By Eric DuVall / Point Loma- OB Monthly (SDU-T) / June 17, 2025
Picture if you will a shaggy individual of indeterminate age deftly negotiating a gently curving garden path among several small dwellings.
He is evidently returning home from an evening’s revelry — and he might have stopped at the store for a quart of half and half. He grips his bowling ball a little tighter as he fumbles for his keys. Entering his cozy abode, something seems amiss. Before he can even put his half and half in the fridge, our protagonist — we are talking about “The Dude” here, in Los Angeles (with a hard “g”) — finds himself the victim of a home invasion due to a case of mistaken identity. That aggression would not stand, it is later revealed, but we have been introduced to Jeffery Lebowski and his charming and classic California bungalow court in the movie “The Big Lebowski.”
Bungalow courts seem ubiquitous in certain San Diego neighborhoods, and early suburbs such as Ocean Beach still claim plenty of them. Bungalow courts are still popular, right? Desirable domiciles? Absolutely.
So, similar arrangements probably have been part of most urban areas, correct? Nope. You might be surprised to learn, as I was, that the bungalow court is almost exclusively a Southern California phenomenon. In fact, experts tell us that more bungalow courts were built in San Diego than in any city other than Los Angeles.
In a Historic Context Statement regarding bungalow courts and apartment courts — prepared for the city of San Diego’s Planning Department just four years ago — San Francisco-based architectural preservation firm Page & Turnbull reported: “Spurred by the Panama California Exposition and military growth, San Diego’s population doubled from over 74,000 in 1910 to more than 147,000 in 1920. Like other cities in Southern California, San Diego’s rapid population growth in the early 20th century resulted in an acute housing shortage. Bungalow courts, as they first appeared in San Diego and immediately surrounding communities in the late 1910s, were seen as one way to address the housing shortage.”
This Sanborn Fire Map diagram depicts a traditional U-shaped bungalow court. (City of San Diego)
Soon, similar courts began to appear in Pasadena. Sometimes referred to as cottage courts and community courts — I like that one — they drew the attention of the local press and trade publications.
Writing in Technical World magazine in February 1912, Charles Alma Byers explained, “The ‘community court’ idea, or plan, consists of taking two and sometimes three or more city lots, each about 40 or 50 feet wide and 120 to 150 feet deep, located reasonably close to the business part of the city, and constructing on the plot thus created a number of up-to-date and modernly equipped cottages, or bungalows, through the center of which runs a sort of parkway, or court. Such plots of ground will allow the building thereon [of] eight to 15 of these little individual homes.”
The early Pasadena courts “featured a high degree of architectural and planning design,” according to Page & Turnbull. “Buildings were similar without being identical and were placed to maximize privacy for residents. They mixed single and double houses (two units in one building), various floor plans, different exterior materials and treatments within the same general style, and oriented the units to balance privacy, communal living and site constraints.”
“As bungalow courts became more common into the 1920s, it was more cost-effective for units to be smaller, standardized and simplified within a development,” Byers observed. “One-bedroom units, with a living room, kitchen and a bedroom and without a separate dining room, dominated. Other efficiencies were also sought, including built-ins, ‘disappearing beds’ that can be stored when not in use, and kitchens with cabinets.”
A 1937 ad in The Beach News promoted Sunset Crest, a high-profile Ocean Beach bungalow half court, on Cable Street at Orchard Avenue. (Ocean Beach Historical Society)
Sunset Crest today. (Eric DuVall)
A very informational and fairly comprehensive article by James R. Curtis and Larry Ford appeared in the Journal of San Diego History in spring 1988, descriptively titled “Bungalow Courts in San Diego.”
Curtis and Ford wrote that “bungalow courts were seen as a compromise between expensive and demanding single-family homes on the one hand and the ‘indecent propinquities’ of apartment life on the other. They could offer settings with sufficient density for a sense of community and shared responsibility while still allowing the space for greenery and even private gardens.”
“Thus, bungalow courts featured the aesthetics of the bungalow in the garden coupled with the ideology of semi-communal living in a friendly place.”
