Neighborhoods – Rural LB?

There are a number of truly unique neighborhoods in Long Beach. Many of my greatest discoveries are due to random circumstance, and Sleepy Hollow is no exception. Having missed an address while traveling north along Long Beach Boulevard, my first opportunity to turn around was West 47^th Street. I turned onto the street and was immediately intrigued to discover a rural-like environment in the middle of our built-out, metropolitan city. The small neighborhood looked more like the residential neighborhoods of Carmel by-the-Sea or the back-roads of Alabama (though I have really only seen the former of these first-hand).

 

Sleepy Hollow, as the neighborhood is called, is located in a forgotten wedge of land between the northern portion of the Virginia Country Club golf course and the southern edge of the Sleepy Hollow greenbelt running along an elevated railroad right-of-way. The neighborhood is accessed from Long Beach Boulevard via 47^th Street, behind an unassuming hodgepodge of single-story commercial properties, including the local favorite, Johnny Reb’s restaurant.

 

When entering the neighborhood, one is enveloped by a canopy of large, mature trees spanning from both sides of the street. Rolling up the hill toward the train tracks is a rich assortment of dense vegetation. A number of short dead-end streets and alleys branch off the south side of 47^th Street. Each terminates with a split rail fence that frames the view of the lush Virginia Country Club golf course beyond. A small homemade park concludes the West end of the wedge-shaped neighborhood as it continues onward to the Los Angeles River as a drainage channel. There are no sidewalks along the streets, but with the low volume and speed of automobile traffic, the lack of such typical pedestrian necessities only adds to the charm of this neighborhood.

 

The intense architectural mix of homes adds to the atmosphere of Sleepy Hollow. There is no dominant style of architecture, era of development, or size of home within the neighborhood: small 1920s-era California Bungalows share the streetscape with large, modern Tuscan-style homes. There are two-story 1980s Irvine Ranch-style homes with garages attached to the front of the home next to modest post-war era neo-traditional homes. This aesthetic and architectural variation suggests a diverse community: there are cars on blocks in an alley behind one property, next to a Lexus SUV parked under a carport of another home.

 

It would be difficult to reconstruct such a unique neighborhood, from the distinct variety of architectural style and scale of the homes to the rich landscaping of the public realm and the properties themselves. Much of the neighborhood’s charm probably results from its hidden, perhaps forgotten location, situated as it is between a major commercial corridor, the back end of a golf course, and a railroad right-of-way. It would probably not be feasible or even desirable to attempt to replicate Sleepy Hollow elsewhere in Long Beach. However it is certainly another unique gem in Long Beach’s remarkable urban landscape.

 

Home at the corner

Dirt alley looking toward Virginia Country Club 

Side Street looking toward Virginia Country Club

47^th Street looking west

Sullivan’s Grove