For Immediate Release: 10/22/2018

California State Historical Resources Commission To Consider Eleven Properties for Action

Contact: Jorge Moreno I Information Officer I (916) 653-1986

SACRAMENTO, Calif.—The California State Historical Resources Commission (Commission) will consider eleven nominations for federal historic designation on Friday, October 26. The Commission meeting will be held at 9 a.m. in Room 1010 on the 10th Floor of Los Angeles City Hall, located at 200 North Spring Street, Los Angeles.

Some of the nominations being considered are Asian Americans in Los Angeles Multiple Property Submission which include the Filipino Christian Church. The submission establishes a framework to guide the identification anddesignation of places significant to Los Angeles’ Asian American communities that cover the history and development of five Los Angeles neighborhoods that have been designated as Preserve America communities— Chinatown, Little Tokyo, Koreatown, Historic Filipinotown, and Thai Town. Other properties include the Webber Lake Hotel in Sierra County, which is a two-story building constructed of 10-inch wide hand-hewn and squared pine logs was built in a vernacular style with visual references to Greek Revival architecture.

All properties being considered at the meeting include:

National Register of Historic Places Nominations

Kelso Historic District (Boundary Increase)

Kelso, San Bernardino County

The 2001 National Register listing of the Kelso Depot, Restaurant and Employees Hotel district is amended to include the schoolhouse and associated resources. The historic district is associated with the development of Kelso as a company town, the town’s relationship to the continued functioning and expansion of the California route of the San Pedro Los Angeles & Salt Lake Railroad and Union Pacific’s transcontinental railroad, and Kelso’s location as a critical supply stop during World War II and the Korean War.

Vulcan Mine Historic District

Kelso (vicinity), San Bernardino County

The district includes the main mining complex where ore was extracted from an open pit, a transportation corridor that connects it to Kelso, and the loading ramps at Kelso used to transfer the iron ore to railcars. The property is associated with the history of mining in the Mojave Desert, industrial development in the West, and development of steel resources for the production of the Liberty Ships during World War II. Between 1942 and 1947 when Kaiser Corporation Inc. actively mined the property, the mine produced 2.643 million tons of iron ore. It was the principal source of ore for the steel that went to Kaiser shipyards in Los Angeles, Richmond, and the Portland/Vancouver area that produced 1,490 vessels through the course of the war.

Abell House

The Sea Ranch, Sonoma County

The property embodies the distinctive characteristics of a type of construction known locally as a Sea Ranch Binker Barn, and represents the work of California master architect William Turnbull, Jr., FAIA. Completed in 1968, this single-family residence was designed to emphasize harmony with the landscape. The Binker Barn quickly became synonymous with the iconic image of Sea Ranch, a planned, unincorporated Sonoma County community.

Webber Lake Hotel

Sierraville (vicinity), Sierra County

The two-story building constructed of 10-inch wide hand-hewn and squared pine logs was built in a vernacular style with visual references to Greek Revival architecture and an elaborate Egyptian Revival entry door. The property is associated with Dr. David Gould Webber, an individual significant to the history of Sierra County and Henness Pass, the road connecting Virginia City, Nevada to Marysville, California.

Asian Americans in Los Angeles Multiple Property Submission (MPS)

Los Angeles, Los Angeles County

The Multiple Property Submission establishes a framework to guide the identification and designation of places significant to Los Angeles’ Asian American communities. Geographically, the contexts cover the history and development of five Los Angeles neighborhoods that have been designated as Preserve America communities— Chinatown, Little Tokyo, Koreatown, Historic Filipinotown, and Thai Town—and also focus on other areas of the city in which these groups settled over time.

Filipino Christian Church - Asian Americans in Los Angeles MPS

Los Angeles, Los Angeles County

The oldest Filipino American church in Los Angeles has served as an important social and cultural center of the Filipino American community. The history of the church and its predecessor organization dates back to the first wave of Filipino immigration to Los Angeles, and its story largely parallels that of Filipino Americans in the greater Los Angeles region. Constructed in 1909 for the Union Avenue M.E. Church, the Craftsman style building with Late Gothic Revival influences was acquired by the Filipino Christian Church in 1950.

Garden Apartment Complexes in the City of Los Angeles 1939-1955 MPS

Los Angeles, Los Angeles County

The Multiple Property Submission establishes a framework to guide the identification and designation of significant garden apartment complexes, an important housing form used by both public and private housing developers following the Second World War. The context documents the history of this housing type in Los Angeles and its significance to the region.

Mar Vista Gardens - Garden Apartment Complexes MPS

Los Angeles, Los Angeles County

Located in the Del Rey neighborhood of Los Angeles, the complex included sixty-two residential buildings, ancillary buildings, a play area and baseball diamond on a forty-three-acre site, built in 1954 using public housing funds made available by the Housing Act of 1949. The property was designed using Garden City planning principles by project architect Albert Criz and project engineer Morris V. Goldsmith.

Aloha Apartment Hotel

Los Angeles, Los Angeles County

The four-and-a-half-story, U-shaped Mediterranean Revival style building built in 1928, is a significant local example of an early 20th century property type, a multi-family, residential hotel building. Built during a time of rapid residential and commercial growth of Hollywood and the motion picture industry, this type of building was an architectural response to a tangible need. Its construction relates to the broader theme of Los Angeles commercial development in the 1920s and 1930s.

Hollywood Argyle Apartments

Los Angeles, Los Angeles County

The four-story, Italian Renaissance Revival style building was constructed in 1927. The property is associated with Hollywood’s transformation from an outlying suburban community into an urban, commercial center, and is highly representative of the construction of midrise apartment houses, which replaced single-family dwellings in large numbers between about 1920 and 1930. Also known as apartment hotels, this type of multi-family residential building provided tourists or new arrivals in a city with living quarters, accompanied by all or some of the services typically rendered by a hotel.

La Casa del Rey

Los Angeles, Los Angeles County

The four-story, T-shaped Mediterranean Revival style building constructed in 1927 on the block between Hollywood and Sunset Boulevards is a representative local example of the architectural response to the rapid residential and commercial growth of Hollywood and the motion picture industry in the early twentieth century. In contrast to more elite hotels and apartments, La Casa Del Rey is an apartment hotel that catered to a middle-class clientele, a decidedly vital niche in the growing entertainment industry.

All nominations and photographs of properties under consideration are available online.

The National Register of Historic Places 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 includes buildings, sites, structures, objects, and districts significant in the architectural, engineering, scientific, economic, agricultural, educational, social, political, military, or cultural annals of California.

Notices and agendas for Commission meetings are available online 10 days before a meeting at www.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 on the Commission are handled by Twila Willis-Hunter. She may be contacted via phone at (916) 445-7052 or at the same mailing address listed above.




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