Russian Village District

Fifteen houses on a single block of South Mills Avenue in Claremont and Montclair, California, make up the Russian Village, an unusual neighborhood of rock-built homes. Work began in 1923 when Konstany Stys, a Polish-born immigrant with only a grade school education, started building with fieldstone cleared from nearby groves. During the Great Depression the project grew into an informal community effort, using salvaged materials such as broken highway concrete slabs, reclaimed clay roof tile and old lumber. The houses have multi-gabled roofs, tall rock chimneys, iron balconies and low stone garden walls. The street has fieldstone curbing, no paved sidewalks and tall elms. Locals named it the Russian Village because Stys was mistakenly thought to be Russian. The nomination describes the neighborhood as folk architecture of high rank, unified by its materials and plantings and standing nearly alone among later tract housing. Most homes remain in excellent condition and are still private residences.