Belmont Heights is a district in the south-east portion of the city of

Long Beach, California Long Beach is a coastal city in southeastern Los Angeles County, California, United States. It is the list of United States cities by population, 44th-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 451,307 as of 2022. A charter ci ...

, United States, bordering Bluff Park, Bluff Heights, Recreation Park,

Belmont Park Belmont Park is a thoroughbred racing, thoroughbred horse racetrack in Elmont, New York, just east of New York City limits best known for hosting the Belmont Stakes, the final leg of the American Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing (United Stat ...

, Belmont Shore, and the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

. The district commemorates the old City of Belmont Heights, which was incorporated in 1908 and annexed to Long Beach in 1909. Belmont Heights' borders are Ocean Boulevard and Livingston Drive to the south, Redondo Avenue on the west, 7th Street to the North, and Nieto Avenue to the east. The area is mostly residential, but also has an active business district, the strip of Broadway east of Redondo Avenue.

History

The Belmont Heights Historic District includes homes between 7th Street on the north, 4th Street on the south, Newport Avenue on the west and Roswell Avenue on the east. A few properties located on 4th and 7th streets are included. The neighborhood was first subdivided and developed in the 1900s (decade). The oldest homes surviving today date from 1905. The predominant architectural style in the district is the Craftsman bungalow. Out of 304 homes surveyed, 206 are "contributing" Craftsman bungalows, and 125 of these are pristine unaltered examples. Other architectural styles found in the area that are considered contributing are

Victorian Victorian or Victorians may refer to: 19th century * Victorian era, British history during Queen Victoria's 19th-century reign ** Victorian architecture ** Victorian house ** Victorian decorative arts ** Victorian fashion ** Victorian literatur ...

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern ...

and

Spanish Colonial Revival The Spanish Colonial Revival architecture (), often known simply as Spanish Revival, is a term used to encompass a number of revivalist architectural styles based in both Spanish colonial architecture and Spanish architecture in general. Thes ...

Tudor Revival Tudor Revival architecture, also known as mock Tudor in the UK, first manifested in domestic architecture in the United Kingdom in the latter half of the 19th century. Based on revival of aspects that were perceived as Tudor architecture, in rea ...

and Neo-Traditional. The period of architectural significance for the district is 1905–39. Construction peaked in 1922. Most homes are single-family, with some duplexes and a few apartment houses. Thirty-seven of the homes surveyed were ranked as "noncontributing", or 13 percent. The district commemorates the old City of Belmont Heights, which was incorporated in 1908 and annexed to Long Beach in 1909. Belmont Heights was incorporated as a city for one year before it annexed with Long Beach in 1909. Long Beach at the time was a dry town, so residents looking for alcohol would head over to the Heights for a drink at one of the taverns. The Green Long Beach Festival was created after several activists shared ideas at the Viento y Agua Coffee Shop in Belmont Heights.

Notable landmarks and architecture

* Belmont Veterans Memorial Pier * Eliot Lane – in 2003 residents on the street sought historic designation to protect the look of the 30 homes. The movement was started by homeowner Linda Becker Babiak whose family owned a "Spanish eclectic" home on Eliot Lane since 1925. The homes are still small – 600 to 900 square feet – and there are seven versions of the popular Spanish Revival or Craftsman Bungalow homes in the tract, all built in 1923 by Boland & Smith. For most of the street's life it was called "Eliot Court" because it was designed to be pedestrian and intimate in scale. * Brown's Court Apartments – located at 3615-3623 E. Colorado Street, it was built as a Spanish Bungalow Court in 1923. It was awarded a Long Beach Heritage Preservation Award in 2015. * Long Beach Green Belt path * The Gaytonia – Medieval Revival apartment house named for original owner George Thomas Gayton; designed by Reginald Freemont Inwood

Local schools

The following schools are part of the

Long Beach Unified School District The Long Beach Unified School District is a school district headquartered in Long Beach, California, United States. Established in 1885, Long Beach Unified School District educates 64,000 students in 84 public schools in the cities of Long ...

. ;Elementary schools
John C. Fremont Elementary School
4000 East 4th Street

5201 East Broadway

257 Coronado Avenue ;Middle schools * Jefferson Leadership Academies, 750 Euclid Avenue
Will Rogers Middle School
365 Monrovia Avenue ;High School *

Woodrow Wilson Classical High School Woodrow Wilson High School (colloquially known as Long Beach Wilson) is an American public high school located in Long Beach, California. This two-block campus is located approximately 1.5 miles from the Pacific Ocean, across from the Recreation ...

, 4400 E. 10th Street

Notable people

Notable residents include: *Clippers President

Andy Roeser Richard Andrew Roeser (born 1959 in Michigan) is the former president of the Los Angeles Clippers of the National Basketball Association. He also served as the alternate governor of the Clippers, representing the team in league matters among the ...

(born 1959). He moved from the Valley in Tarzana to 104 Quincy in Belmont Shore and six years later moved to Belmont Heights. "I said to my wife, `This is where I want to live. It has everything I want - the ocean, the restaurants, the shops.'" He's a member of the Long Beach Yacht Club and the Belmont Athletic Club. He can also be seen kite-boarding near Claremont and Ocean. *Former Los Angeles Rams player Marlin McKeever (1940–2006). He was a two-time All-American at USC and 13-year pro. *Author and screenwriter

Obie Scott Wade Obie Scott Wade is an American producer, director and screenwriter. He has written for several television shows, and in 2013 created the animated television series, '' SheZow''. Career Wade worked on '' Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?'' and ...

. His production company, ObieCo Entertainment, Inc. is located in the historically significant Elizabethan Studio designed by noted architect Joseph H. Roberts.

References

External links