A British-born architect whose name we associate with the Arts and Crafts movement designed the house that Girls Inc. of the Island City call home today.

Ernest Albert Coxhead was born in 1863 in the English seaside town of Eastbourne, about 70 miles south London. He and his five siblings — Ernest was the fourth oldest — lived a peripatetic existence. They moved frequently as their mother, Mary, watched over them and their father, William, eked out a living as a schoolmaster. The family lived a more settled way of life after William took a job as a boarding house keeper.

California home sales fell in February, but housing inventory increased as sellers gear up for the spring home-buying season, the California Association of Realtors (C.A.R.) reported on March 17.

Closed escrow sales of existing, single-family detached homes in California totaled a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 361,210 in February, according to information from more than 90 local Realtor associations and MLSs statewide. February marked the fourth straight month that sales were below the 400,000 level and the seventh straight decline on a year-over-year basis.