Backers push to have structure designated an official landmark
OCEAN PARK More than 1,500 voices are pleading with City Council to turn the tide and save a 109-year-old beachside cottage from meeting an unfortunate fate.
That’s the number of Santa Monica residents that have signed a petition to protect a single-story yellow cottage at 2219 Ocean Ave., thought to be the last beach-facing cottage of its kind in Santa Monica.
The Landmarks Commission placed the building on its historic registry in August after the cottage’s owner, the University of Illinois Foundation, filed a demolition permit in April of last year. The foundation subsequently filed an appeal with the City Council to strip the cottage of its landmark status.
The hearing before City Council that was scheduled to take place at its March 13 meeting has been postponed to late April.
Members of the newly formed Save the Cottage organization, a coalition of residents fighting to preserve the landmark status of the building, were out in full force Friday night, collecting signatures during a pub crawl along Main Street.
It was a festive evening as about 10 residents tapped into the bar crowd’s sentimentality. Starting at Finn McCool’s in the early evening, the cottage activists were able to collect about 150 signatures by the end of the evening, after visiting bar-goers at O’Briens, Rick’s Tavern and Schatzi’s. The cold weather proved to be a hindrance as the coalition members were forced to collect signatures inside and had to cut the evening shorter than expected as the number of intoxicated patrons increased.
“The community of Ocean Park likes to come to Main Street to hang out,” Erin Maynes, one of the organizers of Save the Cottage, said before the signatures drive began. “This is where we hang out, this is where we live, and in order to get the word out to residents, we feel like this is the prime way to do that.”
The evening started with a dinner at Finn McCool’s where a small group of coalition members chatted over a hearty meal to sustain them over the next four hours or signature gathering.
A resident of Ocean Park for seven years, Maynes said she is outraged that an outside organization has come into town and made a decision to demolish an old structure without knowing its history and the role it plays in the neighborhood’s history.
Her friend Casey O’Connor agreed, saying that with the high rises popping up along Ocean Avenue, it’s important to keep the small bits of history that still exist along the beach front.
“History is very important to me,” O’Connor said. “Having something that can be torn down and that is potentially the last of its kind makes me want to get involved.”
“HAVING SOMETHING THAT CAN BE TORN DOWN AND THAT IS POTENTIALLY THE LAST OF ITS KIND MAKES ME WANT TO GET INVOLVED.” — Casey O’Connor, Ocean Park resident
The coalition has collected a grand total of 1,589 signatures to date, 71 of which can be found on an online petition. The group has hit up all of the places where locals congregate, including the post office, library, Farmers’ Market, and even the bowling alley on Thursday night when they were able to cash in on about 100 names.
With the pub crawl as the backdrop, members were mindful to avoid tipsy patrons, and decided to call it a night around 10:30 p.m. when they noticed that the number of drunks began to distract from the task at hand.
“At the bowling alley, there were people who were drinking and people who were acting intoxicated who we didn’t talk to because there’s no real point,” Maynes said. “We wouldn’t be able to read their handwriting any way.”
On the online petition, signatories make reapeated pleas to the City Council to preserve the cottage which is one of the oldest structures in Ocean Park.
“How can you have progress when there is no benchmark for history,” a Margaret Jones wrote in the petition.“Please save what makes Santa Monica so beautiful,” Michael Shea pleaded.
City Councilman Herb Katz, who is also an architect, believes the building should be preserved, calling it a “good piece of architecture.”
“It’s a part of the history of Santa Monica, part of the history of its designs of its time,” Katz said on Monday. “We’re trying to preserve these (buildings).”
The building is considered to be the old-est one on a block that has constantly evolved over the past 50 years. The three bedroom, three bathroom cottage, with its chipped paint and rusted flashing, sits behind a white picket fence, sandwiched between two multi story buildings. To the north of the cottage is a Spanish style home. To the south is a five story apartment building that appears to have been built sometime during the past 30 years. Further north of the cottage is a more modern style multi-family building.
“When you look at that block, you really can see the stages of development of the whole neighborhood from the turn of the century through the 1980s,” said Landmarks Commission Chairwoman Nina Fresco on Monday. “It represents each big phase of development.”
The building was deeded to the University of Illinois Foundation following the previous owners death in June of 2005. It was one of the many things that the previous owner had donated to universities in his will, along with a $1.5 million gift to UCLA.
There have been rumors circulating around the Ocean Park neighborhood that the property was given to the University of Illinois in hopes that it would be used for a faculty retreat. There is also another rumor that it was assumed the cottage was already registered as a historic building.
The foundation reportedly had a difficult time selling the building before the historic designation was made because potential buyers were uncertain of whether or not the cottage would be named a landmark, and whether or not historic designation would prevent them from remodeling or demolishing the home in the future. The 1,526 square foot home is still listed on the market for $3.3 million.
Attorney Chris Harding, who is representing the University of Illinois Foundation, declined to comment on the specifics of the appeal.
Until the City Council hears the appeal, tentatively scheduled for April 24, the Save the Cottage coalition will continue to collect signatures and ask the public to send e-mails to city officials.
“What we would like to see happen is for this to become the last beach facing single story cottage in Santa Monica that is protected forever so no matter who you are — no matter if you’re a visitor or if you’re a resident here — you can see the cottage and imagine what it was like 100 years ago,” Mayne said.
If you are interested in signing the petition online, visit www.petitiononline.com/ Cottage1/petition.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on February 27, 2007. Read the original PDF.