional
Biography:

McNeal Swasey was born to an Australian-born architect. He had no formal architectural education but likely learned from his father as well as the numerous architectural firms he worked for. He practiced primarily in the period revival styles popular during the 1920s and 1930s. He was construction supervisor for Myron Hunt on the Ambassador Hotel and Huntington Library in Pasadena.

His body of work is wide ranging including residential, commercial, and civic/institutional projects. He is best known for the Barker Brothers In Los Angeles, a 12-sided dance pavilion in Lake Arrowhead (1922), and the Bank of Italy (1928) in Redlands. His work was published nationally in trade magazines such as Architectural Record.

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Symmes, Edwin J. (1883-1935), AIA
Born: Livermore Valley, CA
Education: University of California, Berkeley, B.Arch (1909) Firms: Draftsman, Bliss & Faville (c. 1911); Draftsman William C. Hays (1912); Partner, Edwin Symmes, Architect (1915); Partner, Symmes & Cullimore (1927-30); Edwin Symmes Architect (unknown) Professional
Biography:

Edwin Joseph Symmes graduated from the architecture program at Berkeley in 1909. Initially, he established a practice, Edwin Symmes, Architect in Alameda (near San Francisco) in 1915.

Symmes and Clarence Cullimore, Sr. likely knew one another at Berkeley and Cullimore may have been influential in Symmes decision to move to Bakersfield in 1912.

From 1916 to 1923, Symmes was Architect and Engineer for the Yosemite National Park Company. In that capacity he worked on the Glacier Point Hotel, Yosemite Lodge, and adjoining buildings. During the mid-to-late 1920s, Symmes designed homes for the Ferndal tract in Alameda, the Municipal Electric Light Plant, the Masonic Temple and several commercial projects in the area.

Between 1927 and 1930, Symmes partnered with Clarence Cullimore, Sr. in Symmes & Cullimore. At this time, he designed more than twenty grammar and high school buildings in Kern County and developed a reputation as one of the most successful school architects in central California. After 1930, he continued to obtain school commissions in Bakersfield and Kern County. He also designed many private residences in Bakersfield.

Symmes died in Bakersfield in September of 1935.

Thomas, William (1906-1997), AIA
Born: Hailey, ID
Education: No architectural degree
Firms: Apprentice, Charles H. Biggar (1925-28); Draftsman, Charles H. Biggar (1928-34); Chief Draftsman, Charles H. Biggar (1934-42); Partner, Biggar Alford & Thomas (1949-56; Partner, Alford & Thomas (1949-56); Partner, Alford, Thomas & Leydenfrost (1956-c. 1958) Professional
Biography:

William John Thomas was born in Hailey, Idaho in 1906 and learned his craft through working in architecture offices. He worked his way up in the office of Charles H. Biggar His career was interrupted by World War II during which he served as a Senior Engineer from 1942-1945. After the war, he formed a partnership with C. “Bart” Alford.

Thomas is best known for his civic/institutional projects including Sierra Junior High School (1954), Kern General Hospital (1955), and Ford Agency Sales (1961) all in Bakersfield. He also designed Burroughs High School (1961) in Ridgecrest.

Thomas was a founding member of the Golden Empire chapter of the AIA in Bakersfield in 1977.

Ticer, James E., Jr. (1928-2007), AIA481
Born: Shawnee, OK
Education: University of Illinois, B.Arch.

Firms: Architect, Eddy & Paynter (c. 1958-62); Architect, Randall Presley, Builder and Subdivider (1962); Partner, Leach, Kehoe, Ticer, Architects and Planners (1969)

481 James Ticer’s AIA membership file was not accessible due to the closure of the AIA archive until 2025.

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Professional
Biography:

James Everett Ticer was born in Shawnee, Oklahoma in 1928. Around 1938, Ticer and his father, a sheet metal fabricator, relocated to Bakersfield. After earning his degree from the University of Illinois, he returned to Bakersfield and worked for Eddy & Paynter. He was tapped by builder Randall Presley in 1962 to design and build a group of homes in Benton Park.

