During the 1920s Long Beach homeowners were not only enthusiastic about Craftsman bungalows, but the more affluent began building homes in the newly popular Spanish Revival style. Both styles of architecture can now be found all over the city although Spanish Revival is most common in two neighborhoods, Belmont Shore and California Heights.
This Spanish Revival home on Ocean Boulevard in the Bluff Park neighborhood facing the beach shows several characteristic of this architectural style:
– White exterior walls
– Smooth finished stucco
– Arched Roman windows
– Ornately carved doors
– Flat and/or low-pitched roof
– Red roof tiles
– Iron work trim on windows and doors
Home design borrowed from Spain, Andalusia and Mexico
Spanish Revival is a purely American architectural style drawing on Spanish, Moorish, Mission and Mexican architectural influences — and mixing these diverse elements in such a way that the whole is very pleasing. George Smith of Santa Barbara was one of the originators of this architecture which was popular in the American Southwest in the 1920s and 1930s and is still much-loved in Southern California to this day.
The two Long Beach neighborhoods that are the home to hundreds of Spanish Revival houses are Belmont Shore and California Heights. In the historic district of Cal Heights you will find mostly single-story, single family homes on small lots built in the 1920s. In Belmont Shore, the homes are often 2 story.
Cal Heights historic district has restrictions and tax breaks
A homeowners association keeps a keen eye on anyone who wants to update or change one of the homes in Cal Heights. Because Cal Heights is an official California State historic neighborhood there are specific remodeling restrictions and attractive tax benefits for homeowners. (If you plan to buy a home there, be sure to ask for details.)
This one-story Spanish Revival home is a pared down version of the style with its Roman-arched front window, red tile roof and white exterior. The ornamentation is minimal. The Mission influence is revealed in the dark wood beams above the square front windows.
Belmont Shore and, to an extent, Belmont Heights, presents another view of Spanish Revival. In these two neighborhoods there are many two-story homes as well as apartment buildings in that style. In fact. Spanish Revival apartment buildings can be found throughout the older neighborhoods of Long Beach, especially along Ocean Blvd. where there are also many Art Deco buildings near downtown.
Mustard gold paint and sage green awnings on the exterior of this two-story Spanish Revival home in Belmont Heights are strictly contemporary color choices. Originally the home was painted white or off-white.
Monterey Spanish Colonial variations
The Monterey Colonial influence shows on this home, right, with the cantilevered brown wood balcony on the second story of this Belmont Shore home. The walls at the edge of the property are rustic, in keeping with the Colonial influence.
The interiors of many Spanish Revival homes are all white with cove or tray ceilings; others had wood beam ceilings, sometimes elaborately painted. The red tiles on the roofs may originally have been clay, but now are often a more durable concrete, stained red.
Tiles were used on stairs, floors, fireplace surrounds, walls — even on tables — in Spanish Revival homes. Many tiles came from local potteries, including the Malibu Pottery. Other tiles came from Mexico. The old patterns for these tile from both sources are still being re-created today.
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