279 NW Cerritos Drive, Palm Springs, CA

Property Description

This 1,884-square-foot, three-bedroom, three-bathroom residence was built by Jack Meiselman in 1954 and represents one of his earlier documented contributions to the Sunrise Park neighborhood in central Palm Springs. The home has remained in single ownership since its construction — a seventy-year tenure that’s unusual even by Palm Springs standards and meaningful for preservation purposes: continuous single-family occupancy often correlates with greater retention of original materials and fewer speculative renovations.

The site orientation is one of the home’s most notable characteristics. A west-facing rear yard captures direct sightlines to the San Jacinto Mountains — a deliberate positioning strategy common to Meiselman’s work in this period, where indoor-outdoor continuity and landscape framing were treated as design fundamentals rather than amenities. A swimming pool reinforces that relationship between the interior and the desert landscape beyond.

The current configuration presents three bedrooms and three bathrooms at 1,884 square feet, consistent with the original floor plan as listed. I’m not sure if the bathroom count reflects original construction or a subsequent addition, because most Meiselman homes had the 3 bed, 2 bath configuration.

The home has received a range of mechanical and envelope upgrades over its lifespan. Plumbing has been updated, the roof has been replaced, and the electrical panel has been brought to current standards. A tankless water heater and dual-pane windows have been installed throughout. Climate control is provided by individually zoned mini-split units in each room — a departure from original forced-air systems, but a functionally sound adaptation to the Palm Springs climate. Tile flooring has been installed in all the rooms, except one bedroom, which we assume has carpeting, but that needs to be confirmed.

Development and Neighborhood Context

Sunrise Park is a mid-century residential neighborhood occupying the central core of Palm Springs, bounded roughly by Sunrise Way to the east and developed primarily during the postwar building surge of the late 1940s through the early 1960s. Meiselman was among the developers active in this district, producing single-family residences that reflected the period’s characteristic desert modernist vocabulary — low profiles, horizontal massing, and deliberate site orientation — without always carrying full architectural attribution to a named designer.

The neighborhood sits at an elevation and position that makes west-facing lots particularly desirable for mountain views, and Meiselman’s siting choices in this area generally reflect an awareness of that geography. Sunrise Park has historically been a neighborhood of owner-occupied single-family homes rather than a master-planned Meiselman tract development, which means individual properties warrant case-by-case documentation rather than treatment as part of a unified development program.

At 1954, this residence predates some of Meiselman’s more documented output in tracts like Park Imperial North and Racquet Club Estates, making it an earlier data point in the Registry’s effort to trace his full arc of development activity in the Valley. Properties with this kind of unbroken ownership history are worth prioritizing for detailed documentation before the chain of custody changes.

Do You Own This Home?

If you’re the current owner of 279 N.W. Cerritos Drive, we’d love to hear from you. The Meiselman Registry is building the most complete historical record of Jack Meiselman’s Palm Springs properties, and homeowners are often our best source of original plans, photographs, and construction history. Claiming your listing is free, and it connects you with a community of people who share your appreciation for this architecture. [Claim This Property →]