Added to the National Register of Historic Places on January 18, 2010

The afternoon I explored the Pegfair Estates Historic District, three different homeowners asked me what I was doing there. It’s not uncommon for me to get questioned by locals, especially when I’m visiting an area with a lot of private homes. But the number of suspicious neighbors speaks to how seriously the residents of this neighborhood take their privacy. The seclusion of the area is a big part of the attraction of Pegfair Estates, and its agents marketed it that way from the beginning. The earliest real estate ads for these homes led with the tag “seclusion for better living:” 

This is an unusual addition to the National Register for a couple reasons. Most of the contributing houses to this district offer a spin on the “contemporary ranch” style of domestic architecture, a style that isn’t well-represented in the landmarks that I’ve covered. Aside from the Case Study Houses, there aren’t a lot of Los Angeles houses on the National Register dating from post-WWII, simply because most of them have only recently become old enough to be considered historic. When Pegfair Estates was added to the NRHP in 2010, these houses were between 43 and 49 years old – just under the 50-year mark normally required for National Register consideration, unless an applicant can demonstrate an exceptional level of significance (which applicants Daniel Paul and Alan Hess successfully did). 

So what’s the deal with this district? Here we have a collection of 22 single-story homes (with one 1.5-story exception), including 19 homes lining Pegfair Estates Drive as it curves northwest from Pegfair Lane into a cul-de-sac, and another three homes on the side street Carnarvon Drive. All 22 houses fall under the general “ranch house” stylistic umbrella that became wildly popular in LA in the 1950s. While there are plenty of variations on the basic template here, the ranch houses in the district tend to be low and horizontal, with low-pitched roofs, wide eaves, large picture windows, and a mix of cladding styles within a single house, ranging from board and batten to flagstone. You often see recessed entries and attached garages, open floor plans and spacious yards in a ranch house, and very little that’s outwardly extravagant. No porte-cochères, very few gables, not even a proper porch on most of them. 

According to architect/author Witold Rybczynski, nine out of 10 American homes built in 1950 were ranch houses. It’s the kind of house you associate with the suburban sprawl of mid-20th century LA, when large tracts of low-cost homes started springing up everywhere from Lakewood to the San Fernando Valley to satisfy the post-WWII population boom. 

While the Pegfair Estates houses share some surface features with the ‘50s tract housing you can find throughout LA suburbs, these ones represent the cream of the style, and they’re anything but cookie cutter. They’re all custom-designed by architects or quality contractors, as opposed to deriving from a basic plan, which means each one has its own personality. Several mix in Asian or Polynesian-inspired design quirks to the basic template, tying them into a Pasadena design tradition that goes back at least as far as the Japanese-inspired craftsman homes of Greene & Greene. Many have distinctive entryways. They’re all embellished by lush collections of trees, plants and bushes, which help connect them visually with the mountains that surround them.

The hills that house Pegfair Estates are part of Linda Vista, a Pasadena enclave overlooking the northern Arroyo Seco, just west of the Rose Bowl. Today it’s one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in LA County, with a median home sale price of $3 million as of February 2025. But for many hundreds of years, and as late as the 1880s according to some sources, Linda Vista was tended by the Hahamongna tribe, a band of the indigenous Tongva or Kizh peoples. After the mission era began, Linda Vista became part of the 36,000 acre Rancho San Rafael that was granted to Spanish Corporal José Maria Verdugo in 1784. Over the next century Linda Vista would be owned by a dizzying succession of people, including Verdugo’s descendants, a Mexican school teacher, a pair of American attorneys, a German shepherd (like, an actual shepherd from Germany, not the dog breed) and, in the 1880s, a midwestern farmer named John D. Yocum. Read more about him and his family in my writeup on the house at 1360 Lida Street.

