Protecting Suburban America: Gentrification, Advocacy and the Historic Imaginary

208 Pages·2016·13.41 MB·English

by  Denise Lawrence-Zúñiga

Protecting Suburban America

Protecting Suburban America
Gentrification, Advocacy, and
the Historic Imaginary
Denise Lawrence-Zúñiga
Bloomsbury Academic
An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Bloomsbury Academic
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First published 2016
© Denise Lawrence-Zúñiga, 2016
Denise Lawrence-Zúñiga has asserted her right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents
Act, 1988, to be identified as Author of this work.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any
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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN: HB: 9781474240819
ePDF: 9781474240833
ePub: 9781474240826
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Lawrence-Zúñiga, Denise, author.
Title: Protecting suburban America : gentrification, advocacy and the
historic imaginary / Denise Lawrence-Zúñiga.
Description: New York : Bloomsbury Academic, 2016.
Identifiers: LCCN 2015043991| ISBN 9781474240819 (hardback) | ISBN
9781474240826 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Suburban homes--Conservation and restoration--Social
aspects--United States. | Historic preservation--Social aspects--United
States. | Architecture--Human factors--United States. | Sociology,
Urban--United States. | BISAC: ARCHITECTURE / Historic Preservation /
General. | ARCHITECTURE / Urban & Land Use Planning. | SOCIAL SCIENCE /
Anthropology / Cultural. | ARCHITECTURE / History / Modern (late 19th
Century to 1945).
Classification: LCC NA7571 .L39 2016 | DDC 720/.47--dc23 LC record available at http://
lccn.loc.gov/2015043991
Typeset by Fakenham Prepress Solutions, Fakenham, Norfolk NR21 8NN
To Richard

Contents
List of Illustrations viii
Acknowledgments ix
1 Framing Preservation 1
2 Discovering Material Agency: Making the Preservation Homeowner 23
3 Restoration Strategies, Imagining the Past, and Reconstructing
Historic Meaning 49
4 Historic Preservation as Cosmology: Municipal Regulations and
City Dynamics 79
5 Local Level Preservation and Exclusion: Traditional Elites 103
6 The Gentry Move In: Education, Reform, and Advocacy 121
7 Immigrant Challenges: Communicating Preservation Values across
the Cultural Divide in Alhambra 139
8 Toward an Anthropology of the Protected Suburb 159
Appendix A: Historic Preservation Interview Questions 171
Appendix B: Historic Preservation Questions for City Officials 175
Notes 179
References 181
Index 189
List of Illustrations
Figure 1. Traditional Craftsman house 3
Figure 2. Traditional Spanish Revival house 4
Figure 3. Map of southern California region indicating five cities and the
Asian settlement area, the “ethnoburb” 19
Figure 4. Restored fireplace 29
Figure 5. Built-in china cabinet 30
Figure 6. Old oak front door 31
Figure 7. The celebrated multiple garages 39
Figure 8. De-stuccoing around the doggie door 41
Figure 9. Shingles restored on de-stuccoed house 42
Figure 10. “Ghost” from previous construction 45
Figure 11. Kitchen remodeled with shiplap applied to the new refrigerator to
the right 57
Figure 12. Kitchen showing original cabinets without toe-kick and remodeled
new cabinets to the right with a toe-kick 65
Figure 13. Restored wallpaper “bump” 69
Figure 14. Photograph of house before it was remodeled 75
Figure 15. House remodeled to “original” condition 76
Figure 16. Residential district marker, Ontario 95
Figure 17. Home tour in Cottage Heights 131
Figure 18. A new mansion surrounded by single story bungalows 141
Figure 19. Alhambra Residential Design Guidelines: Craftsman Style 145
Figure 20. Bungalow undergoing remodeling 152
Acknowledgments
The impetus for this qualitative study of residential historic preservation began in
2004 in the context of a course I was teaching on the subject to architecture students
at my university. A nearby city was concerned about a lack of homeowner compliance
with historic preservation regulations, especially in some of the lower-income neigh-
borhoods. An increasing number of early twentieth-century wood-sided bungalows
were being covered with stucco as a way to modernize and improve the properties,
and make them easier to maintain. City officials, however, were worried that new
owners were destroying the historic character of their homes. While the city and
preservation advocates saw the houses as representations of the city’s historic past,
these owners seemed to see their houses as serviceable shelter. City planners wanted
to know how they could educate residents to not stucco their bungalows, so as to
preserve them. Around the same time, the city was reviewing its historic resource
database of over 3,000 properties that had been first surveyed in 1983. Because so
many houses on the list had been irreversibly remodeled in the interim, mostly using
stucco to cover the wood siding, the city was working on “de-listing” those properties.
In addition, planners hoped to avoid further alterations to what remained of a tradi-
tional residential landscape. The question about preservation that first stimulated
this project, however, is not why people stucco old houses, but why people cared so
much about preserving the original material qualities. What motivated their worry
about materiality and their advocacy for convincing people to change their modern-
izing ways?
The “stucco” question is one that resonates with many preservation and planning
professionals and design educators, but it is often less apparent to these actors why
there should be a question about conserving artifacts at all. The impulse to preserve
seems “natural” to professionals who work in the arts and architecture fields, so that
asking questions of colleagues in design and planning often triggers deep reflection.
This book is the result of ten years of research and contemplation stimulated in the
context of teaching in an architecture department and conversations with colleagues,
especially those with specializations in historic preservation. I owe particular debts
to Lauren Bricker, Luis Hoyos, Gary McGavin, Ana Maria Whitaker, and Julianna
Delgado, who shared with me their expert knowledge and practice in historic
preservation throughout southern California, and generously provided contacts,
information, and an often-needed sounding board for my earliest inquiries. My
deepest debt goes to Daniel Lawrence for introducing me to architecture, architecture
history, and professional practice, and for also helping a somewhat naive anthropol-
ogist acquire basic knowledge and achieve competent understanding.
This project was helped by advocates and residents in the five cities and throughout
the region along the way. In Pasadena, where I also live, residents on my street, and