Heim Dental Building – 2025

The Heim Dental Building represents the farthest advance at the time in locating professional buildings up Cajon Street and away from the downtown area. Many of these new offices were medical and dental buildings. The building is the second on this site.

The Heim building, created for dentists Dr. Lawrence Heim and Dr. Robert Heim, father and son, was designed by a third member of the family, Lawrence A. Heim.

The offices were completed in 1959 by Swedish-born contractor Swen Larson before he became Redlands council member and mayor. Joseph Harrison, builder of many fallout shelters in the city, did the masonry. The original landscaping was completed by Dangermond’s Nursery.

The first building at this location was a house built in the 1890s for W.L. Rider and featured in Souvenir of Redlands in 1898. The house was converted into four apartments in 1945 and demolished in 1958.

For the new offices, fashionable mid-century indoor–outdoor fluidity was achieved by extensive use of glass on the west and south sides facing Cajon Street and Home Place, screened by perforated concrete blocks for privacy and sun control. Efficient heating and cooling in the early days of central air conditioning was and is still essential, as the exterior windows are fixed.

Along with rooms for two dental chairs in each suite, original features included two sets of darkrooms; laboratories for the construction of dentures, gold inlays and bridgework; and facilities for autoclave (hot) and chemical (cold) sterilization of instruments. Equipment was cutting-edge for the time, including high-speed drills powered by compressed air that also operated vacuum tubes for keeping the drilling area clear. An intercom system included AM/FM radio.

The waiting area, with its original honey-beige and cocoa color scheme, retains original block wall surfaces with panels of walnut-stained birch and glass. Blueprints show a third suite extending east along Home Place. That suite was never built. First owner Dr. Lawrence Heim (1904–1995) graduated from Redlands High School in 1922 and attended the University of Redlands and the University of Southern California, graduating in 1929. He returned to

Redlands to practice. Heim served as president of the Tri-County Dental Association and was a member of the executive council of the Southern California Dental Association. He was the son of August and Estelle Heim. August Heim owned a motorcycle shop on State Street and later a hardware store in the building that eventually became Carlson’s Hardware (the currently vacated Romano’s restaurant) on Orange Street.

His wife, Marjorie Heim, was on the Redlands Planning Commission. The Heims lived at 910 Walnut Street, at the corner of Pacific Street. Mrs. Heim died in 2000.

The couple’s younger son, architect Larry Heim (b. 1933), designed the building as one of his first professional projects. A 1951 RHS grad, he was an all-CIF swimmer and held all the backstroke records in the Pacific Coast Conference. Larry Heim graduated from Stanford University in 1955 and lived in Palo Alto at the time of construction. Larry Heim currently lives in Hawaii.

According to Larry Heim’s son, also Larry Heim (Lawrence Stewart Heim), in an email in October 2024:

I recall him [his architect father] being proud of it because it allegedly was one of the first projects he did after graduating from Stanford. In the early days (mid-’60s) when we would visit Redlands from our then-home in Menlo Park, he would drive us by the building and joke that it was “the most beautiful building in Redlands!” with a wry laugh. As kids we were not fond of the building because we associated it with the unpleasant experience of having Gramps inspect our teeth in his matter-of-fact way.

Elder son Dr. Robert Heim (b. 1930), RHS Class of 1948, graduated from the University of Colorado in 1952. He served two years as a dental technician in the U.S. Navy, graduated from USC in 1958 and practiced in Riverside before joining his father at their new quarters in September 1959. His wife was the former Carolyn Cunningham, a 1955 U of R graduate and later teacher at Father Peter’s Boys Home in Redlands. Carolyn Heim died in 2013. Robert Heim lives in San Clemente. Prior to opening the new offices, Dr. Lawrence Heim’s practice was located on East Vine Street, the current site of the City of Redlands offices.

Karen E. Dahlgren, DDS, purchased the practice with her husband, Laurence E. Dahlgren, from the younger Dr. Heim in 1997, and the building in about 2004. At that time, the two dental suites still had darkrooms and labs. Much of this original equipment remains in storage. Although in need of repairs and updating at the time of purchase, Dr. Dahlgren says the building was welcoming, intimate and home-like. Dr. Dahlgren likes the plentiful windows and natural light, and that each room has the feeling of a garden view.

Modernization was a challenge, with wiring and tubing run under the floors. Dr. Dahlgren’s darkroom, though mostly used for storage, still has its red safety light housed in its original 1950s kitchen-style ceiling fixture. New cupboards have been installed to match the existing joinery. Originally the waiting area featured one reception desk for both suites – Dr. Heim Sr. treated mostly adults and Dr. Heim, Jr. focused on children – but sometime after Dr. Henry W. Mercado took over the senior Heim’s suite in 1978, another reception desk was added. A new garden area was added to the rear in 2007. The low roofline’s board fascia with a vertical board-and-batten design was replaced with shingles in 2004. The original, turquoise-colored front door was painted with a neutral tone. Dr. Robert S. Heim’s name remains at the front of the building.

The Redlands Area Historical Society congratulates the Dahlgrens on their 2025 Heritage Award and for their stewardship of the building for 28 years.

 Research by Gregg Schroeder presented on June 11, 2025.