Los Cerritos History

The Dodds’ family have lived in the home at 3802 Pine Avenue for over 70 years.  Charles and Ingrid Dodd purchased the lot in 1948 and hired architect James R. Friend to design their 3 bedroom, 2 bath, 1790 square foot home.  Friend was a prominent local architect that designed the Port of Long Beach’s old headquarters building at 925 Harbor Plaza and buildings at Harbor College.  He also designed other homes in the Los Angeles and Long Beach area.  The Dodds, however, had specific desires for their home.  They made one change in Friend’s design that did not please the architect.  Friend wanted to use white rock for the roof and flagstone for the chimney (visible from the rear of the house).

Architect James R. Friend’s house plans for 3802 Pine.

But the Dodds’ wanted the chimney out of red brick instead.   According to current owner, Ron Dodds, son of Charles and Ingrid Dodds,  because of this alteration in the design, Friend refused to put his sign out in front of the home.

 Ingrid and Ron Dodds

The Dodd’s lot was originally subdivided by Amelia and George Bixby in 1913 along with the rest of the east side of Pine Avenue and both sides of Weston Place between Bixby Street and Roosevelt Avenue.     The lot was leased to the Hancock Oil Company for oil operations in the 1920’s by its first owner  Asa E. Fickling,  the mayor of Long Beach  from 1930-1933.  After WW ll , Mr. Fickling wanted to build a pre fab house on the land.   Mr. John Eastman, who lived behind the lot facing on Weston Place, didn’t want a pre fab house behind his house so he purchased the property.  Charles was the owner of Dodd’s market at Magnolia Street and Wardlow Road and was friends with Otto Yaisli of the Los Cerritos Market.  Yasli was married to one of Mr. Eastman’s daughter’s and tipped off Charles that the Eastman’s lot might be for sale.   Eastman then sold the lot to the Dodds in 1948. The home was built in 1949 and has remained in the Dodds family ever since.

Advertisement from March 13, 1952

The best known of the historic Long Beach area gun clubs is the Cerritos Gun Club, sometimes referred to as the “Los Cerritos Gun Club” founded in 1890.  Club member and conservationist Will J. Reid wrote and published a history of the Gun Club in 1940.  When the Cerritos Gun Club, closed in 1941 to make way for the Lakewood County Club, Reid had the clubhouse and bungalows moved to  land  he donated to the Boy Scouts for a camp, Will J. Reid Park at 4747 Daisy Street in Long Beach.    In her oral interview in the California State University Library, Virginia Reid Moore, daughter of Will J. Reid, confirmed that the small bungalows used as bunk houses at the Cerritos Gun Club were also moved to the scout camp along with the clubhouse.  The small buildings had been purchased in 1909 from H. J. Brainerd, a manufacturer and builder of portable houses.

Several years ago, armed with a picture of the Brainerd buildings I went to Will J. Reid Park to see if I could find any of the original buildings.  They were still  some buildings then but they  are now gone as the LB Area Council sold the site for development.  It is now the home of the Rivergate Housing Development.  According to Long Beach scout historian Paul Muehleback the late 60s and 70s was when the scout camp underwent a redevelopment. The old Cerritos Gun Club Clubhouse was torn down in 1969 to make room for the new ranger residence and part office. Once that was done, the old ranger residence which was part of a wooden warehouse complex was demolished to make room for the new training center which was dedicated in 1974. The top picture next to a sketch of a Brainerd building looks similar in shape but it was built it was new rangers residence built in 1969 on the site of the old Cerritos club house building. The photo above shows the back side of the building which was the camp office and trading post. It was of cinder block construction. So although it looks similar in style to a Brainerd building, it is not. 

Paul followed up with some old scouters and learned that the small building below was built in 1986 as a Woodbadge project by adult volunteers.   It was only about 8 feet by 10 feet and was primarily used by the adult volunteers who were on duty when there were events at the park.  The building only housed a metal frame military style bed and possibly a small desk.  While there were Brainerd buildings at the Gun Club originally, no photos to date have been found of Cerritos Gun Club site with its buildings.

The Little Club published its own cook book in May, 1941 when Ruth Craig Merrill was President of the Club.   A supplement was added to the book in 1947.   If you want to learn more about these Los Cerritos ladies who founded the Little Club, see the post from January, 2016.  Fall is here but for those who want a last cool dessert, here’s a page from the Club’s  cookbook.

The February 1939 Sunset magazine featured an article titled “Here’s A New Way to Plan A Home!  Three hundred women from the Berkeley Women’s Club collaborated with an architect (John B.  Anthony) to make the perfect home.  The women had made a list of “must haves” and “don’t wants” that were incorporated into the house design which is shown above.   That same year, the Amelia Bixby Tract opened for sale in Los Cerritos and Dr. and Mrs. Samuel Reese bought a lot at 3860 Country Club Drive.  Using the plans from Sunset magazine they proceeded to construct the house.

So what does the perfect home have?  A covered entrance, windows of uniform height, access from the garage to kitchen, plenty of closets and,  of course, a terrace for sunbathing.  What does the perfect home not have?  No raised hearth, no corner fireplace, no steps between rooms, no rooms used as passage ways, no stairway in living room, no peep holes in front door, no wrought iron and of course, no phones in the closet.  When finished in 1940,  the Reese’s home at 3860 Country Club looked exactly like the home in Sunset magazine.  

My thanks to current owner, Mary Marks, for a copy of the 1939 Sunset magazine article and her photos.

Marguerite Vignes Walp was the daughter of John Louis Vignes and Mary Kent, who moved into the Los Cerritos neighborhood in 1910.  Marguerite married Bertine James Walp who built a home for his new wife  at 3808 Cota (now Cedar) Street.  My book  Long Beach’s Los Cerritos has more information on the Vignes family in Los Cerritos  but I  was unable to include in the book  examples of the art work of Marguerite who often used the homes of Los Cerritos as her subject matter.  Marguerite Vignes graduated from the University of Southern California College of Fine Arts in June 1911. She taught art and made greeting cards.  Her work was exhibited in Long Beach and Los Angeles. When her husband Bert Walp died in 1933, she became the Director of Arts and Audio Visuals for the Long Beach School District.  I have walked around the neighborhood trying to match Marguerite’s watercolors to the homes, hoping I could match the home and the painting.  If anyone knows which house this is, let me know.