{"nrhp_refnum":"00001538","name":"Cooper Arms","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"455 E. Ocean Blvd.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Long Beach","county":"Los Angeles County","state":"CA","lat":33.767007395000064,"lon":-118.18794719199997,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2000-12-28","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"Cooper Arms is a twelve-story, L-shaped, steel frame reinforced concrete apartment building with stucco-faced brick walls at 455 East Ocean Boulevard in Long Beach, California. It was planned in 1922 and completed by 1924, with 159 owner-occupied apartments and ground floor shops.","why_significant":"The nomination argues it is the pre-eminent example of an own-your-own apartment building in Long Beach, whose planning, amenities, location and design set the pattern for later luxury waterfront apartment buildings. It is also presented as an outstanding example of eclectic Period Revival architecture with Italian Renaissance, Adam and neo-Egyptian ornament, designed by master architects Curlett and Beelman.","narrative":"Cooper Arms is a twelve-story apartment building at the corner of Ocean Boulevard and Linden Avenue in Long Beach, California. Planned in 1922 and finished in 1924, it was built as an own-your-own cooperative with 159 apartments, ground floor shops, a garden facing the ocean and a twelfth-floor solarium meant for dances and gatherings. Architects Alexander Curlett and Claud Beelman gave it an eclectic Period Revival design, combining Italian Renaissance arched windows, Adam-style swags and urns, and neo-Egyptian plaster detail in the main lounge. Its wrought-iron balconies, Spanish loggia and arcade of shops are among its defining features. The nomination holds that it was the first and most prominent of the luxury owner-occupied apartment buildings that followed along the Long Beach waterfront, and it has kept the same ownership system since construction. Alterations have been modest, mostly fire-code changes and a 1988 seismic retrofit, and much original fabric survives.","period_of_significance":"1924","architect_builder":"Curlett & Beelman, architects; Scofield Construction Company","architectural_style":"Late 19th and 20th Century Revivals: Period Revival Eclectic","criteria":["C"],"status_note":"Still used as resident-owned apartments with ground floor shops; the form describes the building as almost totally intact, with minimal alteration.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:54:27.719816-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_CA/00001538.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/00001538/33074c2702-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/00001538/33074c2702-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Los Angeles","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cooper_Arms_Apartments.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Los Angeles</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cooper_Arms_Apartments.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/123859049","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooper_Arms_Apartments","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5167741"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/california/los-angeles-county/cooper-arms-00001538/"}