Several sources indicate that early bungalow courts were often touted as ideal housing for single working women. The concept was promoted in several stories published in Ladies Home Journal. A 1919 piece noted that bungalow courts were frequently “located on the edge of town, where air and sunlight are abundant and land is cheap; where the distance to and from business or to and from transportation is within the limits of a short walk; where, amidst the congenial surroundings of delightful country life and inspired by interesting companions in one’s own walk of life, business women may have homes for themselves.”
Curtis and Ford added that “in addition to providing greater privacy and seclusion than apartments, it was frequently noted in female-oriented articles that courts were ‘uncommonly safe’ places to live.”
The Dude’s encounter with a couple of misguided goons was, after all, not based on a true story.
In San Diego, as in other Southern California communities, bungalow courts were most frequently built along or within a few blocks of public transportation, which in the mid-1920s meant streetcar lines. Such was certainly the case in Ocean Beach, which was repeatedly referred to by Page & Turnbull as a “streetcar suburb.”
As you will no doubt recall, OB was so remote by early 20th-century standards that there were very few year-round residents before Charlie Collier brought the Point Loma Railroad to town in 1909. Within a year, over 100 families called Ocean Beach home and there were listings for several OB businesses.
The streetcar was certainly a loss leader for Collier, but his business, of course, was real estate.
Bungalow courts may be any of several architectural styles: Pueblo, Spanish eclectic, Craftsman, Ranch, Mayan — believe it or not — and in many cases what is referred to as Minimal-Traditional.
Frequently you will see a duplex or triplex across the back of the lot creating a U-shaped court. Curtis and Ford referred to this arrangement as a “proper” bungalow court because, let’s face it — if you’ll allow me — “this is not ‘Nam, there are rules.”
Without such a rear building, the court would be described as an open court. The bungalows do not all necessarily have to be detached units. Many courts feature two duplexes on each side of the court, sometimes described as semi-detached units.
Earlier bungalow courts had no parking, but many later courts featured garages or carports in the rear of the property, along an alley if there was one, and frequently supporting one or two apartments above. You’ve seen plenty of these.
This L-shaped half court on Cape May Avenue in Ocean Beach faces another, dissimilar half court. (Eric DuVall)
There are many half bungalow courts, particularly in Ocean Beach. These are frequently in what is described as an “L” shape with a rear building and several detached or semi-detached bungalows along one side of the property, sometimes staggered toward the rear of the lot. These half courts still feature a common court or yard on which all the units front. The walkway or court in all cases runs more or less perpendicular to the street or sidewalk, and never is there parking in front.
A diagram depicts attached staggered and traditional L-shaped detached half bungalow courts. (City of San Diego)
There are many combinations of these several layouts, depending of the width of the lot. Frequently a U-shaped court will have an additional half court on one or both sides. Often on the short end of the block there will be three or four adjacent bungalows, all of which face the sidewalk and represent another type of half court. Also, frequently one half court will face another half court that may not have been built at the same time and was originally or always has been a separate property.
Another variation is the apartment court, which is just what it sounds like — two or three typically two-story buildings with one or two units up and down, usually on three sides of a courtyard open to the street or sidewalk. There are several very nice apartment courts in OB.
This U-shaped Ranch-style apartment court on Bacon Street in Ocean Beach made the cover of the city of San Diego’s Historic Context Statement in 2021. (Eric DuVall)
You will also see courts that once were single-family homes on a double lot, which in later years acquired several bungalows, forming a hybrid type of court that may not qualify as an actual bungalow court under some guidelines.
This was the situation at a place on Saratoga Avenue that a couple of my associates and I rented the summer we got out of high school. Oh, yes. There were (and still are) three bungalows in front on the sidewalk, a two-bedroom house and two more bungalows facing it in the central courtyard and our place in the rear. Three 18-year-old-guys in a one-bedroom apartment above some garages. What could possibly go wrong there?
