1 FINDINGS AND DETERMINATION
OF THE LANDMARKS COMMISSION
OF THE CITY OF SANTA MONICA IN THE MATTER OF
THE DESIGNATION OF A STRUCTURE OF MERIT
DESIGNATION OF RESIDENTIAL 25ENT-0069
STRUCTURE LOCATED AT
1125 18th Street
AS A STRUCTURE OF MERIT
SECTION I. The Santa Monica Conservancy filed a Structure of Merit Nomination application with the City of Santa Monica (City) on April 29, 2025. The Landmarks Commission, having held a Public Hearing on July 14, 2025 hereby finds that the residential front structure meets one or more of the criteria for designation as a Structure of Merit as enumerated in SMMC 9.56.080 and designates the front residential structure as a Structure of Merit based on the following findings:
Criterion A. The structure has been identified in the City’s Historic Resources Inventory as eligible for Structure of Merit designation.
Criterion (B)(1). The structure is a minimum of 50 years of age and …The structure is a unique or rare example of an architectural design, detail or historical type.
The subject building was constructed in 1923 and therefore is more than 50 years of age. 1125 18th Street is a relatively intact example of a modest Craftsman bungalow built during Santa Monica’s real estate boom of the 1920s. The Craftsman bungalow was a common single-family residential style in the Wilshire Montana neighborhood at the time the neighborhood was being developed in response to improved transit access. These small- scale, wood-framed homes were popular due to their ease and affordability of construction. The building possesses some key characteristics of this housing type, including its one-story height, low-pitched gable roof with overhanging eaves, visible rafter tails, angular brackets supporting the entry door gable, wood siding, and multi-lite wood frame windows.
The extant Craftsman bungalows and other single-family residences built in the first three decades of the 20th century in the Wilshire Montana neighborhood are no longer prevalent thus represent a picture into the past of a homogenous single-family neighborhood located within the Wilshire Montana area, and the Green Acres Tract specifically. During and after Santa Monica’s period of growth in the 1920’s, low-scale apartment complexes and bungalow courts in various Revival styles were constructed alongside single family homes. This pattern created the neighborhood’s varied residential character, an architectural mix which reflects decades-long development patterns in the Green Acres Tract and Wilshire Montana neighborhood.
Docusign Envelope ID: 4A28445C-1FA8-4C5D-A847-8C015366AF61 2 The Craftsman bungalow remains a relatively uncommon building type within the neighborhood, specifically the Green Acres Tract of the Wilshire Montana neighborhood. 1125 18th Street, a small modest, vernacular Craftsman style bungalow appears to represent a rare or unique example of its type within this area of Santa Monica.
This vernacular Craftsman bungalow represents a unique and rare variation of the typical Craftsman bungalow architecture. As a late variant constructed in 1923, features such as a bank of windows on the façade, a reduced porch and entry door on a side elevation and asymmetrical window muntins break away from the classic design of Craftsman bungalows.
Criterion (B)(2). The structure is representative of a style in the City that is no longer prevalent.
1125 18th Street is an example of a modest vernacular Craftsman bungalow, which was a building type prevalent in the City of Santa Monica through the first two decades of the 20th century. 1125 18th Street is single-family one-story Craftsman home representing a style that is no longer prevalent in the Wilshire Montana neighborhood, specifically the Green Acres Tract.
SECTION II. The character-defining features of the primary structure include the following:
Exterior Features, Materials and Craftsmanship
• _Craftsman Vernacular
• _Horizontal wood clapboard siding
• _Exposed rafter tails and bracketed side porch
• _Low-pitched front gable roof with intersecting side gable projection • _Series of double hung windows (west) façade featuring prairie-style muntins and windows framed with wide board surrounds
• _Primary south elevation with side entrance
SECTION lll. The designation includes the main residential structure and excludes all other units and accessory structures located behind the main structure.
SECTION IV. The designation is made in compliance with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), including an exemption under CEQA Guideline 15061(b)(3) (Common Sense Exemption).
SECTION V. I hereby certify that the above Findings and Determination accurately reflect the final determination of the Landmarks Commission of the City of Santa Monica on July 14, 2025 as determined by the following vote:
AYES: Genser, Sloan, Hillbrand, Chair Green
NAYES: O’Connor, Payton
Docusign Envelope ID: 4A28445C-1FA8-4C5D-A847-8C015366AF61 3 ABSTAIN: None
ABSENT: Summers
Each and all of the findings and determinations are based on the competent and substantial evidence, both oral and written, contained in the entire record relating to the decision. All summaries of information contained herein or in the findings are based on the substantial evidence in the record. The absence of any particular fact from any such summary is not an indication that a particular finding is not based in part on that fact.
NOTICE
If this is a final decision not subject to further appeal under the Landmark and Historic District Ordinance of the City of Santa Monica, Santa Monica Municipal Code Chapter
9.56, the time within which judicial review of this decision must be sought is governed by Code of Civil Procedure Section 1094.6, which provision has been adopted by the City pursuant to Municipal Code Section 1.16.010.
Respectfully Submitted
October 13, 2025
Amy Green, Chair
Attest:
Stephanie Reich, AIA, LEED AP
Landmarks Commission Secretary
Docusign Envelope ID: 4A28445C-1FA8-4C5D-A847-8C015366AF61