Originally named Ramon Rise Estates in the 1950s, the development earned its first name from the original developers, including George Goldberg, based on the neighborhood's northern boundary of Ramon Road. It is unknown where the word "rise" is derived. The word "estates" was commonly used at the time in many new neighborhood developments.
The Alexander Construction Company re-branded the Alexander tract portion of the neighborhood as Enchanted Village when their homes were for sale beginning in 1957. This name was used in marketing brochures and newspaper advertisements.
Anecdotal history suggests the nickname Little Beverly Hills evolved in the 1980s as most of our streets are named after their counterparts 100 miles west in Beverly Hills. By the early-1990s and into the 2000s the name was being used in newspaper real estate advertisements.
With the name in common use, the Little Beverly Hills Neighborhood Organization was officially recognized by the City of Palm Springs in November 2014 and was subsequently incorporated as a Corporation by the founding residents in 2016.
In February 1954, George Goldberg, Thomas White, and Maurice Horner purchased a 40-acre tract from an Agua Caliente tribal member and named the tract Ramon Rise Estates with 84 lots for homes plus 22 additional lots, fronting Ramon Road, intended to be developed into commercial buildings.
Samuel Sontag (former owner of Sontag Drugstores), Goldberg (a national hotel owner) and Jack Meiselman (a builder), through their entity Songold Land Development Company, built the first 20 homes. They were located on El Cielo Road and Canon Drive and built between October 1956 and March 1957; priced between $14,000 and $16,000. The architect is undocumented; however, it is possible that Jack Meiselman was involved in the design although he was not an architect.
In late 1955, the remaining 64 lots were acquired by George Alexander and Joe (J.C.) Dunas (through their entity Beverly-Oakhurst Apartments). Along with Duane Tjomsland, Alexander and Dunas, through their entity Alexander Construction Company, built the remaining 64 homes between July 1957 and February 1958; priced between $18,950 and $19,775. These homes were marketed as Enchanted Village. The architecture firm of Palmer & Krisel created floor plans in January 1956 and January 1957 with the later one being used; now known as the Ramon Rise floorplan. This 3 bed, 2 bath floorplan was subsequently used in Enchanted home developments in Sunmor and Sunrise Park. Palmer & Krisel also designed one of the five elevations used in the Alexander tract - the Enchantment (flat roof elevation). It is believed that designers other than Palmer & Krisel were involved with designing four of the five final home exteriors. The Desert Sun noted in 1958 that homes in what would become the Sunmor tract “are designed by the prominent architect Richard Leitch.” As the facades of two elevations in both neighborhoods are very similar, they are likely by the same hand.
There were five exterior styles created; El Dorado, Enchantment, Fiesta, Fleetwood and Suburba, with the model homes all located on Compadre Road. (Note the El Dorado elevation was not built as a model home).
Eighteen of the remaining 22 lots were developed in 1978 as The Palms condominium complex. The remaining four lots fronting El Cielo from Ramon to Camino Parocela were used to build the now Casa del Cielo apartment complex in 1978 by the Francis Markley Company.
The Palm Springs City Council adopted a resolution in 2008 to create a neighborhood blade sign program as a way to "help foster a sense of pride in one's neighborhood as well as a sense of belonging." ONE-PS was granted responsibility for administering the program. Today, more than 660 of these colorful graphics sit atop street signs in 37 neighborhoods.
Blade signs define neighborhood borders, communicate character, and identify ONE-PS member organizations. They reveal insights into our past and suggest who we are today. Collectively, they transform broad boulevards into inviting gateways. Since their inception, neighborhood blade signs have grown in stature from ornament to icon and now symbolize the best of what we love about our city.
The Little Beverly Hills Neighborhood Organization blade sign pays homage to Beverly Hills, CA (where many of our street names are derived) by using similar font and images.
Just what is a "blade sign?"
A blade sign is a type of placard mounted on a building façade or pole that generally projects perpendicular to normal traffic flow. They're thought to have been the original retail or pub signs first used in the 14th century to attract passersby to commercial establishments.
The ONE-PS Guide to Palm Springs Neighborhoods, which contains the full list of neighborhood blade signs, is available in many public locations around town or can be purchased online through its publisher, Palm Springs Life.
The Alexander Construction Company created this sales brochure to market their sixty-three homes in Little Beverly Hills, known as Enchanted Village.
Back cover of the original Enchanted Village sales brochure noting the sales prices and terms. Home prices ranged from $18.950 to $19,775 excluding pools which were an additional $3,750.
