Most Beautiful Historic Residential Neighborhood in California (San Francisco, Sacramento: homes, neighborhoods)

[jbunniii]

I vote for the various bungalow districts of Pasadena. Hancock Park is nice too. Beverly Hills has too much of a mishmash of styles and in many cases is outright garish. You can still tell from what's left of West Adams that it was once beautiful, but the freeway wrecked it.

A lot of people think San Francisco is beautiful, and in certain ways it is, but I don't find the neighborhoods themselves all that attractive for the most part, at least not when viewed from close proximity. Most of the buildings are poorly maintained and could use a paint job. The city streets are mostly hard and barren without nearly enough trees.

[LASam]

I'll shy away from the big 3 coastal cities and go with Midtown Sacramento. Fantastic tree cover, beautiful old homes, and shop/restaurants/cafes sprinkled around on several different blocks.

[nmnita]

Originally Posted by LASam

I'll shy away from the big 3 coastal cities and go with Midtown Sacramento. Fantastic tree cover, beautiful old homes, and shop/restaurants/cafes sprinkled around on several different blocks.

I almost put down midtown Sac. I don't think people give Sac enough credit plus anything around the capitol is beautiful just because of the grounds.

Nita

[MisterDuke]

Claremont

[pistola916]

Midtown and East Sacramento.

[nmnita]

Originally Posted by pistola916

Midtown and East Sacramento.

yep, the area the Reagans lived in when in SAc was a mixture, with a lot of Spanish style homes. I won't go into detail but I did spend time outside their home on several occassions. I would sit in my car. No, I am not a stocker.

Nita

[LASam]

Originally Posted by nmnita

yep, the area the Reagans lived in when in SAc was a mixture, with a lot of Spanish style homes. I won't go into detail but I did spend time outside their home on several occassions. I would sit in my car. No, I am not a stocker.

Nita

I also thought the Land Park area of Sacramento was charming as well... though more in a mid-century kind of way rather than turn of the century (Midtown).

[sarahkate_m]

Funny I saw the same exact post for Oregon today & put links for OP.

Wilshire area in Los Angeles... Maybe it's Hancock Park. I was trying to look up the location based on a memory of the Masonic Temple & found a reference to Hancock Park.

http://74.125.155.132/search?q=cache...&ct=clnk&gl=us

http://www.metnews.com/articles/2008/conf010708.htm

In the summer of '77, when I was 17, I would take the bus to that downtown area & walk to my meditation class that was in a house on one of the streets near there. I loved to stop & study the Temple details.

Kate

[tg9999]

Thanks for all the great reply posts.
In response to some of the questions raised by the posts, by "decent weather" we mean moderate/mild temperatures for most of the year. We do not like extremely hot summers. Cooler weather in winter is OK. Gray/clouds fine, moderate rain fine, although some sun would be appreciated.
(Went to school in Sacramento many years ago, love the older architecture there, but the summers there are way too hot for us.)
Doesn't matter whether its a small town or big city, we are just looking for a neighborhood with a high concentration of charming, historic homes. For example, we have vacationed several time in the historic districts in Petaluma and Pacific Grove --- and we love the look of those areas.
We're historic preservationists. We like all architectural styles from 1800's - 1930.
Any additional posts would be appreciated. Thanks.

[streetscenes]

According to the American Planning Association the Bungalow Heaven neighborhood is Pasadena is a top 10 neighborhood in the country.
Great Places in America: Neighborhoods