Restored Home

The Willmore City Heritage Association (WCHA) won first place in Neighborhoods, USA’s Neighborhood of the Year Award 2010 national competition in the category of Physical Revitalization – Single Neighborhood.

The project saved a 106-year old house from demolition, moved and restored it, helped a local family buy it and removed two blighted, vacant lots from the neighborhood.  

Read the rest of Willmore City Heritage Association wins first place in national competition

On Sunday, June 7, Long Beach Heritage celebrates “A Century of Style” with its annual Great Homes of Long Beach tour. From noon to 5 p.m., ticket holders will be welcomed inside six architecturally distinguished homes in the Belmont Heights, Bixby Knolls, Los Cerritos and Willmore City neighborhoods of the city.
 
Homes featured on the tour this year span a century’s worth of the city’s rich architectural history, and include two Long Beach historic landmarks: the James Elzy Porter House, an impressive 1903 Queen Anne in the Willmore City Historic District built by pioneer surveyor, rancher and developer James Elzy Porter, and the Henry Clock House, a grand Monterey Revival home located in the Los Cerritos neighborhood and designed in 1933 by noted local architect Kirtland Cutter for prominent Long Beach attorney Henry Clock.
 
Other homes on the tour are landmarks in their own right. They include another turn-of-the-century home in the Willmore City Historic District, a 1904 Colonial Revival foursquare moved to the district earlier this decade and recently renovated by the Willmore City Heritage Association; a stunning Belmont Heights Romantic Revival house, circa 1930, with a rolled roof and turret features; a mid-century modern ranch house in Bixby Knolls that has been lovingly restored down to the 1950s-era furniture and decorations; and lastly, a special treat not to be missed: the 1930 Spanish Colonial Revival mansion, Vista Del Mar, on the bluff overlooking the ocean. Because this home is on a private gated street, parking may be hard to find, meaning guests might have farther to walk.
 
At each home, Long Beach Heritage docents will greet visitors and highlight the various interior and exterior features and any known history about the home.
 
Tickets are $35, or $30 for Long Beach Heritage members. Reservations are limited. To purchase tickets, order online at www.lbheritage.org or send a check and a self-addressed stamped envelope to Long Beach Heritage, PO Box 92521, Long Beach, CA 90809 with “Great Home Tour” on the check’s memo line.
 
Tickets ordered before June 2 will be mailed to the recipients, and will include a map with addresses of the homes and any additional instructions. Those who order tickets after June 2 must call Long Beach Heritage at (562) 493-7019 for “will call” location information.
 
Proceeds from the tour support the Bembridge House, a 1906 Queen Anne Victorian on the National Registry of Historic Places and owned by Long Beach Heritage. The home is being lovingly restored by the organization and serves as a cultural resource for Long Beach residents.
 
For more information, call (562) 493-7019 or visit www.lbheritage.org.