Lower Arroyo Seco Historic District

This residential district occupies the southwest corner of Pasadena beside the Arroyo Seco, a dry riverbed used as a natural park. It includes houses along South Arroyo Boulevard, West California Boulevard and La Loma Road, mostly built in the early 1900s. Of 102 properties, 78 contribute, along with 16 retaining walls. The houses are bungalows and two-story Arts and Crafts residences, some with Swiss chalet, English or Colonial Revival influences. Builders favored natural materials: dark wood shingle or clapboard siding, low-pitched roofs, and foundations, chimneys and walls made of arroyo cobblestone. Houses sit low on their sites and are screened by retaining walls, oaks, eucalyptus and palms. One property, the Ernest A. Batchelder house and studio, was already listed individually. The district meets the registration requirements of a multiple property listing on Pasadena's Arts and Crafts residential architecture, and its contributing buildings retain a high degree of integrity despite some unobtrusive newer infill.