It’s one of Bakersfield’s oldest neighborhoods, and has a mix of homes from grand mansions to modest bungalows. Today’s on KVPR’s Central Valley Roots, the story of the Oleander-Sunset neighborhood.
Located just south of downtown Bakersfield, the generally accepted boundaries include California Avenue on the north, Oak Street on the west, Brundage on the south and Union Avenue on the east. The home of the Drillers, Bakersfield High School, sits just to the north.
Development here began in the late 1880s, with grand homes like the Holtby mansion going all the way back to 1888. The home was later purchased by cotton baron W.B. Camp and given a southern plantation style makeover. The Oleander area developed a “millionaires row” with homes owned by Bakersfield’s power brokers, like Californian editor and publisher Alfred Harrell.
In 1907, Tejon Ranch heir Truxtun Beale donated land for Bakersfield’s first city park at Oleander and Dracena Streets, complete with a Greek amphitheater and a swimming pool.
In 1916, developer Henry J. Brandt subdivided much of the undeveloped land in the area, including the Sunset and Holtby Tracts. Like many communities in the valley, several of these subdivisions had deeds with racially restrictive covenants, forbidding non-whites from buying property there. Today the Oleander-Sunset neighborhood is much more diverse, and is nearly two-thirds Hispanic according to census data. And while much has changed, Beale Park still is the centerpiece of this historic, walkable Bakersfield neighborhood.
