Property owner files for demolition but wants it saved by City Hall
OCEAN PARK — The fate of a more than 100-year-old seaside cottage here now rests in the hands of the city’s Landmarks Commission, which earlier this week voted unanimously to study the structure and determine if it should be considered an historic landmark.
A group of residents are circulating a petition in favor of granting landmark status to protect the cottage after the owner, The University of Illinois Foundation, filed a permit to demolish the structure in May. Residents said the cottage, located at 2219 Ocean Ave., is the last remaining structure of its kind to offer expansive views of Santa Monica Bay, and represents a long-forgotten era in the city’s history, when Muscle Beach was a favorite hangout for Hollywood’s elite, including Kirk Douglas, Clark Gable and Mae West.
“Being the last beach cottage of its kind, it takes me back to the days when my mother told me about coming down from the bean fields in the old red car to surf with these huge, heavy, wooden boards,” said Pat Mullen, a resident of Santa Monica who has joined with others to protect the cottage.
“It reminds me of the old Pacific Ocean Park days,” Mullen added. “We’re losing the memories and we’re losing our history with all these big condos going up and all the remodeling. People want to make a dollar, and I don’t blame them, but we should keep some of the history intact.”
Representatives with the foundation, the fundraising arm for The University of Illinois, said they have no plans to tear down the cottage, which was donated to them in June 2005 following the death of its owner, real estate investor and philanthropist William Hobson.
The foundation filed for demolition so that the Landmarks Commission would be forced to study the structure and make a final determination on its status as an historic landmark, said Brad Hatfield, vice president of administration for the foundation.
Hatfield said the foundation has tried to sell the property for the last five months, but despite several interested buyers willing to pay the $3.3 million asking price, no one has cut a check because there is still uncertainty as to the status of the cottage and whether or not a new owner could remodel or demolish the structure in the future.
“We can’t be definitive as to what a potential buyer can and can’t do with the property so we thought this was a good strategy to use,” Hatfield said. “I don’t understand why people think we’re going to tear it down.”
The Landmarks Commission on Monday voted to pursue whether the cottage should be considered as an historic landmark. Now, an historical analysis of the structure will commence and a public hearing will be held within the next 65 days, at which time the commission will makes its determination, said Roxanne Tanemori, an associate planner in City Hall and the staff liaison for the commission.
To qualify, the structure must meet one of six criteria, which include whether or not it is identified with historic people or with important events in local, state, or national history; it embodies distinguishing architectural characteristics; it is a significant or a representative example of the work of a notable builder or architect; it has a unique location, physical characteristic or is an established and familiar feature of a neighborhood or community in the city; it has aesthetic or artistic interest or value; or that it exemplifies, symbolizes or manifests elements of the cultural, social, economic, political or architectural history of the city.
The Landmarks Commission makes the final determination whether or not a structure qualifies, with appeals going before the City Council, Tanemori said.
An outside consultant, PCR Service Corp., will perform the study of the cottage. A cost has not yet been determined, Tanemori said.
The cottage, which is believed to have been built in 1898, is 1,526 square feet, and sits on a lot that is 40 feet wide and 130 feet deep, said Darlene Waits, a real estate agent with El Dorado Realty East, which has tried to sell the property for the University of Illinois.
Waits, who also helped the cottage’s former owner, Hobson, sell another home, said filing for demolition was the recommended way to determine its landmark status. However, any person can file a petition with the Landmarks Commission to have a property considered for historical status or significance.
The Landmarks Commission is required to review any demolition request involving a structure that is at least 40 years old. As part of that process, the commission looks at whether the structure is an historic landmark, and if not, whether it should be protected.
“If it can be demolished, then we will simply transfer the permit to the new owners,” Waits said.“If it can’t, then we’ll have to work out something else, but at least they’ll know what they’re getting. No one is going to spend that ($3.3 million) kind of money on a closed box with a string wrapped around it. You don’t know what’s inside.”
Waits said Hobson, who lived in the cottage for the last 10 years, donated all of his properties to many universities and had donated millions to help universities establish or enhance their psychology departments in honor of his late wife, Dr. Evelyn Troup Hobson, who worked as a psychological consultant to educators throughout Southern California, according officials at UCLA. UCLA received $1.5 million from Hobson shortly after his death in June 2005.
Hatfield said Hobson donated the property to the university to help fund an endowment in his wife’s honor. Hatfield said the university often receives donated properties, and it is the practice of the foundation to sell most and use the proceeds to fund projects specified by the donor.
“It is a unique property. I’ve been there,” Hatfield said of the cottage. “It’s a beautiful place and we hope the buyers will maintain it as is.”
Roger Genser, chair of the Landmarks Commission, said his colleagues decided to nominate the cottage for landmark status because of its uniqueness and the strong outcry from the community to protect it.
As a resident of Ocean Park for 30 years, Genser said he has seen many changes to the “beach tract,” along Ocean Avenue, with homeowners razing homes to put garages underneath or adding stories to expand square footage. “(The beach tract) is home to the largest concentration of historic houses in the city and it is a very important one,” Genser said. “Over time it has been chipped away by development (and) remodeling.”
The same thing is occurring north of Montana Avenue with the loss of the Spanish Revival architecture, which includes Spanish-style courtyards, Genser said.
The demolition or remodeling of those structures has changed the character of the neighborhoods where they are located, Genser said, and has forced the commission to think of new ways to encourage owners to maintain historic features of their homes.
“We want to inspire people to retain homes while giving owners some room to make improvements instead of tearing the structure down,” Genser said. “We continuously see homes threatened every month.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on June 14, 2006. Read the original PDF.