The Yocums were the first to really develop Linda Vista. They leveled the land and tilled the soil for fruit trees, found water sources in the hillsides and built a bridge over the Arroyo Seco, connecting Linda Vista with the newly-established city of Pasadena. The Yocums also subdivided their acreage and attracted many an entrepreneurial midwesterner to live there, including Byron O. Clark, a talented horticulturist. Clark lined the main road Park Avenue (now Linda Vista Avenue) with pepper trees, and established Linda Vista’s first commercial business, the Park Nursery. We have Clark to thank for the spectacular diversity of plants and trees that has continued to populate Linda Vista. Incidentally, he was also the coiner of the name “Altadena.” Clark originally gave the name to a nursery he founded at the top of Lincoln Avenue in the foothills of the San Gabriels, and after he moved away, Altadena’s founders got his permission to use the name for their new subdivision.

In the early 1900s, new waves of wealthy midwesterners flocked to Pasadena to escape the frigid winters of their hometowns. Plenty of vacationers crossed the Arroyo to ride horses in the mountains or tramp around the lushly-planted environs. A few of them ended up buying large swaths of Linda Vista for their own mansions, then parceling off portions of it to homebuyers, sparking Linda Vista’s second big wave of development. The town was annexed to Pasadena in 1914, and then in 1924, the Linda Vista Neighborhood Association was founded to preserve the residential character of the area. Thanks to their efforts, there hasn’t been a commercial business in Linda Vista since 1987, when the local branch of Jurgensen’s Market closed. Great for privacy-seeking locals, not so much for curious visitors: my gas tank was nearly empty when I visited, and I almost got stranded trying to find a gas station.

The modern history of Pegfair Estates begins with Robert Richards, a Chicago produce executive (nicknamed “The Lettuce King”) who built a 14-room mansion near the corner of West Avenue (now Wellington Avenue) and Afton Street, and named it “Fairview.” In 1939 the mansion and surrounding property went up for auction, and it was purchased for $200,000 by yet another midwesterner named Wesley I. Dumm, along with his wife Margaret. 

He was an interesting cat, this Wesley I. Dumm fellow. Well-studied in both banking and broadcasting, by 27 he was already the President of a bank in Wyoming, and soon after joined the staff of the federal War Finance Corporation during WWI. He spent years reviving or founding radio stations, including KSFO, the CBS radio affiliate for San Francisco. President Franklin D. Roosevelt handpicked Dumm to supervise a short wave radio station during WWII, which would transform into Voice of America, the long-serving news outlet that brings the free press to countries that don’t have it (in case you were wondering, yes, the current administration has effectively shut down Voice of America).

Dumm changed the name of his newly-acquired mansion from “Fairview” to “Pegfair,” a portmanteau of his wife’s nickname “Peggy” and “Pickfair,” the famous home of Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford. In 1954 the Dumms purchased 167 acres behind their property for an extra layer of privacy, and as early as September 12 of that year, the realtor Coldwell, Banker & Company announced the Dumms’ intentions to turn it into a prestigious residential development. By 1960 they had sold off 175 acres to the ArtCenter College of Design for their present-day campus; just north and east of the ArtCenter site, the Dumms surveyed and subdivided the land that would become Pegfair Estates. 

In the spring of 1961, we start seeing ads for the tract in Pasadena papers. “We are creating in Pegfair Estates an atmosphere of distinction,” promises an ad in the Independent Star-News, “recapturing the seclusion, beauty and out-of-doors that is the rightful inheritance of every Californian.” Several ads and small news bits point to the brick wall that encircled the entire development, adding to that sense of remove. Others focus on the underground utility lines, “to assure no obstruction to the view of the San Gabriel Mountain range.” 

The first home built here was the 2400-square footer at 1540 Pegfair Estates Drive, with a permit issued in September 1961. The architects of record were Neptune & Thomas, well-known in Southern California for larger-scale work on hospitals, high schools, colleges, performing arts centers and civic buildings. It’s telling that the 1961 permit lists the owner as “Pegfair Estates, Inc.,” housed at 1211 Wellington Avenue – the very address of the Dumm family mansion. This was intended as a “show house” for Pegfair Estates, the one that would sell potential buyers on living here. A 1962 Los Angeles Times feature describes the house’s many amenities, including a ceiling-high stone fireplace of Palos Verdes stone, a bedroom wing with “vast wardrobe space,” a master bathroom with a solarium and “a sunken Oriental-style tub and shower,” a pool and the kind of privacy “said to encourage exhilarating freedom of movement” (I think they’re trying to say that it’s a great house for walking around nekkid). 

