San Pedro homes, up close
The oldest residential blocks sit right above the harbor and they have not been rebuilt. Vinegar Hill holds houses put up between 1886 and 1927 — Queen Anne, American Foursquare, Craftsman — and Vista del Oro and the streets near Averill Park fill in the twenties through the fifties with Spanish and California bungalows. Original woodwork, picture rails, transoms and unsealed fir floors are ordinary here, not a feature somebody added.
The terrain does the rest. Streets climb hard between the waterfront and Point Fermin, driveways are short or nonexistent, and plenty of houses put the garage below the living floor with a run of exterior steps up to the door. Marine air off the harbor keeps window frames damp and puts a salt haze on anything facing the water. We plan a visit around the steps and the sills as much as the square footage.
The building stock here
Expect 1,200 to 2,000 square feet on two levels, built before 1955, with original detail intact more often than not: fir or oak floors, wood casings, hexagonal bathroom tile, sometimes leaded glass. Foundations are raised rather than slab, so floors flex and dust settles in the register grilles. Hillside lots add exterior stairs and split entries. Down by the water, mid-century apartments and condos around Point Fermin add a lighter, faster kind of visit to the mix.