A Century of Charm

Mary Lea Carroll remembers vividly what sold her and her husband, Bill, on a 100-year-old Dutch Colonial when they were house-hunting in the Historic Highlands neighborhood of Pasadena.

“My husband is 6 foot 5, and he didn’t have to duck anywhere in the house,” she said. “It was love at first sight.”

The Carrolls had lived in the Highlands for five years and wanted to stay there when they moved up to a larger house in 1992. “It’s a wonderful neighborhood,” said Bill Carroll, 44, partner in a motion picture advertising firm, “with nice families, older houses and beautiful trees.”

The Carrolls paid $475,000 for their house--which has five bedrooms and three baths in 4,000 square feet and was built in 1890 by David J. MacPherson, the civil engineer whose greatest achievement was the famous Mt. Lowe Scenic Railway. The trolley-and-cable car railway, which opened in 1895, ran six miles from Altadena to Mt. Lowe, 3,300 feet above in the San Gabriel Mountains. It closed in 1937.

“It has been exciting in the last 10 years to see the number of homes that have been fixed up,” said Mary Lea Carroll, 45, a freelance writer and mother of three. “The neighborhood was in decline.”

Historic Highlands is an eclectic blend of 700 mostly early 20th century homes on tree-lined streets in north-central Pasadena, and a haven for families with young children.

The community is bordered by New York Drive on the north, Washington Boulevard to the south, Lake Avenue to the west and Hill Avenue to the east.

Much of the land in the western part of Historic Highlands was owned and developed by MacPherson, the pioneering engineer.

The eastern half of the community was the estate of Ezra Dane and his wife, Lois, who built their ranch home in 1885 from the first lumber ever brought to Pasadena by steam locomotive.

A double row of palm trees that once lined the driveway from Washington Boulevard to the Dane’s Victorian home on Elizabeth Street is still visible in the backyards of neighborhood homes.

Home prices in Historic Highlands range from $179,500 for a two-bedroom, one-bathroom bungalow with hardwood floors and a fireplace to $572,000 for a four-bedroom, 3 1/2-bath, 4,000-square-foot 1911 Craftsman home designed by architect George Webster.

The average Highlands home has three bedrooms and two baths in 1,500 square feet and sells for about $285,000, according to Roland Wilhelm, a Realtor for Podley, Caughey & Doan in Pasadena.

Wilhelm, a Realtor for 11 years and a photographer, likes the neighborhood so much that in 1989 he ended up selling himself a house there.

“I was showing the house to Realtors at an open house,” said Wilhelm of the three-bedroom, one-bath English-style home that he shares with his wife and two sons. “I heard so many people rave about the place that I called my wife and made an offer the next day.”

There have been many changes in the Historic Highlands over the last half century, and they have all been witnessed by Kermit Johnson, 83, a retired Southern California Edison worker, and his wife, Marvyl, 83, a retired preschool teacher.

The Johnsons moved to the neighborhood in 1940, paying $1,000 for a newly subdivided lot and $5,000 to build a two-bedroom, two-bath house.

“Back then it was mostly retired couples. We were one of the few young couples in the neighborhood,” Marvyl Johnson said. “Now the opposite is true.”

“It’s a very caring neighborhood,” Kermit Johnson said. “I was terribly sick and almost died, and [the outpouring of community concern] was incredible.”

Added Tom Selinske: “The spirit of community here is phenomenal.”

Selinske, 40, a self-employed businessman, is past president of the Historic Highlands Neighborhood Assn., which sponsors an annual home tour to raise funds for neighborhood beautification and to support Longfellow Elementary, their adopted neighborhood school.

Longfellow Elementary was designed by architects Greene & Greene but has lost much of its original character through years of alterations and additions. Part of the association’s master plan is to bring back the original Greene & Greene flavor to the school, as well as to work with tutoring and mentoring of students and general support of the school.

Other association activities include block parties, tree-planting and a Fourth of July parade and potluck dinner.

For Clint Palmer, life in Historic Highlands is a dream come true.

It was 20 years ago when Palmer, now 48 and a television cameraman, first came to Pasadena, in search of a used refrigerator. He fell in love with the charm of old Pasadena and told himself, “Someday I will live in Pasadena and someday I will own my own Craftsman house.”

Palmer’s dream came true in February 1996, when he and his wife, Patricia Egan, and their two children moved into their Craftsman bungalow.

They paid $290,000 for the 1911 four-bedroom, two-bath home on a 50-by 180-foot lot. The large yard was a big plus for Egan, who is an avid gardener.

“It’s a safe, beautiful place to stroll and for kids to ride their bikes,” said Palmer wistfully of the tree-lined streets with old-fashioned street lights that glow like candles at night. “You know most of your neighbors; you see mothers pushing baby carriages.”

Over the years Julia and Felipo Fanara had heard wonderful things about Historic Highlands from friends who lived there.

“The block parties, the neighborhood association, the number of children in the community; when we had the opportunity to buy here we jumped on it,” said Julia Fanara, 41, a high school teacher.

“This was one of those disaster houses,” said Julia Fanara. “The place was trashed.”

The six-bedroom, three-bath 2,600-square-foot house, with three two-bedroom rental bungalows, was in foreclosure when the Fanaras bought it for $260,000 in December 1996.

As the couple and their four children moved in, they removed bin after bin of trash, painted graffiti-splattered walls and fixed a caved-in roof in one of the bungalows.

“There’s still a lot of work to do,” said Felipo Fanara, 44, a mortgage broker, “but we are very happy to be here.”