5538 Acacia Avenue was built in 1935. It is landmark #51 and had no name designated for it in the location designation process. This residence was home to John A. and Ann L. Williams, as listed in the 1955 Whittier City Directory. John was a parts manager for Thrifty Equipment.
This residence is significant as an excellent, early example of the California Ranch style, which is an amalgam of trends including: government housing policies; a fascination with the Old West; new technologies that made home building faster and household chores easier; and more casual lifestyles that called for informal house plans. The economic conditions of the 1930s and early 1940s, resulted in the Minimal Traditional and minimum Ranch styles which were typically unadorned, small homes that followed the FHA standards for the minimum house. In the post-WWII period, the Ranch style enjoyed tremendous popularity and evolved to incorporate variations in the style from the plain and unadorned, to rustic Ranch with Western details, to the whimsical and highly decorated Storybook Ranch, to the sleeker Modern Ranch.
Local designation date is July 7, 2015.
SOURCES: The information on this page is correct to the best of our knowledge. It has been obtained from the original local designation documents and edits from the Whittier Historic Neighborhood Association. It may also include ongoing current ownership input.