It cost $150 a month, which we split three ways. We were all gainfully employed, so as you may imagine, the good times rolled. I should probably report that my mom was none too pleased with that development. And keep this to yourself, but she may have learned of our enterprise from someone other than the son in question. Woops.
For their feature in the Journal of San Diego History, Curtis and Ford surveyed Sanborn Fire Maps for the pre-WWII period, looking at central San Diego with the glaring exception of what they called “the then-remote beach communities.” (Beach communities had not been remote for two decades by that point, but let’s press on.)
They counted 278 “proper” bungalow courts and 158 half courts. They reported that slightly more than half of the identified courts were of the classic traditional detached bungalow style. They also found that very few of the courts were more than three blocks from one of the streetcar lines.
Curtis and Ford then conducted a canvass of the area looking in on each of the courts they had identified. They found the bungalow courts’ “survival rate” to be impressive, and this was almost 50 years later.
“Nearly 80% (217) of the courts were still intact and the vast majority of these appeared to be in excellent condition, with only a handful in disrepair. Most of the losses were attributable to locations along major commercial (streetcar) streets, with nearly one-third being redeveloped for retail centers. Nearly half of the 61 redeveloped sites now had large apartment/condominium projects, with the remaining losses due to freeway construction and downtown expansion. If indeed the staying power of a particular kind of housing is one measure of the success of that housing, then these results would seem to confirm that bungalow courts work. Their persistence alone is a testament to their success.”
In recent years, surveys of bungalow courts have been taken on in University Heights, Hillcrest and North Park. Ocean Beach has yet to be surveyed. Looking at a Google Earth aerial of OB, I counted upward of 80 and probably closer to 100 full and half bungalow courts. I am not saying those are all legit, but it seems an impressive number and certainly worthy of further investigation.
The city’s Historic Context Statement highlights a couple of Ocean Beach properties that it says would not be considered real bungalow courts for several reasons. One of these courts at the corner of Saratoga Avenue and Bacon Street has six bungalows that Page & Turnbull claims have no central court. It also alleges the front door of one bungalow faces the back door of the next. It includes two photos of this court.
But that information is sadly inaccurate. It makes the mistake of assuming that the Saratoga Avenue side is the front of the court, when in fact the court faces Bacon Street and the old Point Loma Railroad and San Diego Electric Railway streetcar line. It is a traditional open court with four detached bungalows facing one another and an adjacent half court facing Saratoga. This aggression will not stand, man.
This six-bungalow court on Bacon Street at Saratoga Avenue is a true four-bungalow open court facing the old streetcar line on Bacon Street and an adjacent half court facing Saratoga Avenue. (Eric DuVall)
Curtis and Ford reported that the only other parts of the country where bungalow courts proliferated were South Florida and southern Arizona … what does that mean — Tucson? And in neither of these areas were they anywhere near as prevalent as they came to be in Southern California.
I am happy to report that The Dude’s bungalow court not only remains but has been considerably rehabilitated and re-landscaped in the 27 years since “The Big Lebowski” was released. The place is not in Hollywood though, but in Venice.
What does the future hold for our remaining bungalow courts? To say that they are under attack is an understatement. Bungalow courts form a wonderful part of what the historic preservation community calls naturally occurring affordable housing. Seriously, if you somehow think that any developer would raze existing housing stock of whatever description to build multi-story apartment buildings — with no parking — in the beach area for the purpose of building “affordable housing” — that is to say with cheap rents — you ought to give that another think.
If you are interested in this topic — and who wouldn’t be? — please consider joining the Ocean Beach Historical Society or attend our monthly programs. On Thursday, June 19, at the Water’s Edge Community Center, OBHS hosted a return engagement of architectural historian Diane Kane. Diane’s program, coincidentally, was on San Diego’s bungalow courts. These are always fun, free programs. Come on down.
Eric DuVall is president of the Ocean Beach Historical Society. Thanks to Alana Coons of the Save Our Heritage Organisation, Kristin Harms of the University Heights Historical Society, OBHS board member Kitty McDaniel and Diane Kane for their help with this story. Membership in OBHS, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, is $25 annually. Visit obhistory.org.