Apparently the show house did its job, because by March 11, 1962, the Los Angeles Times reported that more than half of the lots of Pegfair Estates had been sold. The same article points out “the extensive landscaping and beautification of the site” which had yet to be completed at the time, but was part of the master plan from the beginning. According to Paul & Hess’s NRHP nomination sheet, you can see sycamore, canary pine, juniper, fir, palms and even yucca pines (Joshua trees), plus tons of different kinds of shrubbery. This is really a beautifully landscaped tract. Each home’s greenery is unique, but contributes to the sense that these homes are part of the natural vegetation of the hills. 

Here are a few specific contributors to the district that are worth calling out, mostly because they were up for sale over the past decade, which means realtors have put together videos of the inside!

1535 Pegfair Estates Drive

Here’s a 1962 custom ranch house with some pronounced Asian aspects to it. I love the vertical board cladding, the huge corner windows in the common rooms and the notched beam sticking out of the attic vent, a common feature of Polynesian architecture. The back gardens combine Japanese garden design and native California plantings – complete with a koi pond with a little footbridge over it. Since the above video was shot, the front door was changed from ketchup red to mustard yellow – so still in the same family of condiment colors. 

1575 Pegfair Estates Drive

This one from 1965 has a striking stone facade, echoed by the stone of the entry stairs and walkway that lead up to it. Inside, there’s a fun mishmash of materials – terrazzo flooring on the hallway, blonde hardwood floors in the living room, and an entire wall of stone where the fireplace is lodged (there’s another statement fireplace wall in the family room, around the corner). The whole thing is arranged in a U shape, so pretty much every room has views of the huge pool at the center of the property. There’s a separate shower room with access from the pool, and even a small sauna (guessing that was a later addition). 

1630 Pegfair Estates Drive

Designed by Clifford F. Hatch and built in 1964, this is the sole home in the Pegfair Estates Historic District that’s more than one story tall. The driveway leads straight to a garage on the bottom floor, and stairs lead up to the recessed entry on the main living space. I’m taken by the cute lil’ bullseye-shaped window above the garage.” The description from this YouTube video by realtor Jerry Current indicates that the whole place was extensively remodeled before it went on the market again in 2015, five years after the district was added to the NRHP. So it’s tough to say how much of the original layout and materials of the place were preserved, but Current claims that the hillside in the back was transformed into “a secluded wooded oasis with a large patio and gas fire pit, flat grassy yard, leafy Zen garden, and hillside trail to a secret meditation spot.” Sounds like a definite upgrade, as does the added 500-bottle wine cellar, assumedly on the bottom floor. When I visited, there were two PODS storage containers sitting in the driveway…could this one be on the market again soon? 

A couple final thoughts about the landmarking process for Pegfair Estates Historic District. Dumm’s original Pegfair Estates tract encompassed 52 houses, more than twice the number that contribute to this historic district. Per Paul & Hess, the houses north of Lida Street, on Lancashire Place and Knollwood Drive, have either lost their historic integrity through remodels, or lack the stylistic consistency or density of landscaping that give their neighbors on Pegfair Estates Drive and Carnarvon Drive such cohesion. There are also three houses nestled among the contributing properties that aren’t considered part of the district for various reasons: 1545 Pegfair Estates (radically altered, with a dormer and vinyl windows added since original construction), 1550 Pegfair Estates (formerly a contemporary ranch-style home, but since covered in Spanish/Mediterranean-style stucco) and 1640 Pegfair Estates (built in 1976, well after the district’s period of significance). This says a lot about how “contributing” buildings to a historic district are selected. You find the criteria that make the district unique and landmarkable, and you only include the properties that fit those criteria.

