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Tiki Central / Locating Tiki

Del Rosa Palms, San Bernardino, CA (apartments)

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Name:Del Rosa Palms
Type:apartments
Street:2640 Del Rosa Avenue
City:San Bernardino
State:CA
Zip:92404
country:USA
Phone:(909) 556-6753
Status:operational

Description:
Formerly the Del Rosa Isle, this two story apartment complex is located just South of the 210 Fwy.

During the late 90's, I was obsessed with cool signs. I had taken a picture of the sign in front of the Del Rosa Isle Apartments in 1999. I finally got up the nerve to go back and check the place out. It is now the Del Rosa Palms.


It just looked so great that there was no way I wasn't going to find a way in.




After seeing the former fountain, I turned the corner and just about died. There was a massive A-frame structure in the middle of the complex filled with these crazy lamps.


I was not going to miss one square inch of this place. I was checking out the little parking lots around the perimeter and found this guy.

Waaah-OUW! Urban archeology par excellence! Congrats and thank you Kate!
Now everybody can feel the excitement I felt when I set out on my expeditions in the LA Jungle in the 90s. It is funny: While for some folks their interest in Tiki seems to be ebbing off, other are just blossoming, and picking up the Tiki torch to bring Tiki culture discoveries to new heights!

Imagine how this place must have looked with a dozen or so of those Tikis! Damn we gotta find the original owners and get some day one documentation!

These are the same resin flower lamps of which one used to hang in the A-frame of the Kona Kai. And don't ANYONE even think of clipping some, that would be desecrating an active Tiki temple!

cool find Kate,

reminds me of how the Kings Kauai apts in Santa Ana should have looked when I was a baby.

Jeff(bigtikidude)

T

Today I learned that the Del Rosa Isle Apartments opened in 1962.

I went to the public library and looked through the old phone books. The folks at the library were so excited that someone actually wanted to do research. They jumped right in to help me look.

I've still got a lot more digging to do.

T

I finally found the picture that I took of the Del Rosa Isle sign. Nothing to write home about, but it was pretty cool for San Bernardino in 1999.

aloha tiki-kate, this is a major urban archaeological discovery in my opinion. Great job! Keep up the good work. If i was on this expedition and turned the corner to see that Tiki i think i would have fell over and died! If you would have discovered king tuts tomb you would have discovered no more that this!
happy hunting!
abstractiki

T

On 2008-05-06 12:00, bigtikidude wrote:
cool find Kate,

reminds me of how the Kings Kauai apts in Santa Ana should have looked when I was a baby.

Jeff(bigtikidude)

Oh my goodness - it does remind me of Kings Kauai Apts in Santa Ana - would love to find a pic of those - my family lived there for about a year and a half when I was in junior high.

March 27, 1965

'A carport for every canoe'

May 3, 1964

May 3, 1964

April 26, 1964

Tiki Apartment Buildings.....LOVE finding new follow-up information and pictures to Kate's original discovery!

Great stuff, Mike, as always!

Very cool. You even got the opening day. May 3, 1964.

I don't recall that tiki carver, "Ramar", being mentioned previously anywhere here on TikiCentral. Am I wrong?

Pages: 1 10 replies