Bixby Knolls, Long Beach, California

From Wikipedia

Bixby Knolls is an affluent neighborhood of Long Beach, California.

Bixby Knolls is an affluent area of Long Beach adjoining North Long Beach to the north, California Heights on the east, Wrigley on the south. Its approximate boundaries are the 405 Freeway to the south (or Wardlow Avenue), Del Amo Blvd to the north (or the Southern Pacific railroad tracks), the Los Angeles River and the Lakewood city boundary to the west or Atlantic Ave, if you are south of Bixby Road. In its 90807 Zip Code, smaller family homes sell for around $600,000.00 while the larger, higher end homes, a few of which are on gated streets, sell for as much as $4,000,000.00 plus. It is the priciest and most affluent area of the city that is not on the oceanfront. Atlantic Avenue and Long Beach Boulevard are the main north-south arteries through the neighborhood. The neighborhood includes the Los Cerritos - Virginia Country Club and the original Los Cerritos RanchHouse historic site.

The Bixby Knolls is a well established and stable neighborhood that is home to middle and upper-middle class families and singles. Some residence are multi-generational, with homes being handed down to future generations, and children and grand children of the original residents who moved away returning to the neighborhood for its quality of life. The majority of the homes in the area were custom-built between 1920 and 1940, providing the community with a rich variety of home architecture as oppose to identical tract-home subdivisions found elsewhere in Southern California. Myrtle Avenue north of Longfellow school is a prime example of Bixby Knolls' picturesque appeal at its best. The neighborhood is a model of peaceful diversity, with orthodox Jewish, Latino, African-American and residences of other ethnicities and backgrounds living with the largely Caucasian residents in harmony.

Tredy small shops and restaurants dot a strip of Atlantic Ave. South of San Antonio and North of the 405 Freeway, as well as on the streets surrounding this main thoroughfare. The neighborhood is also serviced by several grocery stores and shopping centers in the local area.

Bixby Knolls has an active local community. The Richard Goad Theater, home to the Long Beach Shakespeare Company, and the Historical Society of Long Beach, are housed on Atlantic Ave, just north of Carson Street. Regular community events, weekly strolls, dining and literary clubs are favorites of the locals. On the west side of the neighborhood, adjacent to the Los Angeles River, is the large Virginia Country Club, which is also the location of the Rancho Los Cerritos historic site.

Midget Town

An urban legend holds that with the success of the 1939 American musical fantasy film The Wizard of Oz, many of the little people who had acquired their wealth by playing the roles of the munchkins purchased lots in the La Linda development of Los Cerritos Neighborhood and built homes sized to suit their needs.

La Linda Drive looking North West from the entrance.

In fact, La Linda,one of Long Beach's oldest gated communities and originally the home of George H. Bixby, was subdivided in 1922 and most of the homes were built before 1938.

Schools

Long Beach Unified School District serves Bixby Knolls.

Bixby Knolls area public schools include Longfellow Elementary School, Los Cerritos Elementary School and Hughes Middle School. Longfellow is recognized as a CA Distinguished School. For high school, residents are zoned to Long Beach Polytechnic High School.

Parks

The Bixby Knolls Park is in the area. Other parks include Cerritos Park in the Los Cerritos neighborhood and Somerset Park in the Bixby Terrace neighborhood.

Historical places

Long Beach's Virginia Country Club golf course and Los Cerritos Ranch House, a city owned historical site, are located in the adjacent Los Cerritos and Virginia Country Club neighborhoods, which are typically considered a part of Bixby Knolls.