Ocean View Subdivision
The Ocean View Subdivision was a section of a larger piece of property owned by Samuel L. Keefer and called the Keefer Addition. When this section was opened with much fanfare in 1887, it was referred to as the Ocean View Subdivision of the Keefer Addition because on a clear day (a common occurrence in the 1880s compared to now) the Pacific Ocean could be seen from several parts of the subdivision.
The Ocean View Subdivision is bounded on the north by East Hillcrest Avenue, on the east by North Canyon Blvd., the south by Greystone Avenue, and on the west by North Myrtle Avenue. The street bisecting Block A is North Encinitas. The street between Blocks A and B is North Ivy Avenue. The street bisecting Block B is May Avenue. The subdivision, because of its distance from downtown Monrovia and its steep streets, was slow at first to be developed. A few of the more wealthy Monrovians built Victorian homes there. Probably the most prominent one still there today is located at 336 N. Ivy Avenue.
At the turn of the last century, however, and with the advent of the automobile in the 1920s, the Ocean View Subdivision began to be populated by middle class families. The property was still far enough away from downtown Monrovia to be reasonably priced, and the automobile made the downtown more accessible to people who worked and shopped there. The architecture that can be seen in this subdivision is primarily folk Victorian, Craftsman, and other vernacular styles such as one-story Colonial and Spanish revival homes. In the northern part of the subdivision there are more modern houses from the 1960s.