Founded in the late 19th century in a rich but unsettled area northeast of Los Angeles, Pasadena flourished as a winter respite for the wealthy, as a vineyard and orange grove Eden, and as a budding suburb of the ever-expanding greater Los Angeles. Within a few years, developers had turned large areas of land into residential neighborhoods of modest homes and millionaire mansions. Concurrent with the rising popularity of Arts & Crafts style in architecture sweeping its way West from New England, Chicago, the Prairie and the Southwest, most of the new single-family homes were being built in the new "Bungalow" style. A California "lifestyle" became synonymous with living in a tiny house with its neat facade, citrus trees in the yard, palm trees overhead, and an easy commute by Model-T to one's job in the big city.
Soon, of course, the trend went the way of many fads, its features so commonplace that by [1926?] a popular song spoke of "a bungalow built for two" in semi-mockery. Nonetheless, most of these little gems of Pasadena's cultural past remain lovingly cared for or have been meticulously restored.
Bungalow Heaven is a rare and mostly intact collection of over 800 homes built from the 1900s through the 1930s. "The history of this neighborhood is woven from the threads of several rich and fascinating stories that include the settlement of Pasadena, the evolution of the American Arts & Crafts movement and social and cultural changes of the early 20th century.
Bungalow Heaven has been featured in magazines (Sunset, American Bungalow, and Los Angeles Magazine, among others), newspaper articles and several prominent books. An article in a Japanese magazine ("Woody") described Bungalow Heaven thusly:
"Northeast of the city center, where the city starts to rise up to the San Gabriel mountains, in an area sectioned off by four . . . major streets, is an historic district, the first historic district in Pasadena, an area called Bungalow Heaven. You will find tree-canopied streets, quiet sidewalks, well-kept houses, a quiet, homey community where neighbors stand on front lawns to talk to each other. In the middle of this area is McDonald Park, a clean, grassy park where children play and old people sit and watch the passing of the day. There is a sense of warmth and peacefulness on these streets, a feeling of community. The melody of an ice cream truck lingers in the air long after the truck has passed."
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