in October 2018, the Beverly Fairfax Historic District was officially listed in the National Register of historic places!
Save Beverly Fairfax is a volunteer organization of neighborhood owners, residents and preservation advocates in the Beverly Fairfax Historic District.
Roughly bounded by Rosewood Avenue, Melrose Avenue, N. Gardner Street, Vista Street, Beverly Boulevard, and N. Fairfax Avenue, the neighborhood includes Spanish Colonial Revival, Late Chateauesque, Tudor Revival, Colonial Revival, Monterey Revival, Art Deco, and Streamline Moderne homes.
In 2016, several major development projects near the district threatened the neighborhood’s character. Motivated by findings in SurveyLA—the city-wide survey of historic resources—which identified the district as a historic resource, we formed the group Save Beverly Fairfax.
Tasked with identifying ways to preserve the neighborhood’s architectural and cultural history, we set out to put safeguards in place.
We spent over a year-and-a-half cultivating relationships with neighbors and homeowners through mailings and meetings—a daunting task, given the size of the district.
We set our sights on submitting a nomination for the National Register of Historic Places, and worked tirelessly to raise funds to hire a preservation consultant to write the nomination.
The National Register requires that applicants list the correct mailing addresses for all owners. Given that 97% percent of the district’s buildings are multi-family homes, we worked to identify homeowners, which in most cases were multiple owners, businesses, family trusts, or owners who lived elsewhere. Ultimately, we secured addresses for over 550 owners.
Our hard work proved worthwhile: in October 2018, the Beverly Fairfax Historic District was officially listed in the National Register, which earned us a 2019 preservation award from the LA Conservancy and a 2019 Governor's Historic Preservation Awards.
