Craftsman’s Cradle

The Internet and a bit of luck helped artists Tina Gulatta and Charles Miller find a historic home with character in Garvanza, a quaint district in the northern end of the Los Angeles community of Highland Park.

Three years ago when the couple decided to buy a house, they were living in the Westside. “We were looking for an older home with high ceilings and room for a garden,” Miller said.

The growing presence of artists in Highland Park and Mount Washington brought them back to the area where they had lived while Gulatta was attending Otis Art Institute in downtown Los Angeles.

But they didn’t find a house that fit their needs until they surfed the Internet and homed in on the Coldwell Banker Web site.

“It was one of the few houses that had photos,” Miller said. “We drove over and took a look at it. The neighborhood was very quiet at night.”

“The neighborhood reminded me of Berkshire County, Mass., where I grew up,” Gulatta said.

Their home, purchased for $154,000, is in a transitional style between Victorian and Craftsman and had been updated with central air conditioning and heat, copper pipes and improved wiring.

Besides living and dining rooms, there are two bedrooms, 1 1/2 baths, a library, kitchen and laundry area. The house also has a basement and an attic that could be converted to living space.

In the dining room, Miller painted a mural on one wall, and the couple added vintage ceiling-high columns they had rescued from a salvage store. The garage was refurbished to make a studio for Gulatta, who is known for her oil paintings. The couple park their cars in the gated driveway.

“I really like the diversity of this neighborhood,” Miller said. “When we moved in, several of the neighbors came with Champagne to welcome us to the neighborhood. We were really surprised by the number of artists living here.”

One of the earliest suburbs of Los Angeles, Garvanza is bordered by Figueroa Street on the west, York Boulevard on the south, the Pasadena Freeway on the east, the city of Pasadena on the northeast and Hillandale Drive on the north.

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Garvanza was subdivided in 1886 from land that was once part of Rancho San Rafael. The neighborhood’s name is derived from the Spanish word for the wild peas, or garbanzos, that once covered the hillsides.

In 1886, the Garvanza Villa hotel opened with great fanfare. Before long, the area had its own newspaper, the Garvanza Gazette.

During the real estate slump of the 1880s and 1890s, 500 shade trees were planted by the Garvanza Improvement Society to attract new residents. The area was annexed to Los Angeles in 1899.

During the 1890s, a number of artists, artisans and intellectuals of the California arts and crafts movement were drawn to Garvanza, influenced by the College of Fine Arts, established by artist and professor William Lees Judson around the turn of the century.

Judson also opened the Judson Studios, one of America’s premier stained-glass studios, in Garvanza. The studio is now owned by his grandson, Walter Judson.

After World War II, residents left Garvanza, as they left many other urban neighborhoods, for new homes in the burgeoning suburbs. Garvanza lost its artistic identity and became just another neighborhood of Highland Park.

In 1996, at the urging of the Highland Park Heritage Trust, residents signed a petition to bring back the area’s name. In 1997, the Los Angeles Department of Transportation granted their request and installed signs marking the general borders of Garvanza.

“We did a lot of research into Garvanza,” said Robert McTavish, 40, a legal videographer and co-chairman of the trust. “When the question of establishing the area as a separate entity arose, most people were overwhelmingly excited.”

McTavish, who lives with his family in a two-story Victorian home built in 1886, helped gather 250 signatures petitioning for the signs.

Today, the population of Garvanza is an eclectic mix. The neighborhood has many one-of-a-kind vintage Victorian and Craftsman homes. Arroyo Estates, higher up in the hilly section of Garvanza, has newer homes built in the 1950s and 1960s.

“All the houses and all the streets in Garvanza are different,” said Richard Morse, a sales associate at Century 21 Arroyo in Highland Park.

“Generally, the farther north you go, the more expensive the houses get. The homes in Garvanza generally bring higher prices than the rest of Highland Park.”

At the lower end of the market, a two-bedroom, one-bath home might sell for from $115,000 to $130,000, Morse said. A more typical three-bedroom, 1 1/2-bath home would sell for $130,000 to $200,000, depending on size, location and condition. In the Arroyo Estates, three-bedroom homes sell for from $200,000 to $240,000.

“Large Craftsman or Victorian-style homes sell for $250,000 and up, depending on condition and need for repairs,” Morse said.

Luis Lopez, a high school math teacher, and Adriana Quesada, a bank officer, bought their two-story home on Crescent Street for $160,000 five years ago.

The Craftsman-style home has three bedrooms, a den, dining and living rooms and one bath. There is a large enclosed backyard where their young son and daughter enjoy playing. Lopez is optimistic about the neighborhood.

“There seem to be more young families who are fixing up their houses. I think it’s becoming a younger neighborhood,” he said.

Also on Crescent Street, Joe Ramos, a special education teacher at Garfield High School, lives in a blue Victorian cottage with white and blue gingerbread trim. He bought the two-bedroom, one-bath home six years ago for $135,000.

“I was renting in South Pasadena, but I wanted to buy a Victorian badly,” he said. “I only had to do cosmetic work because the house had a redone roof, and 80% of the plumbing had also been redone.”

Ramos, who serves as Neighborhood Watch captain for his block, said he is pleased with the area’s safety. “There’s a walking club from Pasadena that regularly walks here,” he said.

Maria Estrada Dennis lives in Lincoln Heights, but for 52 years she lived in Garvanza near the Pasadena border. She agrees that the neighborhood is safe and friendly.

“I always used to tell people I lived in the safest street in L.A.,” she said. “We even knew the sounds of neighbors’ cars. When you heard a strange one, you’d look out to see who it was.”

Dennis moved to Garvanza shortly after World War II, when she was 16. Her brother purchased the wood-frame house, built in 1912, for her and her mother.

“There was some prejudice against us because we were Mexican Americans,” she said. “Then in the 1950s as more Mexican Americans moved in, it died down.”

Dennis and her late husband, John Dennis, a Superior Court bailiff, bought the house from her brother and raised five children there. Her daughter now lives in the house.

Across the street, Mark and Linda Wolffe built one of the most distinctive houses in Garvanza. Their 4,100-square-foot blue Queen Anne Victorian home incorporates ideas from the many bed and breakfast inns the couple has visited throughout California.

“We had taken a lot of pictures of houses we like, which helped,” said Linda, 34.

When the Wolffes couldn’t find a Victorian house to buy in the area, they decided to demolish the house they had purchased for $68,000 in 1983 and build their dream house on the site.

“We did the house as original as we could,” Mark Wolffe, 37, said. “Most people don’t think it’s a new house.”

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Downstairs, the house has a parlor, dining room, kitchen with breakfast nook and a Victorian great room, which functions as family room for their three children, Audrey, Nicholas and Ashton. Upstairs, the master bedroom has a balcony with a city view and a hot tub. There are also two bedrooms for the children and an additional bath. The house incorporates new and antique stained glass.

Staying in the old neighborhood seemed a natural choice for the Wolffes.

“I grew up in Garvanza, and I was familiar with this neighborhood because my grandmother lived across the street,” Linda said.

“The neighborhood is probably 80% owner-occupied homes. There are lots of older residents, and the location is so central. We’ve also seen a lot of improvements here recently.”

Every year during the holidays many Garvanza neighbors come to see the elaborate light display the Wolffes set up. More than 9,000 small lights outline the two-story Victorian home, and an 18-foot tree made of lights sits on the roof.

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Marilyn Tower Oliver is a Los Angeles freelancer.