In 1963, Ticer moved to Ventura County and established an office in Camarillo. In 1969, Ticer formed a partnership with Camarillo-based architects Leach and Kehoe. Little is known of Ticer’s own projects. Newspaper accounts suggest he may have designed the Camarillo Community Center (c. 1966).

Train, Robert F. (1870-1951), AIA
Born: Nottingham, England
Education: Attended University of Illinois for architecture but did not graduate.

Firms: Jr. Draftsman, F. E. Edbrooke & Co (1890-91); Draftsman, Pease & Barber; Henru Ives Cobb and Holabird & Roche (1891-1992); Draftsman, Sumner P. Hunt; Draftsman, Hugh Todd (1893- 1895); Partner, Howard & Train (1896-1898); Partner, Train and Williams (1900-26); Partner, Train and Cressy (1926-38); Principal, Robert F. Train, Architect (1939); Partner, Train and Schaefer (1939-44); Principal, Robert F. Train, Architect (1944-46) Professional
Biography:

Robert Farquhar Train was born in Nottingham, England. He attended schools there until the age of 13, when he appears to have come to the United States. Although he attended the University of Illinois architecture program, he did not graduate. He supplemented his education with private instruction in math, drawing and construction during time in Colorado.

Train worked in a number of architect’s offices in Denver, Chicago and Los Angeles. During 1891-1892, he worked on the Chicago World’s Fair. Train opened a series of co-partnerships in Los Angeles at the turn of the century and the ensuing three decades. Train appears to have substantially retired from architectural practice in 1949.

Weeks, William H. (1866-1936)
Born: Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island
Education: Brinker Institute
Firms: Principal, William H. Weeks, Architect; Partner, Weeks & Weeks.

Professional
Biography:

William H. Weeks was born the son of a Canadian builder and architect. At the age of 14, Weeks and his family moved to Denver where he took up architectural study at the Brinker Institute.

After spending some time in Wichita, he relocated to Watsonville, California. He became associated with the Spreckel’s Sugar company designing facilities for the company.

In 1904, he established a practice in San Francisco where he designed a Carnegie Library and the First Christian Church. He was active in designing and rebuilding the city after the 1906 earthquake.

In 1924, he formed Weeks & Weeks with his son. It is estimated the firm built more than 100 buildings in California.482

Werner, Carl (1875-1943)
Born: Philadelphia, PA
Education: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, B.Arch (c. 1895)

482 Withey, Henry F. and Elsie Rathburn Withey, Biographical Dictionary of American Architects, Facsimile Edition, Hennessey & Ingalls, Inc., 1970, 641.

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Firms: Carle Werner, Architect (1898-unknown)
Professional
Biography:

Carl Werner was born in Philadelphia. He trained at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and upon graduation, at the age of 19, he moved to California. In 1898, he opened his own practice in San Francisco. His projects included a number of schools, residences, and buildings for the Masonic Order. He also designed the vast majority of educational buildings in Northern California prior to 1906.

Wetmore, James A. (1863-1940)
Born: Bath, NY
Education: Unknown
Firms: Unknown
Professional
Biography:

James A. Wetmore began working in Washington, D.C., as a Court Stenographer in the Treasury Department. He later was a court stenographer for the Architectural Department. Wetmore held the post of Architectural Supervisor of the U.S. Treasury Department. In this capacity, more than 2,000 buildings were designed in his office.483 He retired during the 1930s to Coral Gables, Florida.

White, Stanford (1853-1906), FAIA
Born: New York, NY
Education: Private schools; no university training
Firms: Student Draftsman, Gambrill & Richardson (c. 1872); Partner, Mead, McKim & White (1880- 1906)
Professional
Biography:

Stanford White was born to the son of a noted Shakespearian actor. He attended private schools and became a student draftsman in the New York firm of Gambrill & Richardson at the age of 19. He rose to Richardson’s chief assistant.

In 1878, White traveled extensively in Europe with Charles F. McKim and when they returned in 1880, White was asked to join McKim and William Mead, forming Mead McKIim & White.

White is best known for Judson Memorial Church (1885), Washington Memorial Arch (1889), Metropolitan Club, New York University Library (1900), Knickerbocker Trust Building (1904) and Madison Square Presbyterian Church (1905) in New York. White also designed many luxurious homes and country estates.

