Around the time when I was eight years old, my parents decided they were tired of living in apartments and rented houses. They wanted to own their own home. They wanted to be able to plant their own gardens, add on rooms or otherwise change things as they saw fit. Perhaps they wanted to gain some permanence in their lives.
They began by looking at many different homes in San Bernardino. They needed to stay in the area because of my dad’s job at Norton.
I remember going to many different open houses, looking at dozens of homes. The largest was a huge Mormon house perched on the flanks of Little Mountain. It had dozens of bedrooms, several living rooms, bathrooms and dining rooms. The home had been constructed by a Mormon settler over one hundred years before. He had many wives, and built a separate living room/dining room/kitchen/bedroom in the house for each one.
I’m not sure if my parents seriously considered moving into this grand old house. It would have been a wondrous place for a small boy to grow up in, with fourteen other families. (The Realtors planned to sell the place as a co-op of many families all sharing expenses and living space.)
My parents eventually decided upon a nice, newer, smaller house on Stoddard Avenue, which is between Little Mountain and the foothills of the San Bernardino mountains. It was a nice house, with two bedrooms, a living room, a small kitchen, a bathroom and a garage. The front yard was fairly large, and contained two large trees, one on each side of the door. The back yard was medium-sized, large enough for a garden, a full jungle gym, treehouse, patio and lots more besides.
Moving into this house began one of the most stable and well-remembered childhood friends date from this period of my life, and many of my most pleasant memories were spawned in that neighborhood. I entered that house at the middle of my childhood, and left as I was entering manhood.
The map above shows the neighborhood where I spent many pleasant years of my young life. I lived on Stoddard Avenue. and roamed throughout the area represented on the map.
The plans below are of my house on Stoddard Avenue. As you can see, it was a nice house, not large, yet not too small.
Unless otherwise noted, all photos and text is Copyright © Richard G Lowe, Jr.