Vintage Homes Slated to Become Historic District

It’s known as Christmas Tree Lane during the holiday season, but there is a year-round identity in the offing for one of Oxnard’s oldest neighborhoods.

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.

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.

The National Register lists about 30 Ventura County sites, 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 period and have been modified little since.