White died at the height of his fame from a gunshot at the age of 53.

Willard, Stanton D. (1891-1964) AIA
Born: Chicago, IL
Education: None
Firms: York & Sawyer (no dates); Howard Sill (no dates); Henry H. Meyers (no dates); Kenneth MacDonald, R. (no dates); Designer, William B. Faville (no dates); Chief Designer/Office Manager, Walker & Eisen (c. 1909-c. 1926)

483 Withey and Withey, 647.

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Professional
Biography:

Stanton D. Willard was born in Chicago, Illinois. Although not formally educated at a university, he received training from the American Society of Beaux Arts for two years. He worked for architect William B. Faville for 11 years and for Walker & Eisen for 18 years.

Around 1930, Willard relocated from Southern California to San Francisco. He moved to Bakersfield in 1938 where he worked until returning to San Francisco in 1943. In 1945 he moved to Sacramento when he joined the State Division of Architecture where he worked on the Soledad state prison design and the Deuel Vocational Institution at Tracy. Willard is best known for his design of San Francisco’s State Building and several of the Panama Pacific International Exposition structures (1915). He was also known for his school designs during the period in which he lived in Bakersfield.

Williams, Wayne Richard (1919-2007), FAIA
Born: Los Angeles, CA
Education: University of Southern California, B.Arch. (1947) Firms: Principal, Smith & Williams (1949-1973)
Professional
Biography:

Wayne Williams was born in Los Angeles in 1919. He was a student of Whitney Smith at USC during Smith’s tenure from 1941-1942. He graduated with his bachelor’s degree in architecture from USC in 1947.

By 1949, Whitney Smith and Wayne Williams officially became partners. Some of their most notable early projects include Crestwood Hills (1950) and Griffith Park Girl’s Camp (1951).

During the firm’s 24 years, Smith and Williams produced numerous award-winning architectural projects, including private residences, educational buildings, religious buildings, community buildings, recreational facilities, commercial buildings, and parks. The Smith & Williams partnership dissolved in 1973, although both Whitney Smith and Wayne Williams continued to practice.

In 1964, Williams was elevated to Fellowship in the American Institute of Architects.

Wiseman, Thomas B. (1891-1920)
Born: Washington state (city unknown)
Education: Unknown
Firms: Principal, Thomas Wiseman, Architect (c. 1910-11): Partner, Smith & Wiseman (1911-c. 1920) Professional
Biography:

Little is known about the early history and education of Thomas B. Wiseman. He appears in the Bakersfield census in 1910 as a practicing architect. In 1911, Wiseman and San Francisco-based architect Henry C. Smith elected to form a partnership in anticipation of the large number of school projects to be erected in Kern County. Within a couple of months, Wiseman was awarded a school project in Wasco.

In 1911, he was also recruited by the Board of Education of Santa Monica to discuss the design of a Polytechnic High School building. Despite the new emphasis on educational buildings, Wiseman continued to receive commissions for large commercial and civic/institutional buildings in Bakersfield.

In July of 1920, the promising young architect’s career was cut tragically short when he drowned in the Kern River. He was 29 years old.

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Wright, Frank Lloyd (1867-1959)
Born: Richland Center, WI
Education: Attended University of Wisconsin, Madison
Firms: Draftsman, Joseph Lyman Sisbee (1887-1888); Draftsman/Head Draftsman, Adler & Sullivan (1888-1893); Principal, Frank Lloyd Wright, Architect (1893-1959) Professional
Biography:

Frank Lloyd Wright was born in Richland Center, Wisconsin as a preacher’s son. Both parents were active in music and the arts. Wright’s parents divorced when he was 14 years old. Wright’s interest in architecture and design was evident when he attended the University of Wisconsin, Madison. However, he did not complete his studies.

Wright went to Chicago where he ultimately landed in the office of Adler and Sullivan. Louis Sullivan had a profound influence on Wright’s thinking about architecture. Sullivan’s practice was asking questions about what a truly American architecture would look like—questions Wright would continue to work through over his entire career.

Wright’s highly-influential own home and studio in Oak Park, Illinois were completed in 1889.

