Losing Our History
As the Mom of a 3rd Generation Valley Girl, it made me more than a little sad to read Connie Llanos’ piece in the DN today about development superseding the historical preservation of some of the Valley’s most important homes and landmarks.
"In an attempt to revitalize an area, the history and quality of life suffer from overdevelopment," said Richard Hilton, a Valley historian.
Hilton cites the Josef von Sternberg House in Northridge. Designed in 1935, it was regarded as one of the finest pieces of work from modernist architect Richard Neutra. But it was torn down in 1972.
There was also the Valley Music Theater, the area's first performing arts center, which hosted Bob Hope, Jim Morrison and other celebrities. It was demolished to make room for condominiums in 2004.
The Getty Museum has stepped in to help with a $2.5 million grant to undertake a citywide survey on historic sites. An assessment of LA’s preservation work (a Getty-sponsored report) puts the percentage of the city’s geography overlooked by preservationists at roughly 85%.
THE LIST OF SHAME!
Some of the San Fernando Valley's historic structures now LOST TO US FOREVER:
LOST
Joseph Von Sternberg House
Bob's Big Boy Van Nuys
Devonshire Downs
Van Nuys Drive-In
The Valley Music Theater
Chatsworth home of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz
Harrison Gray Otis House
Busch Gardens
Moses Hazeltine's Sherman Oaks home
One of the original Van Nuys homes built by William Paul Whitsett
IN QUESTION
Lankershim Train Depot
Phil's Diner
Weddington House
Eichler Tract in the Balboa Highlands
Oakie Estate
Campo de Cahuenga
"In an attempt to revitalize an area, the history and quality of life suffer from overdevelopment," said Richard Hilton, a Valley historian.
Hilton cites the Josef von Sternberg House in Northridge. Designed in 1935, it was regarded as one of the finest pieces of work from modernist architect Richard Neutra. But it was torn down in 1972.
There was also the Valley Music Theater, the area's first performing arts center, which hosted Bob Hope, Jim Morrison and other celebrities. It was demolished to make room for condominiums in 2004.
The Getty Museum has stepped in to help with a $2.5 million grant to undertake a citywide survey on historic sites. An assessment of LA’s preservation work (a Getty-sponsored report) puts the percentage of the city’s geography overlooked by preservationists at roughly 85%.
THE LIST OF SHAME!
Some of the San Fernando Valley's historic structures now LOST TO US FOREVER:
LOST
Joseph Von Sternberg House
Bob's Big Boy Van Nuys
Devonshire Downs
Van Nuys Drive-In
The Valley Music Theater
Chatsworth home of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz
Harrison Gray Otis House
Busch Gardens
Moses Hazeltine's Sherman Oaks home
One of the original Van Nuys homes built by William Paul Whitsett
IN QUESTION
Lankershim Train Depot
Phil's Diner
Weddington House
Eichler Tract in the Balboa Highlands
Oakie Estate
Campo de Cahuenga
Labels: historical landmarks, san fernando valley
Posted by Debbie @ 3/03/2008 11:04:00 AM
15 Comments:
I attended a recent meeting with someone in the Historic Preservation office which talked about in detail, that very preservation project. What you need to know is that it is a 5 year project and that given the size and number of potential properties involved Los Angeles it will take them a long time to map this stuff out. Lots of the downtown corridors seem to have come first and again, the Valley needs to fight to be heard on this. They are looking for individuals in their communities (via Neighborhood Councils, or other entities) to make them aware of these these "special" places, which can be brought to their attention via entering information on their database (I don't have the web site here right now). With the exception of some sites which are triaged in right before the wrecking ball, communities who want to save these landmarks MUST organize to identify and work with the city and the property owners for solutions before that point. While this is a great project,with good people, it is in fact a huge undertaking which in the long term will be very helpful. But the bottom line is that development is coming in hard and fast, and many more sites will be gone before they are surveyed, and it's up to individuals to organize and be proactive regarding this and not wait for the city on this one.
WTF was Mr. LaBonge talking about in that article regarding "widening Chandler" and making it an outdoor house museum, ala Heritage Square.
Where is this supposed to go?
Great post Valley Doll!
I can tell you that at LEAST three of those sites are being held up or have been held up by government agencies and NOT the developers.
For years (at least 10) the owners of Phil's Diner tried to get help from the CRA to no avail (lots of talk but no action). Developer Jerry Snyder is planning to include the diner in the development that is anchored by a Laemmle Theatre at Chandler and Lankershim.
For the Weddington House, the developer JSM (of who I know their COO personally) is willing to pay and move it (by the way its current site is NOT it's original site so moving it is not a big deal, the original site is occupied by another historic site, the El Portal theatre). The community wants to move it to North Hollywood Park (next to the libary and Amelia Earhart statue) and turn it into a museum and mini community center. The blow back is coming from Parks and Rec who don't want it there. Call Tom LaBonge on this one if you want to keep it in NoHo. His idea of a Heritage Square type facility on Chandler Blvd. makes no sense.
The Lankershim Train station is threatened by the MTA not the developer. Lowes, the developer at the MTA station WANTS to include it in the project. MTA and CRA have done nothing until very recently to discuss saving it. The most important thing now is keeping it safe and maintained until construction starts on the MTA project.
