Palm Trees

Where ever you see a tall palm tree in Lower Ocean, it is likely in the front yard of a house nearly
a century old, or on the site of one.

In front of the Riverside Hotel, the Barsons planted a wide hedge ring, with a palm tree in the center of it. This photo does not show that palm.

I believe that center palm still grows, in one of the last lots remaining undeveloped after the 1945 subdivision. Another palm still grows on Barson St. When planted, it was not on a street, but on a path that led down to the riverbank.

Scroll down to see more about palms.

Across the street from 96 Riverside at Barson and Riverside is a tall date palm. There appears to be something like a palm tree in this c.1918 photograph of Hazel Netherton
in her front yard. .

The house directly across the street from 96 Riverside in this photograph still exists, although remodeled and elevated. The house on the corner is gone, but there are two very similar to it in the middle of the block.

This postcard is a nice view of the gardens, showing the roses, and a century plant. This kind of turn of the century landscaping seems a very "Californian " garden, where a familiar flower (the rose) co-exists peacefully with an exotic desert monster (the yucca) and a citrus.

This palm grows next to one of the oldest houses on my block. Similar palms grow further down Broadway, between Campbell and Clay.

These two Washingtonias are one of the more prominant natural features of the Lower Ocean neighborhood. They grow at the corner of Broadway and Ocean.

These beautiful palms grow on the 800 block of Riverside.

There are many other palms in Lower ocean. This photo from Ocean and Broadway looking south shows some Barson Street palms on the horizon.