July 28, 2023 - Learn about the 13 nominations being considered for federal historic designation and one nomination for state historic designation at the upcoming meeting of the California State Historical Resources Commission (Commission) on Friday, August 4. The meeting begins at 9:30 a.m. and the public can join in person at the California Natural Resources Headquarters Building in Sacramento or virtually.
The Mission La Purísima at ‘Amuwu District in Santa Barbara County is one property being considered for federal historical designation. This property is the first nomination updated in association with the Native Americans and the California Mission System 1769-1848 Multiple Property Submission (MPS). The site is a pivotal location of the largest Native American rebellion against the Spanish on North America’s West Coast and is associated with the historic context “Native Identity, Persistence, and Resistance.” Another property being considered for federal historical designation is the Watts Happening Cultural Center in Los Angeles County, associated with the Watts Uprising of 1965 where young people in the neighborhood opened the Watts Happening Coffee House in an old furniture store. The coffeehouse became an incubator for artistic expression and an ad hoc community center, home to the Mafundi Institute, a Black cultural academy.
Here are all the properties being considered at the meeting:
National Register of Historic Places Nominations
Native Americans and the California Mission System 1769-1848
MPS
Multiple Cities, Multiple Counties
The Multiple Property Documentation Form provides three historic contexts to incorporate Native American history and voices into evaluations of mission system-related properties. Fifteen of the 21 California missions are listed on the National Register of Historic Places (National Register), with nine also listed as National Historic Landmarks. Other properties related to the mission system listed on the National Register are associated with all four presidios, two mission outstations and 22 Mission Period adobes and ranchos. Most of these designations were from the 1960s and 1970s, with sparse documentation that does not adequately represent Native American experiences within and outside the mission spheres of influence.
Mission La Purísima at ’Amuwu District
(Native Americans and the California Mission System 1769-1848 MPS)
Lompoc, Santa Barbara County
This is the first nomination updated in association with the Native Americans and the California Mission System 1769-1848MPS. As the pivotal location of the largest Native American rebellion against the Spanish on North America’s West Coast, the property is associated with the historic context “Native Identity, Persistence, and Resistance.” Established at a location known to the Chumash as ’Amuwu, the district includes the casco (headquarters) and the primary aqueduct system of the second site of Mission La Purísima, in operation from 1813 until 1835. Mission La Purísima was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1978, with resulting listing on the National Register at the national level of significance for its detailed and accurate reconstruction of a complete California mission. For its additional context under criteria in new areas of significance, this nomination documents a state level of significance distinct from the national level of significance associated with the reconstruction.
Higgins Building
Los Angeles, Los Angeles County
The 10-story steel-reinforced concrete building in the Beaux Arts style stands prominently at the corner of Second and Main Streets in downtown Los Angeles. The Higgins advanced the city skyline by demonstrating the successful use of concrete in a high-rise, and advanced its infrastructure by embracing modern utilities, including a private electrical generating plant in its sub-basement. From its opening in 1910, the building was integral to the social history and commercial development of downtown Los Angeles at the beginning of the 20th century and in the forefront of efforts at the beginning of the 21st century to repurpose the city’s abandoned or underused historic buildings.
Immanuel Evangelical Lutheran Church of Alameda
Alameda, Alameda County
The church is an increasingly rare example of Carpenter Gothic design and has a picturesque, asymmetrical composition. The complete set of stained-glass windows are original to the church’s 1890-91 construction. The church embodies the distinctive characteristics of the Carpenter Gothic style, possesses high artistic values and craftsmanship, and represents the work of master architect Julius E. Krafft. The redwood church was constructed by builders Herbst and McLeod of Oakland, with stained glass windows attributed to John Mallon, an early and recognized stained-glass maker in San Francisco.