The district’s NRHP application lists nine homeowners who submitted formal letters of objection to their neighborhood’s inclusion on the National Register, and just three who submitted letters of support. The objectors raised concerns about NRHP status preventing them from making changes to their property, or making it more difficult to sell their houses in the future. It’s rare to get that much opposition from the owners of contributing buildings to a historic district, and honestly I’m not sure how exactly the California State Historical Resources Commission overcame it. But that they did, and in 2009 the Commission voted 5 to 1 to send the nomination over to the Keeper of the National Register.

I’m so glad it’s on the list now, because the Pegfair Estates Historic District was my first indication that contemporary ranch style housing could be more than endless plots of faceless low boxes, fresh-mowed grass and picket fences. It’s such a joy to walk up the gentle curve of Pegfair Estates Drive and take in all the natural and manmade beauty. Even if you do get stopped multiple times and asked what you’re doing there. 

Sources & Recommended Reading

+ “1535 Pegfair Estates Drive Voiced Tour” (VIDEO – House of Martocchio on YouTube, May 23, 2018)

+ “1575 Pegfair Estates Drive Pasadena, CA 91103” (VIDEO – Lin Realty Group – Eva Lin on YouTube, September 9, 2022)

+ “1630 Pegfair Estates Drive, Pasadena, CA 91103” (VIDEO – Jerry Current on YouTube, September 1, 2015)

+ “Aboard the SS Mariposa” (Pasadena Independent, August 21, 1959 – via Newspapers.com)

+ “All Utilities Underground at Subdivision” (Los Angeles Times, October 22, 1961 – via ProQuest)

+ City of Pasadena: “Pegfair Estates Ranch Houses Walking Tour” (cityofpasadena.net)

+ Historic Resources Group & Pasadena Heritage: “Cultural Resources of the Recent Past Historic Context Report: City of Pasadena” (PDF – parks.ca.gov, 2007)

+ “Homesites Available in Pasadena” (Los Angeles Times, September 24, 1961 – via ProQuest)

+ Linda Vista-Annandale Association website

+ “Linda Vista Area Estates Open” (Independent Star-News, April 16, 1961 – via Newspapers.com)

+ “Linda Vista Development of 167 Acres Announced” (Pasadena Independent, September 12, 1954 – via Newspapers.com)

+ Manning, Mike: “ALTADENA, CALIFORNIA: An Abbreviated History for the Internet” (altadenatowncouncil.org)

+ “Pasadena Tract Offers Indoor-Outdoor Living” (Los Angeles Times, October 7, 1962 – via ProQuest)

+ Paul, Daniel D. & Alan Hess, ICF Jones & Stokes: Pegfair Estates Historic District’s NRHP nomination form

+ “Pegfair” (Independent Star-News, October 8, 1961 – via Newspapers.com)

+ “Pegfair Estates” (Ad – Pasadena Independent, May 11, 1961 – via Newspapers.com)

+ “Pegfair Sales Now Over 50%” (Los Angeles Times, March 11, 1962 – via ProQuest)

+ Rybczynski, Witold: “The Ranch House Anomaly” (Slate.com, April 17, 2007)

+ Schifrin, Nick: “What is Voice of America and why Trump is dismantling the broadcaster” (PBS.org, March 17, 2025)

+ “Seclusion for Better Living in Pegfair Estates” (Ad – Independent Star-News, April 23, 1961 – via Newspapers.com)

+ Wayte, Beverly: “Linda Vista Revisited: From Indians to Modern-day Pasadenans: Part I” (Southern California Quarterly, Vol. 73, No. 2, summer 1991)

+ Wayte, Beverly: “Linda Vista Revisited: From Indians to Modern-day Pasadenans: Part II” (Southern California Quarterly, Vol. 73, No. 3, fall 1991)

+ Wayte, Beverly: “Linda Vista Revisited: From Indians to Modern-day Pasadenans: Part III” (Southern California Quarterly, Vol. 73, No. 4, winter 1991)

+ “Wesley I. Dumm, President of The Associated Broadcasters 1942” (Bayarearadio.org, August 13, 2014)