Built in 1930, Donna Hart's Spanish-style California bungalow is design-magazine pretty.
Elegant arches mark the windows and doorways, and stenciled ships sail across its mahogany doors. The thick lath-and-plaster walls speak of an era when homes were built to last and look good for the duration.
But perhaps the most striking thing about her home is the location. It's in Van Nuys, in the heart of the San Fernando Valley, a place more synonymous with post-World War II tract houses and shopping malls than with Craftsman architecture.
Hart's neighborhood near the Van Nuys Civic Center is likely to become the first historic preservation zone in the San Fernando Valley.
When the designation comes -- next year at the earliest -- it will be welcomed by preservationists who have long tried to bring more attention to the Valley's architectural richness.
Until now, much of the talk about historic preservation in the Valley has centered on individual buildings, particularly choice examples of so-called Googie architecture. Conjuring up visions of the Jetsons, these midcentury modern buildings include the Hanna-Barbera complex in the Cahuenga Pass and the Lakeside Carwash in Burbank.
Neither has received landmark status, but so far, both have avoided the wrecking ball.
That's a better track record than in the past. In the late 1980s, a battle by some Studio City residents to preserve a beloved carwash not only failed but became a joke for late-night comics.
Hart knows well the paradox of living in a historic neighborhood in the Valley.
More than once, she has been asked where she lives, answered "Van Nuys" and been warned: "Don't tell anybody."
But Hart loves her home, and it and the historic houses of her neighbors may finally get the respect that advocates think they deserve.
"It's a sign that the San Fernando Valley is coming of age, that it's maturing and beginning to think about preserving the most significant elements of its architectural heritage," said Ken Bernstein, director of conservation issues for the Los Angeles Conservancy.
The square-mile area, Bernstein points out, "is one of the most intact early residential neighborhoods in the San Fernando Valley."
According to Valley historian Kevin Roderick, Van Nuys got its start in 1911 when a clever marketer touted the barely existent community as the "largest opportunity on the entire Pacific Coast today." He sold it like a time-share, luring prospective buyers with free barbecue and transportation. Soon, 200 homes were served by 40 businesses.
