For Christmas I received a great book,
Weird U.S.: Your Travel Guide to America's Local Legends and Best Kept Secrets by Mark Moran and Mark Sceurman. Immediately I flipped through it to find anything about San Diego, and soon came across the legend of Midgetville.
Midgetville refers to the legend of a town consisting of scaled-down houses built for little people. Midgetville is said to exist in various places throughout America. As Moran and Sceurman note, the most credible rumor locates such a town in
Jefferson Township, New Jersey, on the former estate of circus mogul Alfred T. Ringling. There really is a collection of small-sized houses there that could conceivably have once been home to a colony of midgets. However, another
very persistent legend locates a Midgetville in San Diego.
Moran and Sceurman don't go into much detail about the San Diego Midgetville, but I realized that I had heard this legend before (my wife had also heard it). This is how it goes: back in the 1930s a group of little people who had made a lot of money in Hollywood appearing in movies such as
The Wizard of Oz supposedly came down to San Diego and built a collection of miniature houses on Mt. Soledad where they could live in comfort together. But of course, nobody seems to know exactly where on Mt. Soledad this group of small houses was or is, though everybody has heard of a "friend of a friend" who once accidentally found the houses (though this FOAF can never remember how to get back there).
Determined to find the houses, I did a google search and came across
an article from 2003 written by Kenneth Smith for the
Daily Aztec detailing his own efforts to track down San Diego's fabled 'Munchkin Houses'. After many false starts, he finally discovered that they were most probably "a group of four cottages on Hillside Drive in La Jolla... built by
famed architect Cliff May." Although no midgets or little people were ever known to live in these houses, Smith says that, "The houses do indeed have smallish features, accentuated by an optical illusion. The steep road that passes them makes them seem even smaller than they actually are." Unfortunately only one of the four cottages remains standing, but Smith provides directions to find it: "take Hillside Drive from Torrey Pines Road. The house will be on your left-hand side. Look for the crazy midget handwriting." He also mentions that if you peek through the window (the house is unoccupied) you'll see "cobblestone-like tiled floors and a little round fireplace."
Of course, I had to see this for myself, even if no colony of Wizard-of-Oz midgets had ever lived there. So on New Year's Day I convinced my wife to accompany me on a search for the Munchkin House. The results were mixed. It was no problem finding Hillside Drive, but as it turns out Hillside Drive is fairly long. We were driving up and down it (as a line of cars formed behind us) wondering 'exactly which house on the left did he mean.' None of the houses leaps out at you and screams 'Munchkin House.' But finally we settled on one house that we figured must be it: Seventy-Four Seventy-Seven Hillside Drive. It had
small windows and a small door. Plus, the address written beside the door looked a bit like
'crazy midget handwriting' (though I think Smith was joking about this). Ignoring the
'No Trespassing' sign (even though part of the legend of Midgetville is that the midgets who live there fiercely defend their land from the Bigs), I peeked through the window and saw the
cobblestone-like tiled floors and a little round fireplace. So I think I found the Munchkin House, though I'm not 100% sure. It's certainly not anything that would catch your attention if you weren't specifically looking for it since it's really not that small, which made the trip a bit disappointing. But the weird thing is, I've already forgotten how to get back there.
Comments
We are all a bunch of normal people, nobody under five feet!
and theres probly a more then few in Cali i dont no anything about em tho.
We have yet to encounter an actual midget.. but the rampantly tiny doorknobs and gates suggest the truth.
also in this general area, 'the nightmare on elm street' and 'donnie darko' houses are located.
Egore's alley anyone?
in wisconsin.
there is a place called haunchyville in Muskego wisconsin on Mystic Drive.
a bunch of midgets live down there.
scary as hell let me tell.
By any chance has anyone seen The Terror of Tiny Town? It was made in the 1930's and features a full midget cast. I got my bf his on ebay for like 8 bucks. That movie is awesome. Little midgets riding around in there midget ponys.
I wonder if this is the same town they used in the movie? The midgets on there were pretty creepy but I still made it a point to play some parts in slow motion...sooo funny!
The houses don't look very mini. Other than the small gates and relatively smaller doors and trash cans, everything looks normal
Good luck!!!
I would love to full story sourrounding this. But I actually saw the village and its compact populous.
You know, I spent 20 years establishing my art career in New Orleans... a place with many essentric folks... but they ain't got nothing on my Texas... were a lovely bunch of nuts here and I love it 😊
Smiles, Tommy G Thompson
:[[
i went there tonight
and i saw what every said is true
one is located in claremont CALIFORNIA and this lady quards the entrance and she chases out people that come any where near her house.
we got chased by her van and we all think that she is a ghost becuase she dissapears once she sees you get far away from her house
http://maps.google.com/maps?ie=UTF8&oe=UTF-8&q=N+Virginia+Rd+@33.838890,+-118.19685&ll=33.838953,-118.196596&spn=0.000847,0.001824&t=k&z=19&iwloc=addr&om=1
All of the information I could gather online about this "Midget Town" in long beach, directed me here
http://maps.google.com/maps?ie=UTF8&oe=UTF-8&q=N+Virginia+Rd+@33.838890,+-118.19685&ll=33.838953,-118.196596&spn=0.000847,0.001824&t=k&z=19&iwloc=addr&om=1
I drove out there with a friend. When you get to the end of the road you hit a security gate. There's no indication that there is anything spectacular beyond the gate. The only thing that rubbed me suspicious were signs indicating that I was being filmed. All this security for a gate that appears to lead to a golf course? I had my truck at the parked at the security gate no longer than 30 seconds. I threw it in reverse and headed back out to park in the neighbourhood near the golf course. On my way out security was already driving a golf cart down the road from the country club to give me the boot. I parked in Bixby Knowles and jumped the fence to the golf course. I walked literally from one side of the golf course to the other. There are no little houses down the aforementioned gated driveway. There are however some very large very nice expensive homes down that driveway. Look at the areal shot from google maps do you see a small home in there? It was about 12:15 AM all of the homes had their lights off. I didn't think to check to see if the door knobs were low to the ground. My friend and I got sprayed with reclaimed water while evading a security guard. Honestly there are no gingerbread houses with dwarfs singing songs in there. No little houses either. There are very LARGE fancy homes down this secretive private driveway. If midgets live there they have serious loot. They also employ security that monitors the gates at the entrance of the road very well. In my opinion these stories about the long beach midget town are all BS. Anyone who says they have been there and seen a little house is full of crap. I'll drive in during the day and check to see if the knobs are low but really I don't care if little people live in those big houses. I really wanted to see a bunch of little houses. All of the knuckleheads that say that there are little homes in Bixby Knowles are liars spreading an urban legend. If I'm wrong then post the latitude and longitude of the long beach midget town. When I see a little house I'll apologize to you and shout from the top of signal hill that "(insert name here) is the master of the universe."
oh and mystic is off of woods for all those needing directions.