 Hi, my name is Rachel Walling and I'm a preservation planner with the City of Columbia. Today I'm going to talk a bit about the Melrose Heights, Oakland architectural conservation districts run through a brief history, as well as some fun facts about the neighborhood. As early as 1872 and into the 1890s, prominent local family known as the Powell's started vying lands in the area that is today known as Melrose Heights. Early on, the development of the neighborhood was slow. By 1919, there were only homes that had been built within the area known as Melrose Heights. Development started taking off in the 1920s, which resulted in those eight homes going to 161 homes by 1930. Early on in development of their lands, the Powell's decided to subdivide part of their land into a specific subdivision known as Fairview. Fairview was laid out in 1910, but was not developed until 1927. Fairview, as you can see on the map, was roughly the streets to either side of what is today known as Fairview Drive. And this land was developed by the Powell family and was really seen as a model for future development of the area. No-two homes were alike. They were brick residences, very unique. They had paved streets and sidewalks, kind of as this idealized neighborhood that Powell's were trying to create. Another subdivision that was developing around the same time was Oak Lawn. In 1925, the Oak Lawn Development Company announced opening of a new subdivision, which they called Oak Lawn. The Oak Lawn Company did not construct many of the houses. Rather, they sold land that was developed by other individuals. One of these was the Ideal Home Company, who was responsible for building 20% of the residences in Oak Lawn between 1928 and 1933. And the Ideal Home Company built bungalows. So all of their homes that they built were bungalows. Likewise, the Holly Realty Company built some homes within the Oak Lawn area. This that can be seen still today is the Mission Revival House on Princeton Street. Oak Lawn did remain isolated from the rest of Melrose Heights and Fairview area by two blocks of undeveloped land. But by the 1940s, that development started picking up after the war and those streets were filled in. And Melrose Heights kind of developed what was known as Oak Lawn to become one big neighborhood. As I mentioned, development did slow after the stock market crash, but really picked up once again after World War II in the 1940s when the housing boom from returning veterans, they were able to come into the neighborhoods purchasing homes using federal housing administration funds. So there was that increased demand of housing once again that lasted in the neighborhood into the 1950s. So this was much of the neighborhood was developed by that time. Skipping forward to 2003, the neighborhood was locally designated as an architectural conservation district. And in 2016, it was listed as a district in the National Register of Historic Places. Melrose Heights architecturally was developing a lot like other neighborhoods across the United States at this time with a wide variety of architectural styles that were popular. These included bungalows and cottages and minimal traditional style houses, as well as some architectural styles such as colonial revival, tutor revival, craftsman style houses. There's a couple examples, as I mentioned, of mission revival and one really great example of a prairie style home, which we will talk about in a moment. One of the unique housing types you see in Melrose, but not many other places within the city of Columbia, are airplane bungalows. So they, like other bungalows, had low gable roof lines, prominent overhangs, also incorporated a lot of craftsman detailing like exposed raptor tails and brackets that you see on a lot of craftsman bungalows throughout the city. But these were unique in that they had a second story projection that came out of a larger first story as a kind of cockpit like the airplane, and also were surrounded by windows. So it had good views from the top of the house there and kind of a unique form that you don't see many other places. That's really fun within Melrose Heights. Another feature of Melrose neighborhood that you do not see in every neighborhood being developed at this time was Melrose Park. Melrose Park wasn't developed until 1940. The city first leased and eventually purchased the land from the Powell family's company. This was undeveloped lands in the Melrose Heights area along Fairview Drive. It was the first park that was enclosed in the city, still has a fence around the entire park. Also in 1941, after the city bought the property, they built a community building, which is still in place today. And at the time, it was one of only three city parks to have a community building. And then a quick return to the Powell family once again. The Powell's were not only developing the land to sell, but they were also building homes for various family members to live in. One of these homes still exists today. It is known as the Powell home. It is a beautiful example of a prairie style house in Columbia, and like prairie style houses, it has wide overhanging eaves, horizontal lines, and limited decoration. This style might be recognized as being popularized by a Frank Lloyd Wright. He was building many of these homes more out west than you see, especially here in Columbia. This particular design was found in Lady's Home Journal. And the Powell's contacted the architect to use the plans here within Melrose Heights. The family was also a prominent local family. Their home was a place for social gatherings. So their grounds were also well-developed with gardens. They had colony to Pergola, they had swimming pool, lots of places for socializing and entertaining within their property in Melrose Heights. So that's some quick information about Melrose Heights, Oakland area. If you have any questions about this or other historic districts within the city of Columbia, please contact us at preservation at columbiasc.gov.