The Street Seen: Archer House
245 Hill Street @ 3rd St
The 2-story single-family residential building on the northwest corner of Hill and 3rd St is built in 1900 by Ocean Park pioneer Alvin Archer. The house is one of the oldest surviving buildings in the Third Street Neighborhood Historic District.
In 1900, Alvin Archer1 acquires the 51.5-ft x 130-ft vacant lot on the northwest corner of Hill and 3rd St.2
In 1900, Archer builds a 2-story American Colonial Revival style house (245 Hill St) on the property.
The residence is an American foursquare at its simplest - a box-like building, balloon-framed,3 sheathed with narrow clapboard siding and capped by a hipped roof. A flat-roof porch is added between 1902 and 1909.4
Alvin and Louetta5 Archer live in the house until 1923, and then after the death of Alvin, Louetta till 1947.
After the death of Louetta Archer in 1956, the property is acquired by the Ocean Park Methodist Church. In 1962, the building houses the offices of the Ocean Park Community Center. It is later used as a parsonage.
Alvin N. Archer (1844 - 1923). Born in ME, Archer marries Sophia Elizabeth Runnells (1845 – 1923) in 1863. He joins the Union Army in 1863 and is wounded in VA in 1864. Between 1864 and 1870, they have four children. In 1877, Archer (separated from his family) is in Larkin, Midland, MI, working for the Flint & Pere Marquette Railway. In 1879, he is farming in Madison, SD. In 1891, he comes west to OR, and then in 1892 to Ocean Park.
In 1892, Archer (47) marries Louetta Litch (20) in Santa Monica and they have four children:- Beulah June Archer (1893 - 1978), the first child born of American parents in Ocean Park; Reed McKinley Archer (1895 - 1972); Glen Everette Archer (1900 - 1981); and Altha Fern Archer (1906 - 1984).
In 1892, for $200, Archer acquires 3 lots on the west side of 2nd St between Norman and Hill. He builds a house on the northwest corner of 2nd & Hill lot. In 1894, he builds the Ocean Park YMCA auditorium near the beach. In 1897, he is the Ocean Park agent of the Santa Fe Railroad Company. In 1899, Ocean Park postmaster Osborn arranges for Archer to transfer the mail between the Ocean Park and the Santa Monica Post Offices (at that time, there is no home delivery of mail). Archer is appointed janitor at the Washington School.
In 1900, Archer resigns his Santa Fe Railroad Company position, and is appointed deputy county clerk for the registration of voters in Ocean Park. Archer sells his lots on 2nd St and builds his 2-story house at Hill and 3rd St. In May 1901, Archer is appointed by Santa Monica to patrol Ocean Park from 2 pm to 12 midnight each day for $50/month - he is Ocean Park’s first uniformed policeman. However, he resigns in December 1901. In 1902, Archer is the founder of Ocean Park’s first volunteer fire brigade (which evolves into Santa Monica Fire Company No. 2) and then serves on the Santa Monica City Fire Commission. Archer is active in local Civil War veterans groups.
The Hill and 3rd St property, lot 8 of Block N of Vawter’s Ocean View Tract, is acquired in 1900 in the name of L.E. Archer.
Archer’s 2nd St properties (Lots 2, 7, and 28 of Block Q of the 1892 Santa Monica Commercial Company Tract) acquired in 1892, are also in L.E. Archer’s name.
Balloon framing uses long, vertical studs that run the full height of the building (usually 2 stories) from the foundation to the roof. This method replaces the earlier, more labor-intensive timber framing and significantly simplifies the construction process. Balloon frame construction, popular in the 19th and early 20th centuries, is rarely used today due to fire vulnerability, insulation challenges, structural weaknesses, and evolving building standards.
L.E. Archer repairs front porch in 1950, and it is rebuilt in 1980.
Louetta Edith Litch Archer (1873 – 1956). Born Chautauqua, NY, Louetta moves with her parents to Larkin, Midland, MI. Her father, Joseph Herbert Litch (1827 – 1881), and her mother, Evelyn Frazier (1842–1884), die, leaving Louetta (11) in 1884 an orphan in the guardianship of A.N. Archer. In Santa Monica in 1892, Louetta marries A.N. Archer. After Alvin dies in 1923, Louetta continues to live at 245 Hill until 1947, when she moves in with her daughter, Beulah June Asimont, at 448 9th St.
