Old Escondido Historic District

To our Old Escondido Historic District Neighbors: 

We would very much like to add all of our  Historic District properties to the website.  If you would like your home displayed, please contact our webmaster for more information. 

420 East Seventh Avenue

2002

   1931 Bungalow

More research has been accomplished to confirm the building dates of both bungalows located on this lot, although ''1928'' was found imprinted on the bottoms of the front house's kitchen drawers, which were apparently made from packing crates that are assumed to have held the house's siding.  This home was on the 10th Annual Mothers Day Home Tour and research performed by Lucy Berk revealed more about both structures (see below)

The front house is a California Bungalow of approximately 750 sq. feet with two bedrooms, one bath and a small dining room. The original clapboard siding remains, as do many of the original windows, crystal doorknobs, and ornate hinges. The floors throughout are the original maple, including the kitchen, which was only recently revealed again after five layers of later flooring were removed and the maple refinished.

A picket fence with English cottage garden are planned for the front yard and trim work is expected to receive a new paint job before too long.

The walk at the left side of the house leads to a smaller Craftsman style bungalow to the rear, which was built first in 1927and bears the address 412 E. 7th Ave.

more on 412 and 420 East Seventh Avenue: 

Harltey E. Henderson built the structures on this property over a period of years.  Before coming to Escondido, Henderson was a contractor and carpenter.  Although he was employed 36 years as a rural mail carrier for the local post office, he kept his building skills sharp. In 1923 he added four rooms to the house to the east, which was his home.  Henderson built the small clapboard cottage along the alley, #412, as a rental for his father, in 1927.  In 1931 he built the five-room clapboard bungalow, #420, at the front of the lot with the help of his father-in-law.  This “main house”, which has a cellar, was also built as a rental.  By 1947, he built # 410 to the west.  To increase building during the 1920s and 30s, lumberyards, building companies, such as Pacific Ready-Cut, and magazines offered free or reasonable house plans, encouraging all of the possibility of having an “ideal home.”  The two houses along the street are almost identical.  Hartley may have dusted off the California Bungalow plan 16 years later, adding slightly to the width and using stucco instead of wood on the exterior