Kroger-Melrose District

Sixty-seven properties on five streets just south of Lincoln Avenue make up this Anaheim neighborhood, which developed mostly between 1900 and 1915. The tract was subdivided in 1887 on land once held by the Rimpau family, and the first single-family house, a Queen Anne cottage at 115 S. Olive, went up in 1892. The Boyd House of 1898 at 129 S. Olive is the earliest remaining Transitional/Colonial Revival house in the city. The district contains Anaheim's largest concentration of that style, followed by Craftsman Bungalows, with California Bungalows and two Spanish Colonial buildings added as infill in the 1920s. Houses typically have narrow clapboard siding, classical porch columns, bellcast hip roofs and fine woodwork. The streets reflect the modest, practical tastes of a German-influenced community, where even prominent businessmen built unpretentious homes. Fifty-seven buildings contribute to the district. Its position within a redevelopment project area leaves part of it threatened with demolition, while some homes have been restored.