Alpha Omega Chapter of Sigma Chi Fraternity House
Stanford, Santa Clara County
Designed by architect John Kennedy Branner in the Colonial Revival style and constructed in 1938 on the Stanford University campus, the three-story side-gabled fraternity house is significant for its association with the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that banned racial discrimination in public accommodations. In 1965, the Chapter extended membership to Kenny Washington, a Black freshman student, thus rejecting Alpha Omega’s longstanding mandate of racial exclusion by the national fraternity of Sigma Chi. The action by the fraternity’s national executive committee to suspend the Stanford University Sigma Chi chapter started a national debate on university campuses and in the federal government on the legality of racial exclusion in public accommodations that led to eliminating racial preferences in university associations and fraternity admissions.
Doctors House
Glendale, Los Angeles County
Originally a single dwelling, the two-story, circa-1888 Queen Anne style building was moved to a public park to avert demolition and repurposed as a museum. Typical of Queen Anne style buildings, the property also incorporates some elements of the closely related Eastlake style, namely its squared roof tower and some of the exterior wood details—features that illustrate the aesthetic values underpinning the Queen Anne style. The building is one of only two extant Queen Anne style buildings in Glendale and is therefore a rare surviving example of the community’s early architectural heritage.
Toad Hall
Pasadena, Los Angeles County
Named after the house in the children’s novel “The Wind in the Willows” by Kenneth Grahame, Toad Hall embodies the distinctive characteristics of the Tudor Revival style. Completed in 1926, the house was built by the William R. Myers Company, a real estate development company that began in Los Angeles in 1907 and was the earliest developer of the Cheviotdale Heights neighborhood in Pasadena. The single-family residence was designed by Donald R. Wilkinson, an architect with a prolific career in the region.
Montgomery Way Gateway Historic District
Sacramento, Sacramento County
The South Curtis Park district is comprised of a significant concentration and continuity of houses designed in early 20th-century period revival styles, including Spanish Colonial Revival, Italian Renaissance, Tudor Revival, Mediterranean Revival, Colonial Revival, Classical Revival, Monterey Style, Italian Renaissance and French Renaissance. Significant for its architecture and association with the growth of suburban neighborhoods, the development of the tract coincided with the national Better Homes Movement, which received broad support from both government and industry.
La Jolla Park Coastal Historic District
La Jolla, San Diego County
The district, located 14 miles north of the San Diego, includes coastal parkland, public rights-of-way and resources on public and private property, encompassing approximately 8 acres. The boundary of the district is defined by the coastal parkway and trail, extending south from the intersection of Coast Walk and Torrey Pines Road to the end of Coast Boulevard, and seaward to the mean high tide line. The contiguous coastal parkway shaped the development of the picturesque suburb of La Jolla; led to the construction of small cottages, bungalows and hotels; and was the center of entertainment and leisure activities.
City Transfer and Storage Company Warehouse
Redlands, San Bernardino County
Originally constructed as a trolley barn, the one-story brick building was principally used as a warehouse operated by a storage company. Constructed by Henry and John Fisher as a car barn for the Redlands Central Railway—a competitor with the San Bernardino Valley Traction Company—the building may never have performed its intended function, as it was superseded by another car barn closer to the Southern Pacific depot. Instead, the building was used to store furniture, principally for families moving from midwestern homes to seasonal residences in temperate Redlands, which was becoming a popular location for southern California summer homes in the early 20th century.
Evergreen Cemetery
Riverside, Riverside County
The 21.76-acre burial ground is located at the foot of Mount Rubidoux. Developed over the course of 150 years, from 1872 to 1960, the cemetery includes parklike settings, mature trees, curvilinear drives and footpaths, and a wide range of flat and upright monuments. The cemetery also includes a mausoleum, chapel with crematory, cemetery office, maintenance building and receiving vaults and was also historically used as an icehouse.
Sierra Railway Locomotive No. 3
Jamestown, Tuolumne County
The standard gauge 4-6-0 "Ten-Wheeler" wagon-top boiler steam locomotive was built by Rogers Locomotive & Machine Works, in Paterson, New Jersey, in 1891. Originally fired by coal, it was converted to oil-fired operation and received several repairs during its time as a locomotive for the Sierra Railroad in Tuolumne County, California, as part of regular maintenance and after two wrecks. Starting in the 1920s, Sierra No. 3 became the railroad's principal locomotive used in motion pictures, and later television programs, shot on the Sierra Railroad. To facilitate its use in movies set in different eras and geographic locations, several parts of the locomotive can be switched out or disguised, including smokestack, pilot, headlight and other features. Sierra No. 3 represents the most famous "movie star" locomotive, as used on Hollywood's greatest movie railroad.