The interior of the sale brochure shows five models (elevations available). Enchantment, not pictured, was drawn by William Krisel, AIA on January 29, 1957 and is included in the Krisel's archives at the Getty Museum. 640 Compadre Rd is the Enchantment elevation model home. The other four elevations pictured are not included in Krisel's archives and are believed to have been drawn by Richard Leitch, FAIA, as two of the four elevations were later used in Alexander tracts in Sunrise Park where Leitch is credited.
Special thanks to 3rd generation homeowner David Hyams who provided this document from his grandfather's records. His grandparents were the original homeowners.
The "Ramon Rise" floorplan, drawn by Krisel on January 28, 1957 is part of Krisel's collection housed at the Getty Museum. Note, this was the second floor plan designed by Krisel for use. The first one was abandoned likely due to construction costs as the kitchen was placed where the carport is located. The approximately 1,200 square foot layout of the second floorplan (used for the Enchanted Village) clustered the kitchen near the bathrooms maximizing gas and water line runs and would have been less expensive to build.
The only print advertisement for the Enchanted Village was published in The Desert Sun on July 18, 1957 and August 7, 1957. The ad denotes that Enchanted Village was built to house the "area's permanent residents with the utmost in living pleasure at a REASONABLE price" meaning middle-class, full-time working residents unlike the second home neighborhoods that were being built at the same time like Twin Palms.
The SonGold Land Development tract along El Cielo and Cannon were among the first affordable homes for permanent residents in Palm Springs to offer swimming pools. The pool contractor, Riviera's Mermaid Pool, offered 14-1/2 by 27 feet pools for the very affordable price of $1,795.
The pools were placed strategically on the lot behind the carport to allow for maximum open space in the backyards.
Interestingly, George Goldberg served as treasurer of the pool company. Goldberg, therefore, earned multiple income streams from the development of the initial homes in Ramon Rise Estates including sales of the homes, pools and the remaining lots to George Alexander.
The Paddock Pool Company was the preferred pool vendor for the Alexander Construction Company in both the Enchanted Village tract in our neighborhood as well as their other projects in at least Twin Palms, Sunmor, Sunrise Park and Vista Las Palmas.
The Alexander Construction Company offered pools for an additional cost of $3,750. The rounded rectangular pools were large, 16 by 32 feet, at minimum depths of seven feet. Original pool equipment was buried in a pit near the deep end and included an A.O. Smith heater.
The furnished model home at 640 Compadre Rd still retains the original medallion that was embedded in the coping when the pool was constructed in 1957. The homeowners restored and placed the medallion back in the same place when they renovated the pool. Interestingly, the original medallion was brass as pictured above in the original restored medallion.
The Palms condominium complex is part of the Little Beverly Hills Neighborhood Organization fronted by Ramon Road to the North, Compadre Rd to the West and Theresa Dr to the South. Originally conceived as the Tumanjan Apartment Complex (named after the project's developer: Tumanjan & Tumanjan Investments, Inc.) the name was adapted to The Palms Apartment Village during the planning and marketing phases.
The complex, constructed in 1978, was designed by the last living great modernist architects - Hugh Kaptur, AIA. Kaptur noted in a December 1, 1978 The Desert Sun article that “the optical effect the buildings project is an illusion of planes opening outward" with an obvious nod and reference to nearby Palm Springs International Airport. Tumanjan referred to the design as clustered in a village with angled roofs of geometric design seeming to open to the sun.
Jens Holm of Pride Landscaping was awarded the contract to design a landscape for The Palms apartment village with a theme of “desert garden" according to The Desert Sun article on May 11, 1979.
Monthly rent started at $500 (and quickly rose to $575 in other advertisements) and included access to all the sporting amenities on-site. Ten penthouse apartments, dubbed the "Wimbledon Penthouses" offered two and three bedroom layouts. Initial penthouse tenants were offered the opportunity to color coordinate their unit.
Shortly after renting began, the apartment complex was converted to condominiums and The Palms Homeowners Association was incorporated on August 12, 1980.
Harriet Oettinger Parsons (1906 – 1983) was an American film producer, actress, director, and magazine writer; one of the few female producers in the United States at the time. She and her partner, Janet Wolfson, resided at 613 Beverly Dr. Parsons was the daughter of the famous Hollywood gossip columnist, Louella Parsons.