Campo De Cahuenga has been under the threat of MTA for years including them wanting to widen the street and wipe out the original adobe foundation. The developer there (Thomas Properties) wants to include Camp as part of it's site; the idea is that the Campo would actually be the outdoor backdrop for local and network news programs on NBC and Telemundo kind of like Rockefeller Center is the backdrop for the Today show.
The most pressing thing right now is to urge Tom LaBonge to get the Weddington House into North Hollywood Park.
Here's an idea for the Clowncil Members. . . Clean up the FIRST Heritage Square before making another one.
And if you want people to actually VISIT it, drop a bug bomb on gang infested Homer St.
Interesting. From the article:
"Part of the challenge in the Valley is that it's younger, and by and large its built environment is newer than what's found in the rest of L.A.," said Ken Bernstein, manager of the city's Office of Historic Resources.
Bernstein said the Valley has not been scrutinized enough for potential historic sites and that of 912 cultural monuments in the city, only 50 are in the Valley.
"It's a giant undertaking to try and comprehensively identify historic sites, and the funding and priority for the Valley had not been there," he said.
Well, Ken, what about the $4 million the LA Conservancy got from the LAUSD? Why isn't the LA Conservancy, your old org, ponying up on surveying the Valley for sites?
You already have a staff of six in the Planning Department---how many and how much more do you think you need?
Another plan for the Weddington is to turn it over to Rec and Parks, in which they will completely gut the historical interior and make it offices for a park ranger or another one of their activity/workout centers.
Rec and Parks knows nothing, nor cares to do anything, involving preservation. Speak to the folks at Lummis Home, Heritage Square or any other historic facility that is run by or sits on Rec and Park land and you will find out how bad they are.
The same thing happening in the Valley happened a long time ago in downtown.
Heritage Square Museum was created because downtown was losing its history (aka Bunker Hill). All of the structures at that museum were saved from the wrecking ball. The City was involved in the beginning of this museum. But once the Clowncil thought they had accomplished something great, the City & Rec and Park abandoned Heritage Square. They left those folks involed to struggle to find the money and means not only to protect the buildings, but to become a real museum with educational programs, exhibits, events and more.
The police have cleaned up the street for the most part, but the whole area of Highland Park/Lincoln Heights/Cypress Park could use a good gang clean-up.
La Bonge and the rest of the council know absolutely nothing about preservation or keeping their historic cooridors intact. This widening of a street and creating another heritage sq is stupid! I cannot believe the folks in the valley trying to save this building are in favor of this idea.
La Bonge and the rest of the council know absolutely nothing about preservation or keeping their historic cooridors intact. This widening of a street and creating another heritage sq is stupid! I cannot believe the folks in the valley trying to save this building are in favor of this idea.
If something like Campo de Cahuenga is demolished or even moved for the sake of redevelopment or facilitating sprawl, it's about time that North Korea or Iran or somebody lets off few megatons over the city. If all we really are is just one big clusterfuck of polluted Shopping Convenience, then what's the point?
I can tell you NO ONE in the Valley or at least NoHo which is where it actually matters is in favor of LeBong's goofy Heritage Square in the middle of Chandler idea.
We want the Weddington House moved to North Hollywood Park next to the library and Amelia Earhart statue.
The San Fernando Valley Museum has already agreed to manage a museum on the site.
What's interesting is that I think that Zev and LeBong and some others wanted to move the train station to North Hollywood Park but for some reason the City is opposed to moving the Weddington House there.
JSM Capital has offered to pay for the entire cost of moving Weddington House to the park (or Heritage Square if we can't get Wreck and Parks to relent - which would be a disaster).
Lowe Properties WANTS to develop the train station on its original site as part of public open space at their development though the MTA and the City want to move it to the park.
Do you get what we're dealing with here? What's next? Does the City want to move the Campo to Pasadena or something?
I should say Lowe wants to RESTORE the station not develop it cause its uh, already there. But it would be included in some type of public use (maybe an MTA information center or some other community use) as part of the development.
If the valley group cannot find a place for this house, restore it and open it as a museum, what would be the choice they are willing to make? 1. watch the total destruction of the home, making it another lost landmark?
2. See Rec and Park take the house then gut it out, turning it into some rec center? or 3. moved to a site outside of the area where it would be open to the public as a historic monument?
These guys have to have a plan b.
Here's the website that 12:39 was talking about.
http://www.preservation.lacity.org/
Then scroll down and click on Survey LA. This takes you to the interactive page - then click on Identify A Historic Resource. Here you find the MYhistoricLA Historic Resource Identification Form. You can input places that you think are worthy of evaluation for historic preservation.
I can only say that in all this hoopla the public not loose sight of the fact that the idea is to save the building as a representative of a particular time and place in the City's history.
The opponents to moving the building to Heritage Square say they want to building kept where it is as a historical site. Fair enough. But, as the 120 days La Bonge asked for start to wind down, I hope this group is doing more than simply fighting a move to Heritage Square and is actually looking for some viable and realistic alternatives, particularly those that will not see the building gutted for a rec center. Otherwise, this just looks like another NIMBY response to a large development in the guise of preservation. I hope it is not.
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