January 13-19, 2005

cityspace

600 Los Angeles Ave.

L.A. CONFIDENTIAL: Just off Huntingdon Pike, you can find Southern California-style ranchers. Photo By: Michael T. Regan

Hooray for Hollywood, Pa. — a little bit of California sunshine in the gray Northeast.

by Tom Namako

Kurt Schulz and Florence Tyson are lovers in Hollywood. They live across the street from each other on Los Angeles Avenue. Almost every day Schulz leaves his mint-green stucco home and visits his leading lady's small abode, a rancher with lead windows and a front-porch facade seen only in Southern California. The two can cruise surrounding streets with names like Pasadena Avenue, San Diego Drive and Berkeley Avenue.

Standing on their block, adorned with flat-roofed Spanish mission and pastel-colored homes, it seems they could browse the storefronts of Rodeo Drive. And they can, if they take a 2,700-mile road trip to Los Angeles.

Otherwise, Schulz and Tyson have to settle for the shopping and dining near Old York Road in Jenkintown, which is much closer to their Hollywood — a tiny neighborhood bordering Fox Chase and Rockledge, just outside Philadelphia in Abington Township. If you speed down Huntington Pike or Fox Chase Road, Hollywood seems like a developer's newest gimmick — a sparse collection of eccentric homes designed to appeal to America's insatiable hunger to live like movie stars. Take a closer look, and it's easy to see from the wear and tear that the houses were erected in the early 20th century, about the same time silent films reigned in theaters. Old black and brown rainwater stains have settled into creases on exterior walls; cracked green, orange and pink stuccowork has been patched with dull cement; and small, square windows have separated from their fixtures.

In 1917, our local Hollywood was built by Gustav Weber, who thought up the concept when Los Angeles architecture left him starstruck after his honeymoon. When he returned to the area he immediately had a portion of land annexed, and he began developing these West Coast-style abodes.

But the past three or four decades have been far from a golden age for Schulz and Tyson's block. During that time, many of the original and second-generation owners grew old and were unable to maintain their properties, according to Philip Schneider, a Hollywood resident since 1947. He also blames the homes' original construction for not standing up to wintry conditions. The original windows aren't insulated, so Schneider spent a lot of his childhood scraping ice from the inside of his house. He'd also have to fill the heater with coal, and shovel snow when all the walkways were made with tile, constantly jamming the grooves and loosening the squares — a task he described as "murderous."

Yet, Schneider said, Hollywood is making a comeback. According to Maureen Patrick, a realtor with Long & Foster Real Estate, Inc. in Abington Township, 14 Hollywood homes out of 120 in the area have been sold since January 2003, and prices have topped $205,000. "There are a lot of new people moving in," said Schneider, who lives in a white stucco house on Fox Chase Road, "not necessarily young people — although they are buying here too — but new people, old and young, who are giving these homes well-needed renovations."

Construction has disrupted the eerily quiet area of about 120 homes over the past few weeks. One resident on San Diego Drive added a red brick wall around her garden — which includes a small bare sapling whose branches are fitted with blue bottles — and another resident down the block near Huntington Pike added a second floor to her rancher. Even Schulz, a 40-year resident, changed his window fixtures to add a more modern, three-pane design.

"The old windows just didn't keep the heat in," Schulz said. "My girlfriend still has the original lead windows, and she should get the new ones."

Schneider said that although the renovations are needed, many are defacing the integrity of the original structures. "People like to install central air conditioning, which butchers the inside of the house," he said. "Others are putting up aluminum siding that looks terrible — they don't have that in California."

Still many residents are just happy to be in a must-see area. Dan Jones, whose parents moved to Hollywood about six years ago, said they didn't make the move for the area's glitzy feel. "They liked that the neighborhood was quiet — you never see anybody around here — it wasn't really about the houses, but a lot of people are into that," Jones said.

Even though it's not all love in the neighborhood — not everyone can be as fortunate as Schulz and Tyson — most residents are content with the obvious improvements. As for the others, the closest they'll get to the real Hollywood is at the nearby Tunney Hollywood Tavern's meatloaf Mondays, or on Huntington Pike at the Blockbuster video.

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