Wright formed his own firm in Oak Park in 1893. During the early years of his practice, Wright became well-known for his Prairie-style homes and for breaking the box of traditional floor plans by creating the open plan. The publication of Wright’s work in the Wasmuth Portfolio introduced him to the world. His influence was soon felt among the established architecture community worldwide.

In the early 1920s, Wright came to California where he designed the textile block system along with his son, architect Lloyd Wright. His work in California is often regarded as his Romanza period for his embrace of ornament and the influence of Native forms.

Wright was extremely prolific, designing more than 1,000 structures over a 70-year career. This productivity was due in large part to his schools, Taliesin in Spring Green, Wisconsin, and later Taliesin West in Scottsdale, Arizona. The Taliesin Fellowship produced hundreds of architectural apprentices that worked on important Wright projects.

Wright is responsible from some of the most important and best-known works of 20th century American architecture. Among these are the Robie House in Chicago, Illinois (1909), Fallingwater in Laurel Highlands, Pennsylvania (1935-39), Johnson Wax Headquarters in Racine, Wisconsin (1936), and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City (1956-59).

In his later years, Wright was prolific in his designs for private residences and civic and institutional projects.

Wright, J. Warren (1910-1997), AIA
Born: Selma, CA
Education: University of Southern California, B.Arch. (1933) Firms: Draftsman, Edwin J. Symmes (1934-35); Draftsman, Ira W. Hoover (1935-36); Chief Office Manager, Franklin and Kump (1936-37); Draftsman, Stanton Willard, AIA (1937-38); Associate Architect, Stanton Willard, AIA (1938-41); Architect and Deputy Co. Superintendent, Kern County (1941-42); Partner, Wright Metcalf & Parsons (1945-unknown) Professional
Biography:

John Warren Wright was a student of educator/architect Clarence Cullimore Sr., graduating from Kern County High School in 1928. Like so many, he attended the USC School of Architecture and graduated in 1933.

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After World War II, Wright formed a partnership with Arthur Metcalf. In 1953, they built their own office building in Bakersfield. The firm primarily worked in the Mid-Century Modern style.

His firms were best known for their civic/institutional work. Wright’s projects included Kern County Detention Home (1951), Arvin Sierra School (1953) in Arvin, and the State Employment Building (1953) in Bakersfield. Wright, Metcalf & Parsons was also responsible for the master planning and early buildings at Bakersfield College. The Greater Bakersfield Memorial Hospital and the Bakersfield Civic Auditorium are also credited to Wright, Metcalf & Parsons.

Wright, Metcalf & Parsons was published in Progressive Architecture. Their body of work was significantly in the Mid-Century Modern style.

Wynkoop, Frank (1902-1978), AIA
Born: Denver, CO
Education: No architectural degree; Beaux Arts Competitions for Seattle Architecture Club Firms: Junior Draftsman, John and Donald B. Parkinson; Draftsman, Shack Young & Myers; Designer, National Theater Supply Company; Designer, R. C. Reamer; Design/Drafting/Specifications, W.

D. Coates; Architect, Edwin J. Symmes (1936); Partner, The Office of Frank Wynkoop, Architect (1937-c.1942); Principal, Frank Wynkoop, Architect, AIA (c. 1942-c. 1978) Professional
Biography:

Frank Wynkoop was born in Denver, Colorado. He came to Southern California as a young boy attending Los Angeles Polytechnic High School, Long Beach Polytechnic High School, and Pomona High School.

After a number of junior positions in architectural offices in Los Angeles, Seattle, and Fresno, he moved to Bakersfield and went to work for Edwin J. Symmes. He formed his own office in 1937 in Bakersfield. He obtained his architectural license in 1941.

Wynkoop is best known for his schools including Lakeside Union Elementary School (1942) in Bakersfield, Delano High School (1953), a high school auditorium (1952) in Clovis, and Carlmont High School (1955) in San Carlos. His design for Westside Elementary School was featured in Architectural Forum in 1949.

In 1947, Wynkoop moved his architectural practice from Bakersfield to San Francisco. By 1958, however, he had moved his office again to Santa Ana in Southern California.

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Finance, Economic Development and Jobs CommitteeSeptember 22, 2025

Finance, Economic Development and Jobs Committee
September 22, 2025