Historic Moment

Pride and a desire to preserve some of Oxnard’s oldest homes are earning one of the city’s first neighborhoods a place in history.

A five-block area of F and G streets is expected to be added to the National Register of Historic Places as the Henry T. Oxnard Historic District, a distinction that will help preserve some of Ventura County’s best examples of early 20th century American architecture.

“This is one of the finest collections of turn-of-the-century houses in the state,” said Ben Moss, who worked with his wife, Rosanne, and several neighbors to prepare the application for the register. “These were the homes of the people that really established the county.”

Having already received local and state approval, the district is almost certain to earn national recognition from the National Park Service in early January. The area will be placed on both the state and federal rolls as being a district of significance to local history.

It would be the only residential district in the county to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The register, which includes structures, objects, sites and districts, is the official list of the nation’s cultural resources deemed worthy of preservation.

The National Register lists about 30 sites in and around Ventura County, including Rancho Camulos in Piru, San Buenaventura Mission and the steamship Winfield Scott, wrecked off Anacapa Island.

What is unusual about the Oxnard neighborhood, said Maryln Bourne Lortie, a historian with the state Office of Historic Preservation, is that nearly all of the homes--139 of 144--contribute to its designation as historic, meaning that they were all built within the same 1900-39 time period and have been modified little since.

Also, Lortie said she is impressed that the area’s property owners have not objected to the district’s addition to the register.

“We always get one or two letters of objection,” she said. “It’s rare to see that level of consistency throughout the district, and it’s rare to see such a high level of owner support.”

The Mosses say they and fellow homeowners on F and G exhibit a pride in their homes and neighborhood that is unusual today.

The chief aim of Friends of Old Oxnard, the group that prepared the application for the National Register, was to make other residents of Oxnard and Ventura County aware of the district and its significance, Rosanne Moss said.

“Just the owners cannot preserve a neighborhood,” she said. “This is a resource for the community.”

Each holiday season, thousands of visitors drive and walk the neighborhood to admire its elaborate decorations. This year, the area will become Christmas Tree Lane from Dec. 12 through Dec. 26, from 6 to 10 each night.

Oxnard’s tourism bureau already promotes the F Street area as Christmas Tree Lane and plans to advertise the district to visitors year-round in conjunction with Heritage Square, a collection of historic homes converted into offices, Director Carol Lavender said.

Although being on the register carries some benefits to homeowners, such as tax breaks for the preservation of their homes, the distinction is primarily an honor, Lortie said.

To publicize that, Friends of Old Oxnard plans to put some sort of signage within the district. To further define it as a historic area, the group hopes to replace the 1960s street lights with lights closer to the original design. The district is also eligible for a historical marker on the freeway.

Homeowners would not be prevented from making modifications to their homes because of the district’s inclusion on the register. But Moss said she is drafting a city ordinance that would establish guidelines for alterations.

The district is made up of homes that were built in Oxnard’s two earliest subdivisions, created to house employees of the American Sugar Beet Co.’s refinery and other workers that the factory helped to employ.

From its beginning, it was a diverse neighborhood of wealthy businessmen and blue-collar workers, of bankers and bakers, many of whose descendants still live in Oxnard. Unlike in other areas, there were no covenants that excluded certain races and religions.

Each lot is a quarter of an acre, and all the houses are set back from the street. They vary in size, from 1,000 to 5,000 square feet, and in design, from late Victorian to Tudor revival and Prairie and Craftsman bungalow style.

“Each house was individually built,” Ben Moss said. “There aren’t two that are alike.”

Several of the homes remain in the families of their original owners, and it is rare to find a “for sale” sign in the neighborhood. But when houses in the district do go on the market, they generally sell for between $200,000 and $500,000, said Moss, who purchased his home in January 1997.

His 4,300-square-foot home was built for local banker Achille Levy’s daughter and her husband. It was designed in the Prairie / Craftsman style by A. C. Martin, architect of Ventura’s City Hall (formerly the county courthouse) and St. Mary Magdalen Church in Camarillo, and one of the designers of Los Angeles City Hall.

Moss’ home, like those of nearly all his neighbors, has been changed little since its construction. His was built in 1912.

In fact, Moss has a postcard, mailed in 1918, that shows a scene looking south along F Street. The depiction is nearly identical to what is there now.

Although the Australian sycamores have grown, they still drop their leaves on the sidewalks and broad street, the widest residential road in Oxnard.

“If you stand in front of my house, it looks exactly the same,” he said.