CLIPBOARD

Street names such as Didrikson and Crabbe could give away the origins of the heights of Blue Bird Canyon. After all, track phenomenon Babe (Mildred) Didrikson and swimmer Buster Crabbe were the winners of their events in the 1932 Olympic games held in Los Angeles.

In 1932, a village of two-room cottages with walls made of Celotex and roofs made from tar paper was built in Los Angeles for the Olympic contestants. These little huts were built as cheaply as possible, since they were intended to serve for the games only. Afterward, the cottages were put up for sale at very low prices.

The Laguna Heights Land Co. of Los Angeles bought them and brought the majority of them to Blue Bird Canyon in Laguna Beach, where they were put on land owned by B.O. Miller of the Hollingsworth Co. of Los Angeles. This little tract of small lots and streets as narrow as alleys named its passageways after track star William Carr, hurdler George Saling, divers Harold Smith and Georgia Coleman, swimmer Helene Madison and decathlete James Bausch. This gave credence to the name its brokers gave it, “Olympic Village.”

Houses sold at bargain prices, and the Taylor Brothers of Laguna Beach fitted the cabins to the lots. Fred Leech was broker for the sale of the properties and used one of the cottages as his office in the 1300 block of South Coast Highway.

Many of the homes remain on the original lots but are so remodeled that their origins are hard to ascertain. “Only the board-and-batten corners can be seen hidden in the trees” is how fourth-generation Laguna resident and artist Karen Wilson Turnbull put it. The Olympic cottage at 168 Mountain Road is today the most unaltered of those that still stand.

This neighborhood is indeed a historical treasure trove. It wasn’t George Washington but another president, Woodrow Wilson, who slept at Col. Edward House’s home at Moss Point off South Coast Highway.

The combined Craftsman-and-Cape Cod-style home at 139 Moss St. is not easily visible from the highway and is virtually unknown to many Laguna residents. Today, designated as Col. Edward House’s summer home, the house was built in 1917 by Col. Henry House, whose brother Edward, also a colonel, was a confidant and adviser to President Wilson. The placard at the entrance of this promontory calls this structure the unofficial Western White House: President Wilson spent time there while touring the West in 1919, seeking support for the League of Nations.

The house has no designation as a historical site, hence it was not protected when it was threatened with demolition in 1976 to make way for high-rise buildings. The two-acre site and home were purchased by the owners of the adjoining site on the promontory, Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Morthland, and saved from being razed. The house, with its unspoiled spectacular view of the ocean, still exists today and is rented on a year-round basis.

The nearly idyllic beaches, with hidden coves in the rocky shoreline, are just a piece of paradise. The thing about Laguna is its diversity, residents have said. Eclecticism is a mark of this neighborhood, its residents and its terrain.

The neighborhood changes, as does the terrain of the gradually-rising hillside. The seashore and flatlands offer the amenities of beachfront existence, leisurely walks by the beach, and water activities. The heights are lush, overgrown, unspoiled and tranquil. Blue Bird Canyon is more woodsy; the view there is of the trees. Up at the crest of Diamond Street, its oldest part, it’s almost rural.

Homes on the hillside all have a view of the ocean, and the higher the home, the better the view. From the crest of a long graded hill such as Nyes Place, it is breathtaking.

The sections within this neighborhood have their own personalities, said Mayor Neil G. Fitzpatrick, a resident of 17 years. The eclectic nature of some of the architecture and the streets are dictated by the way the terrain is shaped, he said.

“The really neat stuff is the older things,” he said. “There was less technology (used) to rearrange the earth.”

Roads follow the side of the hills, buildings are tucked in wherever nature allows. The terrain and the houses are indigenous, not manufactured, he said. Laguna Beach offers a natural greenbelt versus a manufactured one.

Architecture ranges from big, old estates to small beach cottages, narrow dirt roads, and gravel streets as well as paved. Some lots are very small, measuring just 30 feet by 85 feet; some are very large, because they are on the site of an old estate.

Some homes are still on septic tanks, Councilwoman Martha Collison said.

“The one thing is the number of trees, lots of tree-lined streets,” Collison added. Residents enjoy their gardens and the open space. One plan pending is to connect all of the trail systems in the hills from one end of town to the other, allowing people to better experience the greater outdoors, she said.

The city of Laguna Beach, demarcated by mountains and the ocean and blessed by natural greenbelts, is indeed in relative isolation. In the more rural areas, the effect is beyond simple charm, but as Fitzpatrick put it, “You feel like you’ve been shipped into another world.”

Population Total: (1990 est.) 4,511 1980-90 change: -6.0% Median Age: 37.3

Racial/ethnic mix: White (non-Latino): 91% Latino: 4% Black: 1% Other: 4%

By sex and age: MALES Median age: 37.7 years FEMALES Median age: 36.7 years

Income Per capita: $36,003 Median household: $57,843 Average household: $75,154

Income Distribution: Less than $25,000: 18% $25,000-49,999: 25% $50,000-74,999: 22% $75,000-$99,999: 13% $100,000 and more: 22%