Among the more notable films produced by Harriet Parsons were ''I Remember Mama'' (1948); ''Enchanted Cottage'' (1945); ''Clash By Night'' (1952); ''Never A Dull Moment (1952), and ''Susan Slept Here'' (1954). Before becoming a movie producer, Harriet Parsons was a screen and magazine writer. She had her own radio program, ''Hollywood Highlights,'' in 1938.
Louella Parsons was the first American movie columnist and was retained by William Randolph Hearst because she had championed Hearst's mistress, Marion Davies. Louella subsequently became an influential figure in Hollywood. At her peak, her columns were read by 20 million people in 400 newspapers worldwide. Louella remained the unchallenged “Queen of Hollywood gossip” until the arrival of the flamboyant Hedda Hopper, with whom she feuded for years.
This home has also hosted various celebrities and Coachella performers like Solange Knowles and Goldroom.
Dr. Lowell John Bean (pictured to the left) was well regarded within the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians having been honored by former Tribal Chairman Richard Milanovich (right) for his work. Dr. Bean arrived in the desert in 1958 as a graduate of anthropology from UCLA and spent his life learning (and writing) about the Cahuilla people's customs and culture.
Dr. Bean once said, “historians, the public, and even anthropologists had viewed the California Indians as simplistic, primitive people. And they weren’t. It turned out these were very complex cultures with beautiful music, epic poetry, sophisticated social organization, and philosophical systems.”
Dr. Bean went on to write about all of those subjects in scores of books and papers, as well as matriculate to a teaching position at California State University, Hayward.
In 2008, Milanovich presented him with a ceremonial blanket traditionally given to important elders saying, “Dr. Bean, you have our respect and gratitude.”
Dr. Bean lived in Little Beverly Hills for the last thirty-four years.
This home was owned by Arnold "Buddy" Gillespie in the early 1960's. Gillespie was a special effects artist for MGM from 1925-1962 and was nominated for thirteen Academy Awards including for The Wizard of Oz, Mrs. Miniver, Mutiny on the Bounty (1962), and won for his work on Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo, Dolphin Street, and Ben Hur (1959). His career with MGM spanned the 1925 and 1959 versions of Ben Hur and the 1935 and 1962 versions of Mutiny on the Bounty.
Actors Stacy Keach and his wife Jill Donahue lived at 690 Compadre Rd during their marriage from 1981-1986.
Keach is an American actor who was active in theatre, film and television since the 1960s. He was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for his performance in Authur Kopit's 1969 production of Indians. He appeared in films such as Fat City, Up in Smoke, Nice Dreams, among others. Donohue is known for appearing in 13 Demon St, Winter A-Go-Go and Burke's Law.
This Alexander home (Suburba elevation) was originally owned by three time Olympic medalist Parry O'Brien. O'Brien won the gold medal in shot put twice in 1952 and then again in 1956 (just prior to owning the home). He also won the silver medal in 1960. O'Brien was inducted into the IAAF and US Olympic halls of fame. Interestingly, he attended the University of Southern California at the same time as Robert Alexander and William Krisel.
This home was originally owned by Antone (Tony) Dalu. Dalu was a prominent interior and landscape designer who was a contemporary of famed Palm Springs interior designer Arthur Elrod. Records show Dalu doing business in Palm Springs as early as 1954 and by 1957 he was working with the Alexander Construction Company. He was the interior designer for their Ocotillo Lodge and staged the Enchanted Village model home located at 640 Compadre Rd in Little Beverly Hills. Dalu later worked with architect Hugh Kaptur, AIA, who designed The Palm Condos, also located in Little Beverly Hills.
Alta Lee Davis (and her husband Roy) lived at 692 Roxbury Dr until her death in 2020. While Mrs. Davis’ name may not be well known today, she was the Executive Assistant to Arthur Elrod, the famed interior designer. Ms. Davis began working with Elrod in 1954, the year that he started his design firm in Palm Springs, and was employed for thirty-one years including approximately ten years after Elrod’s death when Steve Chase co-ran the Arthur Elrod Interior Design following his death.
John (and Mary) Seamans was the original owner of this home. John was a real estate agent representing the Alexander Construction Company for at minimum the Enchanted Village tract in Ramon Rise Estates (now Little Beverly Hills) - meaning that he not only sold the Alexander tract homes in the neighborhood but also resided here. Real estate advertisements of this period reveal an office at 3175 East Ramon Road which was likely a temporary building as that address no longer exists (located on property now comprising The Palms Condos).
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