For some time, the Signal Hill Historical Society had partial ownership of the building and planned to convert it into a museum. However, because the structure was in significant disrepair, it would have cost the organization too much to renovate it and bring it to code in order to use it as a historical attraction.
The 1,252-square-foot home, located in the Crescent Heights Historic District at 2477 Gaviota Ave., was built in 1908, and it has changed owners numerous times since. In 2008, Willard Gilliam, who co-owned the house with Arthur Holland, bequeathed his half of the ownership to the historical society.
Terry Rogers, a local realtor who also serves as president of the Signal Hill Chamber of Commerce, ultimately handled the sale of the home when Rama Singhal purchased it a year ago.
“[Singhal] purchased the house in October of last year,” Rogers said. “It did not close until July of this year.”
Because the home is in Crescent Heights and the City has stringent rules for what can be built there, Singhal is required to maintain its integrity.
“There’s a specific type of architecture that is allowed to be in that area,” said Signal Hill City Manager Charlie Honeycutt. “Because this house was considered historical from the specific plan perspective, the buyer of the property (Singhal)… basically indicated he would retain the architecture. [Singhal] agreed that he would basically restore the house in honor of the historical architecture of the building. And, in doing that, I think the city council felt it was adding to the historic nature of the Crescent Heights Historic District, and he was willing to record a historic preservation easement.”
Singhal said he purchased the home in order to restore it and prevent it from being demolished.
“We’re doing a full rehab from the foundation up without modifying the historic look of the house,” Singhal said.
Honeycutt explained that, because Singhal agreed to take these actions in preserving the home and also agreed to pay an outstanding water bill, the City removed a lien that had been placed against the property.
A historical perspective
In 1949, when she was 11, Marlene Bollinger, née Thayer, moved with her family into the home.
Her Aunt Sophia— who was known as Aunt Fy— and Uncle Elmer Witte had built the home in the early 1900s. Although it is asserted by locals, including Rogers, that the home was built in 1908, Bollinger questions that assertion because of a letter, dated 1913, that Aunt Fy had written to her brother that Bollinger now has in her possession. The handwritten correspondence features a sketch of the home that Aunt Fy drew, and it explains that she and her husband were living in the garage while the home was being built.
Bollinger said her Aunt Fy had designed the home herself.
One of the distinctive features of the home is its tower. Bollinger said that, as kids, she and her sister were not allowed to go into the tower but her brothers could.
“We girls were not allowed to go up there,” Bollinger said. “My father treated girls differently than he did sons. But the boys recall going up there, and sneaking up there, and being able to look out. The purpose of the tower? I have no idea, other than maybe to be able to look out and see the ocean. I don’t know, and all my relatives are all passed on, so there’s no one I can really find out from, as to why she built that.”
Bollinger said that her immediate family moved into the house because it was a bequest from her aunt.
“She willed that to us,” Bollinger said. “When we moved there, every room in the house had rose wallpaper, and everything was painted brown. We pictured going to California into this fantastic home— and it took a lot, a lot of work to get it where we were comfortable with it.”
One of the changes was the rebuilding of the porch.
“My dad built that sun porch, you know, as you’re coming in, at the front,” Bollinger said. “There was one on there, and I believe he tore that down and built another, or he may have just rebuilt that. But, other than that, he really didn’t make any structural changes.”
Bollinger said one of the oddities of the home was an outside bathroom.
“On the side of the house was a wooden stairway that went up to a bathroom, and we often wondered why there was a stairway that opened into a bathroom,” she said. “But maybe that’s because they built the bathroom out there while they were building the house and that was the only bathroom they had at that time.”
Some differences Bollinger pointed out were that the address of the house when she lived there was 1667 E. 25th St., Long Beach, and that there had been a back house on the property.
“There was a small cottage building behind the house which someone said has been torn down,” she said. “We never used that, other than maybe to store Christmas decorations or something. The kids weren’t allowed to go in there.”
She added that her brothers loved spending time in the basement and used it as an area to build some interesting items, including an electric chair.
“My brother was very into mechanical things, and my father said, had he plugged it in, it probably would have electrocuted someone,” Bollinger said, with a chuckle. “He used a German helmet— I don’t know why I’m laughing. It’s kind of scary.”
When asked why her brother had built an electric chair, of all things, Bollinger responded, “I don’t know. Why do boys do what they do?”
Bollinger also recalls the oil structures in the area.
“There were oil derricks— there was one almost right in our front yard, one in the back yard,” she said. “When we first moved there, you could hear those things, but, after you’re there a while, you just got used to the sound.”
She met her future husband, Cliff Bollinger, who was in the Navy at the time, at her sister’s wedding, which took place in the house in 1955. It was later that year that she and Cliff married at First Congregational Church in Long Beach. The couple moved to Washington State, then to Illinois, where his family lived.
“I stayed there for 30 years, and I moved out here to Utah seven years ago,” she said. Bollinger now lives in Enterprise, Utah, and runs a Montessori preschool.
The Signal Tribune will publish part two of this story in the Nov. 6 issue.