Watts Happening Cultural Center
Los Angeles, Los Angeles County
The Late Modern community center in the Watts neighborhood was built in 1970. Following the Watts Uprising of 1965, young people in the neighborhood opened the Watts Happening Coffee House in an old furniture store. The coffeehouse became an incubator for artistic expression and an ad hoc community center, home to the Mafundi Institute, a Black cultural academy. When the old building was not permitted to contain more than 50 people due to its unreinforced masonry construction, organizers received a grant to build a new facility, designed by Black architects Robert Kennard and Arthur Silvers. After the Mafundi Institute closed its doors in 1975, the building was reopened in 1982 and still serves its function as a community art space.
California Point of Historical Interest Nomination
Site of China Slide
Burnt Ranch, Trinity County
Forty miles west of Weaverville in Trinity County is the site of a Feb. 3, 1890, landslide upstream from Collins Bar and Dixon Bar Creeks, along the Trinity River, that resulted in the death of two Chinese miners. The resulting blockage of the river created a 9-mile temporary dam that inundated the area upstream and resulted in dramatic changes to the Trinity River, which took years to return to its pre-slide state. Scars on the hillside from the slide are still visible.
All nominations and photographs of properties under consideration are available online.
The meeting will be held at the California Natural Resources Headquarters Building, Conference Room 2-302, A & B (2nd Floor), 715 P Street, Sacramento. Those who would like to participate virtually in the meeting must register for attendance via the Zoom link posted on the Commission Meeting Schedule and Notices webpage of the Office of Historic Preservation website at ohp.parks.ca.gov/shrcnotices.Those who wish to watch the meeting but not provide comments do not need to register and may watch a live webcast, with archived video provided post-meeting, at cal-span.org/.
The National Register is part of a national program that coordinates and supports public and private efforts to identify, evaluate and protect America’s historic and archaeological resources. The California Register of Historical Resources is a program designed by the Commission in 1992 for use by state and local government agencies, private groups and citizens to identify, evaluate, register and protect California’s historical resources. California Historical Landmarks are sites, buildings, features or events that are of statewide significance and have anthropological, cultural, military, political, architectural, economic, scientific, technical, religious or experimental value.California Points of Historical Interest are sites, buildings, features or events that are of local (city or county) significance and have anthropological, cultural, military, political, architectural, economic, scientific, technical, religious or experimental value.
Placement on the National Register can help bring positive attention to a historic place and affords a property the honor of inclusion in the nation’s list of cultural resources worthy of preservation. This can provide a degree of protection from adverse effects resulting from federally funded or licensed projects. Registration also provides incentives for preservation of historic properties, including special building codes to facilitate the restoration of historic structures, and certain tax advantages.
Notices and agendas for Commission meetings are available online 10 days before a meeting at ohp.parks.ca.gov. The public may present oral statements at the hearing at the appropriate time. Inquiries and written comments on the agenda may also be emailed to the Office of Historic Preservation at calshpo@ohp.parks.ca.gov or submitted via mail to Julianne Polanco, State Historic Preservation Officer, at Office of Historic Preservation, P.O. Box 942896, Sacramento, CA 94296-0001.
General inquiries about the commission should be directed to (916) 445-7000 or calshpo.shrc@parks.ca.gov.
Top left: The Sierra Railway Locomotive No. 3 in Tuolumne County. Photo courtesy of Office of Historic Preservation. Top right: Watts Happening Cultural Center in Los Angeles County. Photo courtesy of Office of Historic Preservation. Bottom left: Henry Miller sketch of Mission La Purísima Concepción, 1856. Photo courtesy of Bancroft Library. Bottom right: The Alpha Omega Chapter of Sigma Chi Fraternity House in Santa Clara County. Photo courtesy of Stacey De Shazo.
Source: CA. State Parks
