Deemed the last of its kind, ‘Shotgun’ house in disrepair
SM AIRPORT — A turn-of-the-century “shotgun” house — so named because a blast fired through the front door would travel through each of its three rooms and directly out the back door — may be moved to the old Fisher Lumber site, where it can stay for two years.
Following that, city officials said they will likely demolish the 468-square-foot cottage if community members can’t find it a permanent home.
Quickly constructed “shotgun” houses once lined the shores of Ocean Park, in the late 1880s and early 1900s. Now, preservationists contend just one remains — it rests on blocks in a parking lot at Santa Monica Airport, locked in by a sea of new cars stored by auto dealers.
Preservationists calling themselves “The Friends of the Shotgun House” told the City Council last week that they can raise the $7,000 to move the house to the Fisher Lumber site, or wherever the city can provide temporary storage.
Once relocated, the group will have two years to raise money to move it to a permanent site and renovate it at an estimated cost of $450,000.
The group hopes to find a site, possibly on city property, which would allow them to turn it into a museum, said Sherrill Kushner, who’s spearheading the “Friends” effort.
“We want it to have a public benefit as a shotgun house museum, or be used in some fashion so the public has access to it,” Kushner said. “We’re not going to get that on a private site.”
Finding a public place for the home may not be easy, however, since some city councilmembers, including Mayor Pam O’Connor, indicated that they do not want the house on city grounds. City Councilman Bob Holbrook — who will succeed O’Connor as mayor in December — said resistance has to do with the fact City Hall has little experience managing museums, and it may not be its place to do so.
Regardless, if it’s not be destroyed, move the house must.
It currently sits on borrowed space at the site of the new Airport Park, set to begin construction next week.
The shotgun house was taken there by preservationists in July of 2002 to avoid demolition. Some of those involved in wheeling it across town are hoping to raise enough money to bring it back to Ocean Park, specifically, to a small community garden on the north end of Main Street. For the 80,000 citizens of Santa Monica, there is half an acre of open land reserved for community gardens. A proposal in March to limit garden plot leasing terms and remove plots to install the historical building at the gardens was met with fierce opposition from community members.
City officials suspect the house’s most recent owner — a group called the Ocean Park Community Organization (OPCO) — is defunct, having not met in more than two years. OPCO’s former chair, Rick Laudati, declined to discuss the group’s status at a recent City Council meeting. However, OPCO’s timeline to provide proof of ownership of the building is believed to have passed this week. Laudati also told the City Council he would not interfere with the fate of the shotgun house.
Holbrook said the arrangement the council made will provide “Friends” an opportunity to raise money to rehabilitate the house and permanently locate it at no expense to the city.
“It’s in horrible condition, an enormous undertaking, but if the people who want to do it can do it, I say all the power to them,” Holbrook said.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on November 4, 2005. Read the original PDF.